The acting director of the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development said Wednesday that his department had no choice but to recommend state regulators reject Metro's proposed urban growth boundary expansion.
"We don't like being in this position," said Jim Rue at a meeting of the Metro Policy Advisory Committee. "We absolutely believe that Metro has done its usual great job of planning."
Rue said DLCD staff – and the Land Conservation and Development Commission, which will begin its review of the UGB expansion on Thursday – have to abide by a litany of regulations that guide Oregon land use law.
"We were simply unable to connect the planning outcomes to the very prescriptive and specific directions and requirements of the law," Rue said. "So that's where we are."
In particular, Rue said, a recent Oregon Court of Appeals ruling on a proposed urban growth boundary expansion near McMinnville has forced the department into its recommendation.
Hillsboro Mayor Jerry Willey had asked why the department couldn't find a middle path, that OK'd Metro's 2011 urban growth boundary expansion but said the extra work would be needed before Metro's 2015 UGB review.
"There was every effort to find a middle ground, and we just couldn't do it," Rue said. "The difference is very specific to a couple of legal precedents, and an appeals court decision … that came last fall. Unfortunately, we have to use that opinion as part of our analysis.
"We simply cannot understand all of that opinion, but it has raised the bar on the prescriptive nature of analysis of a UGB expansion to the point where we're having a very hard time finding that middle ground you so reasonably ask for," Rue told Willey.
But, Hillsboro's mayor said, the prescriptive nature of the law jeopardizes the region's economy. So why can't the state, Willey asked, use the Portland region's unique land use rules to essentially write new regulations?
That could happen, said department staffer Rob Hallyburton.
"The commission can write and interpret its own rules, but we're also dealing with statutory problems," Hallyburton said. "The courts don't give LCDC (the commission) deference on their statutory provisions."
Rue said the commission will work on everything except Metro's analysis of the region's residential needs at its meeting this week. On June 14, Rue said, the commission is scheduled to hold a special meeting to discuss the so-called housing needs analysis.
The department's director also said the written order on urban and rural reserves is days away. While the commission approved reserves last year, staffing problems at the Oregon Department of Justice have forced delays in codifying the commission's approval into law.
Technically, the urban and rural reserves don't exist until the order has been issued.