Regional plan could chart development in Forest Grove and Cornelius for years

Metro released a map last week showing potential land in the tri-county area for future urbanization or preservation.

Now the jockeying can begin.

The map’s release was an early step in a two-year process to designate urban and rural reserves outside the region’s Urban Growth Boundary. The boundary is an invisible line around the urban area that prevents sprawl and protects farm and forest lands from development.

Next Thursday, residents will weigh in on the map and the process at an open house in Forest Grove.

The stakes are high for Forest Grove and Cornelius, the only two Metro cities west of Hillsboro.

Forest Grove’s Urban Growth Boundary has been largely static since the city joined Metro in 1978, and planners are excited at the prospect of setting a new course.

Over the past four years, Cornelius officials had two bids for more land shut down by the Metro council. The last denial left some city councilors wondering if seceding from the regional planning authority might be a good idea.

As the regional government, Metro is obliged to provide enough land inside the Urban Growth boundary to accommodate population growth for the next 20 years. But every five years or so, when Metro reviews the boundary, considerable anxiety and lobbying about which rural lands might be chosen for development are provoked.

A 2007 law, Senate Bill 1011, granted Metro a new option for planning 40 to 50 years ahead, instead of just 20 years. The law allows more flexibility for developing farm lands, and requires more collaboration between Metro and Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties.

Under SB 1011, Metro and the three counties have the option of designating urban reserves. Designated lands would be considered as potential areas to include inside the Urban Growth Boundary to accommodate growth 20 to 50 years into the future. The three counties also could identify rural reserves, such as agricultural areas and natural areas. Urbanization would be off-limits on those lands for at least 40 to 50 years.

No urban reserves can be earmarked unless rural reserves are set aside as well. Metro must reach consensus with all three counties before submitting the plan to state land-use regulators.

“It puts the onus on the entire region,” said John Williams, Metro’s regional planning manager.

In the past, Metro faced a high hurdle for permitting urbanization of lands with prime soil for farming. That prevented urbanization of some areas close to job centers in Hillsboro.

SB 1011 allows Metro and the counties to take a more “holistic approach to agriculture,” Williams said. They can look at optimal ways to preserve farm land by considering factors such as water supply and neighboring land uses.

Lands in the study areas could wind up preserved for the foreseeable future, or marked for development.

But residents shouldn’t get too alarmed, or excited, by the expansive map of potential urban and rural reserves. Metro planners say that even though it includes controversial areas such as Sauvie Island and the Tualatin Valley farmland north of Cornelius, the map is very preliminary.

Lands within the Urban Growth Boundary total about 260,000 acres. The new map shows potential reserves totaling about 400,000 acres. So the potential reserves acreage will be whittled down considerably in the coming months.

Metro’s Regional Reserves Steering Committee, which includes delegates from around the region, started by drawing a line a few miles beyond the existing Urban Growth Boundary. The line stops at Marion, Yamhill and Columbia county lines, because Metro and SB 1011 have no jurisdiction in those counties.