Wilsonville Spokesman Online

Update: Reserves process takes another step forward

County recommendation expected this Thursday on urban, rural reserve process

• By: Patrick Johnson  
• Published: 9/9/2009 8:31:58 AM
• Last Updated: 9/21/2009 4:40:38 PM

OREGON CITY — The Clackamas County Commission voted unanimously last week to forward its recommendations of what lands should, and shouldn’t, be developed in the next 40 to 50 years.

The commission’s recommendation last Thursday caps off three days of meetings that had commissioners and county staff using pens to mark up maps to add or delete areas involved in intense discussion.

Doug McClain, a contracted county staffer working on the process, said they used a “blobs and clumps” approach to designate areas, finally relying on a map finished by county staff.

In the end, the commission recommended that approximately 10,000 acres be designated urban reserve. This land is targeted to come into the urban growth boundary over the next half century.

The commission also designated more than 55,000 acres as rural reserve. That land will be protected from development during the same time period. The final totals will not be known until staff finish up work on the maps.

“I feel we struck the right balance between growing our region and having the opportunity for employment lands and protecting that which makes Clackamas County unique,” said Clackamas County Commission Chairwoman Lynn Peterson. “I think we had a really good conversation on this board and the fact we are all still on a first name basis shows that we work together very well and came to a compromise.”

Several commissioners thanked commissioner Charlotte Lehan for her knowledge of land use and the work she did figuring out what the map should look like.

She will be the county’s representative in the next step of the process.

“I think Charlotte has been working on this night and day for a really long time,” said commissioner Bob Austin. “I appreciate her efforts to translate what she has learned to us so we could make a good decision.”

A final map will be produced by county staff before it moves on to the Core 4, a group consisting of one commissioner from Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington counties, and a Metro councilor. They will negotiate what properties should be included in the overall recommendation to the Metro Council.

“There will be much more public input on this process,” said Peterson. “This is very preliminary and there will continue to be discussions about how this is all going to lay out.”
 
The recommendation
While there has been much debate about the French Prairie area south of the Willamette River near Wilsonville, the board had little to no discussion about the property during its three days of public meetings on the urban and rural reserve process.

The county’s Policy Advisory Committee recommended that the more than 2,000 acres south of the river be designated as a rural reserve, meaning that it can not be added to the Metro urban growth boundary for the next 40 to 50 years.
After a work session Wednesday Lehan said, “The area south of the river will be rural, period.”

Maggie Dickerson, one of the county planners working on the urban, rural reserves process, said the French Prairie discussion is “very interesting.”

“There were some really strong interest groups saying the area would be good employment lands, but it’s been counter-balanced by other concerns in this entire process,” Dickerson said. “I don’t think it’s ever had much of a chance of being urban.”

Dickerson pointed to the factors outlined in the state law, including the designation of foundation farmland and the serviceability to the area.

Ben Williams, president of Friends of French Prairie, said he’s happy with the rural designation.
“We were pleasantly surprised that the planning staff at Clackamas County recommended that all of the French Prairie area of Clackamas County be designated rural reserve,” he said. “We were very pleased the commissioners agreed, we didn’t assume that was the case.”

Because the property is designated as “foundation farmland,” Wilsonville Mayor Tim Knapp said it’s one of the only factors needed to give the land a rural designation. That’s based on a state statute commissioners are using to make the urban and rural designations.

 “I continue to believe there are significant industrial lands in the current urban growth boundary that will meet some of the needs of Metro,” Knapp said. “I think it would be detrimental to the investment taxpayers have already made in infrastructure and servicing those areas … to essentially leapfrog over the continued build out of those investments and go to an entirely undeveloped area in lieu. I don’t see where that is good public policy for the city, the county or the region.”

However, in the past few weeks, there has been increased activity by the Klamath Tribes to put the land into trust. Under a trust, the property won’t be subject to local or state land use laws, and could lead to the property being developed, nullifying the commission’s recommendation on 385 acres near Langdon Farms Golf Course.

County commissioners recommended that the area between Wilsonville and Sherwood have some urban reserves. Those areas can be included in the urban growth boundary, but much of the property is either “undesignated” or rural reserve.

On Wilsonville’s east side, property around Stafford and Advance roads is designated urban reserves. This falls in line with what the city of Wilsonville requested.

“It generally aligns what the city of Wilsonville recommends,” Knapp said. “My general understanding is that the recommendation is aligned with pieces of work our planning commission has done.”

Business groups, including the Clackamas County Business Alliance, are concerned that not enough employment lands were added into the map.

“We have concerns there are not enough employment lands being considered in Clackamas County,” said Burton Weast, executive director of the CCBA. “When more than 60 percent of county residents are leaving the county to work elsewhere, we feel the commission should have addressed that.” n

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