Metro Councilors and staff tried to alleviate concerns from the business community Wednesday, telling members of the Westside Economic Alliance board of directors that the reserves process offers flexibility and that Metro has given appropriate weight to manufacturing job opportunities.
Echoing concerns expressed by other regional business leaders, WEA members have written a letter to Metro saying more employment lands need to be available, especially for companies that need 100 acres or more. But at Wednesday's meeting, Metro Councilor Carl Hosticka said about 2,000 acres that include several large lots are recommended for urban reserves.
"I reject the notion that we're not trying to make those options available," Hosticka said.
Metro chief operating officer Michael Jordan agreed. "If I didn't think large lots were needed, I wouldn't have recommended any urban reserves."
Jordan joined Hosticka and Metro Councilor Kathryn Harrington at the WEA board meeting to discuss Jordan's growth recommendations, "Making the Greatest Place: Strategies for a sustainable and prosperous region." Metro has been soliciting feedback on the report since its release on Sept. 15, and this was the Board's second opportunity to question Jordan and the Councilors, following Jordan's presentation to a WEA-sponsored breakfast forum on Oct. 15.
In its letter to the Metro Council, the WEA board said Metro missed the mark in forecasting a decline in manufacturing employment and said those jobs are vital to securing income tax dollars to help pay for "making the greatest place." But Harrington told the board it's not that manufacturing will shrink, but that other areas of the job market will grow. That means manufacturing will represent a smaller portion of the job market than it does now, she said.
"The forecasts do agree that manufacturing continues to play a significant role in this area," Harrington said.
On the subject of urban reserves, board president Matt Felton said that designating small reserves could end up being too restrictive. He proposed that Metro overestimate employment land needed in case more people and more jobs come to the region.
"Why wouldn't you want to err on the side of being overly accommodating?" Felton asked.
Harrington said that often when farmland is designated as an urban reserve, people stop farming on it even if development is years off. But Hillsboro Mayor Jerry Willey sharply disputed that claim, saying he's seen people farming land that's already inside the urban growth boundary.
"I would contest that concept," Willey said. "That just doesn't fit."
Jordan tried to explain his logic, saying planners could designate rigid urban and rural reserves and leave them in place, designate reserves but leave some land undesignated, or designate large urban reserves that would threaten the agriculture industry. There are risks within each of those options, he said.
The representatives from Metro also fielded questions on local aspirations, a topic that has gotten particular attention in the Stafford Basin. Cities surrounding Stafford such as Lake Oswego and West Linn do not want the area to have any urban reserves, which differs from the recommendations in Jordan's report. Board member Frank Angelo asked Jordan how he weighted local aspirations in his recommendations.
"It wasn't a question of 'Tell us what you want and we'll give it to you,'" Jordan said. Rather, Jordan said local aspirations were taken alongside the suitability factors for reserves in a regional balancing act that includes the interests of businesses, homeowners, farmers, local governments and regional goals.
Board member Ed Trompke said governments within the region are too fragmented and often don't work together to achieve regional goals. Metro should be more assertive in helping cities that create jobs, and more aggressive in steering cities that don't want more employment land in a direction that benefits the region, he said.
But when a local government decides not to play ball, that can create problems for the entire region, said Beaverton Mayor Denny Doyle.
"When an entity doesn't want to participate, they can make you fail in what you want to do," Doyle said.
Jordan had an answer for that.
"Be patient, because things do tend to work over time," Jordan said. "We have a long history of working those things out and not ending up in front of a judge somewhere."
-by Sean Breslin, Metro staff