Time isn’t all that’s separating the Metro Council and Damascus leaders from the turmoil of eight years ago.
A change of attitudes made for a positively cordial tone at a joint worksession of the Damascus City Council and the Metro Council Wednesday night in the far-flung hamlet southeast of Portland.
It’s a far cry from 2002, when the Metro Council was essentially forced by state law into gobbling the ravines and buttes of northern Clackamas County into the urban growth boundary, a messy land use decision that prompted changes to land use law and the development and urban and rural reserves.
Observing Wednesday night's city council meeting felt more like watching a relationship evolve from a blind date to wedding bells. There were moments of caution, there was nervous laughter, all couched in a general sense of "How did we get here?"
But with Damascus city councilors explaining their reasoning on the concept planning map that's the result of years of public involvement, Metro's elected officials left all smiles. Even if they weren't all keen on the density – Damascus is eyeing an average of eight units per acre – councilors were impressed with the design concepts.
One acre is slightly smaller than a football field.
Still, there was a wish for more from some councilors. Rex Burkholder, who represents North Portland, was skeptical of whether the densities would be able to attract the kind of services Damascus hoped to attract to the villages its proposal plans for the city.
Some systems require more people, Burkholder said. If Damascus wants a Trader Joe's, for example, they'll need to have 3,000 residents living within a mile of the store, he said.
"It's about design and how you build it, not necessarily numbers of people — especially when you're looking at sustainability," Burkholder said.
The problem, said Councilor Barb Ledbury, is convincing Damascus residents that density doesn't equate to undesirability.
"They don't see what you've seen and lived in," she said. "They're thinking about what Rockwood looks like now."
Carlotta Collette, who represents inner Clackamas County and is the acting council president, pointed out that there are other examples of density in the Portland region besides the apartments of east Multnomah County.
"Nob Hill is one of the densest neighborhoods in the city of Portland," Collette said. "Density doesn't mean a new urban model of skyscrapers. You need a certain amount of density, just to be able to attract something like a Trader Joe's, or a restaurant, just to keep local businesses viable."
The city's terrain doesn't exactly lend itself to broad-scale compact urban form. Developers would be challenged to build – and sell at a profit – houses on some of Damascus' steep slopes.
And the city has a preference to keep its local character. In acknowledging that, Councilor Andrew Jackman emphasized the use of "ecosystems services" to both provide the open space the city's current residents appreciate and help head off some targeted infrastructure costs. For example, Jackman, who has a Ph.D. in forestry, pointed to the tens of thousands of gallons an oak tree can absorb and aspirate as an example of how stormwater treatment can be approached in a creative manner.
At a Clackamas County Coordinating Committee meeting the next day, Councilor Diana Helm summarized it another way: people won’t live next to golf courses in Damascus, they’ll live next to farms.
Damascus is hardly in a position of unity. The road to town is dotted with signs for mayoral candidate Steve Spinnett, with the tagline, “Let’s take back Damascus!” Spinnett, who will face Helm in the mayor’s race Nov. 2, was not at Wednesday night’s meeting.
Earlier this year, voters narrowly rejected a series of ballot initiatives that would have restricted Damascus’ ability to host mass transit or approve intergovernmental agreements. And in 2008, voters in the city overwhelmingly approved a ban on council-approved system development charges, which means existing taxpayers will have to foot the bill for infrastructure improvements for new development.
But if the tenor of Wednesday’s meeting didn’t make it clear relations are improving between the city and the regional government, some memories of that 2002 meeting serve as a benchmark.
"The first meeting… I remember being at the church here, with 600 people and being surrounded by cops," said Councilor Rex Burkholder. People were asking – "'You're going to do what to us?'”
Afterwards, Helm pointed out that the plan represented what Damascus wanted for itself.
“The word on the streets out here is that Metro’s been doing our plan for us. We’ve been doing our plan,” she said. “We’ve colored the map. We know they (Metro) have some concerns, but I think we’re going to find some common ground.”