The Multnomah-Washington county line could be moved under a new plan to allow for development of an area brought into the urban growth boundary in 2002.
Property owners in the area, north of Thompson Road and east of Saltzman Road in the Tualatin Valley, have been caught in a governance quagmire since the Metro Council added the 160-acre area to the boundary a decade ago.
The land, called Area 93, sits in Multnomah County, on the top end of a southeast-to-northwest stair-step that is the line between the two counties. It's west of the ridge of the West Hills and is not in any city limits.
Multnomah County doesn't provide urban services, leaving that to the cities within its boundaries.
Area 93 is separated from Portland and the West Hills by a rural reserve, land that can't be developed for urban services. But it's adjacent to Washington County subdivisions near Bethany, and that county's water and sewer utilities have pipes that stub up next to the land.
The idea to move the county line is being promoted by land use advocacy group Oregonians in Action. Rep. Mitch Greenlick, D-Portland, is working to draft a bill for the county line change.
Dave Hunnicutt, the president of Oregonians in Action, said property owners in the area seem to support the proposal.
"It's been a long and difficult process for those people to obtain sewer and water, which is exceedingly frustrating given the fact that Clean Water Services stubs services right to the edge of the properties," Hunnicutt said.
Properties in the area already get their fire service from Tualatin Valley Fire and Rescue, and children in the area attend Beaverton public schools. But an agreement for roads and pipes has been elusive for a decade.
For his part, Greenlick assailed the 2002 Metro Council decision to add the area to the UGB, and said he didn't think Area 93 made for a good target for urbanization.
"But if it's in the urban growth boundary, it should be urbanized," he said.
Greenlick said any bill he proposes would be for a straight boundary change. The exact wording of the bill is awaiting a legal description of the 160 acres that would change counties.
Multnomah County spokesman David Austin said County Chair Jeff Cogen wouldn't object to the boundary change if such a bill made it through the Legislature.
Washington County Chair Andy Duyck said the residents of the area have told him they want to be annexed. But in an interview Wednesday, he cautioned that any development in the area would have to have minimal impacts on his county's bottom line.
The urban services that were stubbed to Area 93 can only handle a certain amount of development before expensive upgrades would be necessary.
"We never dreamed we might one day be serving the area with transportation," Duyck said. "We want to control the traffic impacts.
"Frankly, we don't know yet whether low density pays for the traffic infrastructure, or whether higher density does," Duyck said.
The Metro Council was briefed on the proposal at its Tuesday work session. In a staff report, Metro lobbyist Randy Tucker recommended the counties themselves be responsible for the boundary change.
"Pending Council discussion, staff recommends collaborating with Washington and Multnomah Counties on legislation that ideally would authorize the counties to move their boundary in the Bonny Slope area, subject to specified conditions," the staff report said. "Legislation that actually moves the boundary is less desirable but might be the only actual path (for technical reasons) and would serve the purpose."
According to a spokesman for the Association of Oregon Counties, the last boundary change for an Oregon county was in 2003, when the Legislature moved the shared boundary of Benton and Linn counties.