The four elected officials representing the Metro Council and Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington county commissions - the Core 4 - agreed to protect more than 270,000 acres of the region's best farmland and key natural features in rural reserves while securing just over 27,000 acres in urban reserves to accommodate efficient regional growth for the next 40 to 50 years. Two years ago the counties and Metro began studying a 400,000-acre study area encircling the region's urban growth boundary. Today, these four governments are down to negotiating the final 2,357 acres before establishing urban and rural reserves for the next half century.
"It's gratifying to see how far we've come as a region," said Metro Councilor Kathryn Harrington.
Multnomah County Commissioner Jeff Cogen noted, "we're near consensus on about 398,000 of those acres," and that areas left unresolved represent less than one-half of one percent of the total study area. Cogen made a proposal to endorse a revised map presented this morning and enable each county to work directly with Metro to reach agreements on remaining unresolved option areas.
Each of the other Core 4 members agreed to Cogen's proposal, though Clackamas County Commissioner Charlotte Lehan expressed concerns with issues that remain unresolved, particularly the total number of acres in urban reserves and the conditions and principles under which they will be planned and developed over time. "There are a lot of issues that are more global that we really haven't wrestled with," she said.
Since the last Core 4 meeting on Jan. 11, Metro and the counties held six open houses across the region, as well as four Metro Council hearings, where members of the public expressed their views on proposed urban and rural reserve areas. More than 850 people attended the open houses, 237 people offered testimony at the four public hearings and nearly 2,000 people viewed maps and commented online at a "virtual open house" on Metro's web site. Changes in the proposed reserve map reflect comments received as well as the results of discussions and negotiations between county commissioners and Metro Councilors.
Over the next two weeks, representatives of the Metro Council and the boards of county commissioners will work to reach agreement on the remaining option areas and on final language of the intergovernmental agreements to designate reserves. The commissions and council will adopt the IGAs, including the final maps, before the end of February, with the Metro Council currently scheduled to vote on all three on Thursday, Feb. 25.
No further Core 4 meetings are currently scheduled, though facilitator Debra Nudelman asked Core 4 members to leave the morning of Monday, March 8, open for an additional meeting if needed.