The region's 0.12 percent construction tax pays for city and county planning efforts. For $200,000 of permitted construction, the tax is $240.
It's been a banner year for construction in the Portland region – so much so that the region's construction tax has generated about 20 percent more than its original forecast for the current grant cycle.
That's leaving Metro with an extra $1 million to fund planning grants around the Portland region.
The construction tax, a 0.12 percent tax that costs a building's owner $240 for $200,000 in permitted work, generally raises about $2 million a year. But the construction boom around the region is spiking collections.
An additional $1 million in tax collection translates to more than $833 million in permitted construction in the Portland region. That number is likely higher, as taxes are capped at $12,000 per project.
With the extra $1 million, Metro staff on Tuesday told the Metro Council that they propose to fully fund several grants that were only partially awarded in 2013.
"It's a wonderful problem to have," said Councilor Shirley Craddick at Tuesday's work session.
The biggest winners would be on the region's east and south sides.
Sherwood and Washington County would see a roughly $116,000 increase in grant funding for their planning of large industrial developments in the Tonquin employment area.
Portland and Gresham would get an extra $59,000 and $73,000, respectively, for work related to the Powell-Division transit study. Portland would also get another $44,000 to study mixed-use zoning, and Clackamas County would see another $21,000 to study strategically significant employment lands.
Staff also proposed awarding about $20,000 to help Cornelius and Forest Grove transition from the conceptual to the comprehensive in planning urban growth boundary expansion areas – something needed after the Oregon Legislature expanded the UGB in its session earlier this year.
All the projects will have to report to Metro what they plan on doing with the money.
"We're not just going to hand them the money and say 'Go and do the work,'" said Gerry Uba, a Metro planner who works on the construction tax and grant program. "It's going to reflect in the deliverables."
The Metro Council would need to approve the new grant awards in a vote. Under the staff proposal, the remaining $650,000-plus in unawarded tax collections would roll forward into a coming grant cycle. That vote is expected Thursday.
The council is in the midst of deciding whether to extend the construction tax. Both the Metro Policy Advisory Committee and an ad hoc committee of home builders, planners and developers recommended extending the tax to 2020.