A tale of two land-use views: Tom Brian and Sam Adams

Carla Axtman

Last night at the Hillsboro Civic Center, Portland Mayor Sam Adams and Washington County Commission Chair Tom Brian taped a debate/discussion for this morning's Think Out Loud (to air at 9AM today). On-Air Host Emily Harris and Online Host David Miller moderated and fielded questions from the audience (both in the room and online).

The debate centered around the urban and rural reserves policy for Washington, Multnomah and Clackamas Counties.

Below is a quick video of images I shot from last night's event.

Brian's overarching position on the matter includes setting aside large portions of land in Washington County for urban reserves. Approximately 13,000 acres of land in the county are currently on the map to be set aside for possible urbanization. Brian also noted that he believes we must get more out of the land we have. He said that he believes we are not in an either/or situation when it comes to urban and rural reserves--but that its an either/and situation. People need to have choices and some often choose the suburbs because its less expensive to live there.

Adams said that he believes he and Chair Brian have much common ground, but there are a number of places where they disagree. Adams said he believes farm and forest land must be preserved before there's further urban reserves expansion. He also noted that there is already 15,000 acres of land designated for urbanization, sitting available since 1990 (Brian countered that about 9k of that is in Damascus and is unsuitable--Adams disagreed that its unsuitable). Adams also noted that it's not necessarily cheaper to live in the suburbs, noting that 2/3 of transportation in the region has nothing to do with people's work. Adams said that if we continue to expand, the finite amount of money available for transportation infrastructure is stretched thin. That's why we must use existing available acreage.

Brian seemed unprepared to really talk about the cost of building the new infrastructure to accommodate the growth for which he's advocating. Adams point on this went without rebuttal a number of times. In addition, Adams and audience member Greg Malinowski (of Malinowski Farms in Washington County) took issue with Brian's growth concept, noting that in the past, land set aside for industrial urbanization has later been flipped to residential development. Malinowski expressed concern that taxpayers cannot continue to pay for infrastructure for home developers--there's a great need to infill what we already have.

Cherry Amabisca from Save Helvetia was also present and discussed the the ways that Helvetia has become a recreational region of sorts for residents. It's urbanization, according to Amabisca, would take away a valuable and beautiful resource for locals, not to mention the foundational farmland that grows food for the region.

One thing that the show didn't really cover was the process for decision making, which appears to have left citizens scratching their heads. After the program, I spoke briefly with Mayor Adams (I tried locating Chair Brian--who left before I could talk with him) to talk about this issue. Adams expressed frustration with Multnomah County, saying that they didn't formally solicit cities for their positions and priorities. Much of the work was done through staff, which Adams believes isn't optimal.

As far as engaging the public, Adams said he believes the process is wholly inadequate. "The process goes on for so long", Adams said. "The public is confused. The basic complications are nearly indecipherable." In addition, Adams said he believes the underlying state laws on this matter are "incredibly antiquated". 2007's Senate Bill 1011 doesn't provide a statutory place for discussion of what we're to do with current acreage inside the Urban Growth Boundary. "The process doesn't account for that", Adams said.

Adams said that many Multnomah County residents were frustrated. The city offices have been receiving calls from residents saying that they're not being heard by the county.

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    The issue about industrial land being converted to residential and commercial uses is big and one that LCDC is working on with a number of other groups right now. Even light industrial is increasingly viewed as incompatible with residential development.

    Instead of the historical development model of industrial located in the urban core with people moving out to the suburbs to live (the classic definition of sprawl), many people are now looking at the concept of industrial reserves established on the urban fringe while residential and commercial nodes are developed with increasing density within the urban core.

    This, rather than polarizing debates over growth v. no growth, may take front and center in the next round of land use debates. Given Western Oregon's shortage of major industrial sites, I hope that is the case.

  • Greg D. (unverified)
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    Urban density = the next class war.

    However, I do enjoy a good rigorous academic debate regarding the merits of increased urban density as long as I can hop in my BMW and drive home afterward to my 4000 square foot detached residence (with 3 car garage) and its lush 1 acre surrounding lawn and garden.

  • jamieeee (unverified)
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    Of course Sam wants land restrictions to force more people to Portland as that raises the cost of building (and YOUR rent) giving Portland MORE property tax money to give to their developer buddies who return a percentage in campaign donations.

    Lets hear it for vision: force up rents on the poor so that Sam can increase his power!

  • jaybeat (unverified)
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    It's encouraging to hear a political leader talk about how broken the urban/rural reserves process has been. Many of us in the tri-county area have looked at the maps from Metro (showing huge areas of urban reserves with solid blue lines around them to indicate "consensus"--who's bleeping consensus??!!) with horror and disbelief--what the bleep were they thinking??

    When "public comment" officially opens up (supposed to be soon), I predict they're going to get an earful. So much of what's been done is like the the Columbia Cro$$ing--crazy ideas thought up by staff who act like they spend all their time talking to each other and to professional developers/builders/highway types, who are stuck thinking it's 1959.

    Newsflash, folks--just because there's a highway there, doesn't mean you can check off the "transportation" box and move on. Highways will always clog; add lanes, they'll still clog. (And with them our lungs, our atmosphere, our climate and our unsustainable reliance on cheap fuel coming out of the ground in dangerous places.) Only if we move away from relying on trucks (for freight) and single-occupancy automobiles (for people) will we begin to design the places we live, work and make things in a way that is compatible with the post-carbon world in which we will soon find ourselves.

    But to listen to so many of these "staff" (or at least if we can infer from their "consensus"), all we need is a few more lanes and everything will be just fine.

    Talk about a road to nowhere...

  • JK (unverified)
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    Posted by: Greg D. | Dec 15, 2009 11:07:46 AM

    Urban density = the next class war.

    However, I do enjoy a good rigorous academic debate regarding the merits of increased urban density

    Which won't be happening here. This would be a great topic, but, unfortunately it's impossible to discuss this seriously on Blue Oregon. No, better that we see the exact same comment spam from the same "barred" posters ...

  • Andy Miller (unverified)
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    Right on Jack. Metro's "Making the Greatest Place" initiatives seem to be based on that historical (not aging well) model.

    The reserves process is a great oppotunity for Washington County to start talking about making great places with both industrial and residential zoning near enough to significantly reduce transportation demands.

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    "Adams expressed frustration with Multnomah County, saying that they didn't formally solicit cities for their positions and priorities. Much of the work was done through staff, which Adams believes isn't optimal." Mayor Adams should be clearer: The City of Portland has had a seat on the Reserves Steering Committee that has met once a month for almost two years. The claim that the City hasn't been asked for input in the process of designating land is a overstatement at best.

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