On May 20 the Metro Council held its last public hearing on the upcoming designation of urban reserves. Urban reserves will be areas outside of the current urban growth boundary that will be designated as places where future urban development may occur over the next 50 years.
The Metro Council and the boards of commissioners of Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties reached agreements in February to designate about 28,100 acres of urban reserves across the three counties, as well as more than 272,000 acres of rural reserves, which will be farmland, forests and other rural areas excluded from urban growth for the same 50-year period. The three counties will formally designate rural reserves in the next few weeks.
In the last few weeks, the boards of commissioners in Clackamas and Washington counties have proposed some changes to the reserves map approved in February by adding more than 200 acres for urban reserves and changing other acreage from rural reserves to undesignated areas. Undesignated areas would not be high priority areas for future urban growth but would not enjoy the protections of rural reserves. Such changes to the proposed urban and rural reserves must be approved by the Metro Council prior to their formal designations.
Twenty-two citizens provided testimony to the Metro Council. Many of those who testified expressed concern that large tracts of land are just now being proposed as urban reserves after more than two years of study and evaluation. One of the newly proposed urban reserves is a 129-acre parcel of land in the North Bethany area, owned by the Peterkort family, which was previously included as a rural reserve.
Cherry Amabisca, a citizen who is a leader of the "Save Helvetia!" coalition, echoed the concerns of many others who testified relating to the expansion of urban reserves in North Bethany and the potential traffic impacts on area roads. "If Washington County was so concerned that [the Peterkort property] is so essential, why wasn't it called out earlier?"
Others who testified repeated their concerns about areas already included as urban reserves in the February agreements, notably the Stafford area. Doug Rux, community development director for the City of Tualatin, along with Chris Jordan, city manager of West Linn, both repeated their city councils' concerns about future urbanization of the Stafford area, noting that neither of their cities nor Lake Oswego have indicated a willingness to annex or provide services to that area. Others, including Midge Pierce, a resident of the Willamette Neighborhood Association in West Linn, expressed concerns about the likely traffic impacts of potential development in the Borland Road area.
Those who still wish to submit written testimony on proposed urban reserve areas may do so through 5 p.m. on Tuesday, May 25, when the public record will close. The Metro Council is scheduled to vote on the designations of urban reserves June 3.