Staffers from Metro's natural areas program are looking at whether the agency should ask voters for a property tax levy, perhaps as soon as May 2013.
At a Jan. 24 Metro Council retreat, Metro Sustainability Center director Jim Desmond said the levy would be no more than 10 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation – $22 a year for the median home in the Portland region. Desmond and his staff are asking the council to OK a work program to study a possible ballot initiative.
The Metro Council has not signed off on the request.
In an interview this week, Desmond said the question is whether the Portland region's voters are ready to open up access to the natural areas they've twice voted to purchase and protect.
"We're talking about a modest amount of new dedicated funding that could really improve this system, improve that investment… and increase the quality of life here," Desmond said. "We think that's a fair question to consider, and in the end, it's the voters' call."
The region's voters have twice told Metro to buy environmentally sensitive lands around the region. In 2006, 59 percent of voters supported Metro selling $227 million in bonds to buy natural areas; in 1995, more than two-thirds of the region's voters OK'd the initial natural areas bond program.
But the bond money was focused primarily on property acquisition, and can't be used for operations and maintenance. The thinking, Desmond said, was that Metro would buy the land as early as possible, but would leave the question of site improvement and public access for another day.
"If you don't have the land, you have permanently eliminated your options," Desmond said. "If you secure the land, you can develop them for public use at any point."
That point could be coming next year.
"I think we should explore it," said Metro Councilor Carl Hosticka. "I think we're still in the information gathering stage"
He said he wants to know more about how much the levy could be, what the money would be spent on and whether the levy could pass.
BRUCE FORSTER / METRO FILE PHOTO
Densely planted Douglas firs at Metro's Chehalem Ridge Natural Area, a former tree farm south of Forest Grove, reduce the natural diversity of plants and animals at the site.
Metro has opened up some of the natural areas to public access. At Graham Oaks Nature Park in Wilsonville, for example, about $2 million in investment and $150,000 in annual maintenance costs have resulted in a 250-acre park with trails and an outdoor classroom, as well as a picnic area.
It's also, Desmond said, benefitted the surrounding community.
"The communities using that park, it's been a game changer for their lifestyle," Desmond said. "We hear from people all the time that it's the reason people are buying houses and staying there. It's the same at Cooper Mountain – a new nature park added tremendous quality of life for people in those areas."
But Metro also has some significant undertakings far beyond the scale of Graham Oaks. Metro's 1,143-acre Chehalem Ridge Natural Area, purchased in 2010, was a tree farm with Douglas fir trees planted at densities as much as 10 times what would occur in a natural forest.
A 10 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation levy could raise between $10 and $12 million a year. Even at that relatively modest rate, a levy is no slam dunk to even appear on the ballot, much less pass muster from voters.
The Metro Council has yet to approve the levy, and doesn't need to be in a hurry to do so – councilors would have another year to decide whether to place a levy on the May 2013 ballot. And because of compression, a property tax limit established by 1990s tax limits in Measure 5, other governments with operating levies might take a slight hit in their tax collections if a natural areas levy were to pass.
"The impact would be relatively minimal, particularly at this low level," Desmond said.
Beyond that, other governments are considering property tax hikes, some in the hundreds of dollars per year for homeowners.
With so many variables, Metro has yet to conduct any polling as to whether the voters are even open to the concept. Desmond said he didn't know when a final decision could be made.
"We're extremely cognizant of the financial environment out there and the challenges on public spending," Desmond said. But, he said, "How do we improve the quality of life here, and make businesses more likely to move here, more likely to stay here?"
Note - A photo caption in earlier version of this story incorrectly described the density of trees at Chehalem Ridge. This version has been corrected.