NEW DEVELOPMENT
On July 1, 2008, Ann Gasser, Marion County Hearings Officer, notified all parties involved that Ralph Netter & Quin Collette have withdrawn their zone change/comprehensive plan amendment applications.
[Download the Hearings Officer Order in PDF]
ZONE CHANGE REQUEST ADJOINING AURORA AIRPORT
Ralph Netter and Quinn Collett have requested a zone change from EFU (exclusive farm use) to Public, and a change to Comprehensive Plan designation from Primary Agriculture to Public and take exception to Statewide Planning Goal 3 (Agriculture Lands), Goals 11 (Public Facilities and Services) and 14 (Urbanization) and be included in the Aurora Airport on two parcels containing 0.94 and 26.54 acres each located at 22265 and 22375 Airport Road NE, Aurora, OR.
[Download a copy of the Public Hearing Notice in PDF][Download a copy of the Application with plat maps in PDF]
What is going on?
The intention of the zoning change is to allow the two pieces of property to be integrated into the Aurora State Airport as an expansion to that facility. The case is made that the airport is built out on the north end, cannot expand on the west due to Highway 51, is constrained by Airport Road on most of its east side and can only expand to the south and south east. By referencing the Aurora Airport Master plan the case is further made that this expansion is virtually a foregone conclusion. Statewide Planning Goals 11 and 14 are considered to be non-applicable based on other similar zoning changes and practices at the airport.
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In the applicant’s statement accompanying the application, the case is further made that: “The south and eastern borders of the subject property are well used public rights of way, with Kiel Road to the south and Airport Road to the east. Beyond the roads the lands are generally in farm use, and ar ezoned EFU. The average parcel size in the area is approximately 25.5 acres. Crops to the south include nursery stock and a filbert orchard, and to the east are hay and grass seed fields. Most parcels have at least one dwelling unit located on it, and most small farms are owner occupied.
“The farming activities in this area are on a relatively narrow band of land located east of Airport Road and west of the Pudding River which features deep ravines leading to it from portions of the farm land.”[Download the Applicants Statement document in PDF]
A look at the aerial map below quickly shows how misleading this statement is. The airport is essentially surrounded by EFU agricultural land, with a few exceptions. Most of the land to the west across Highway 51 and all the land to the east across Airport Road is intensively farmed. The majority of the land to the south and southeast is zoned EFU and is being farmed.
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What is wrong with this application?
There are two principal problems beyond the easy dismissal of the state and county zoning of the EFU farm land surrounding the Aurora Airport.
1. The subject property is one of 17 pieces of property to the south and southeast of the airport. As pointed out, this is the only expansion direction available to the airport. The last piece of land to be integrated into the airport was not in agricultural usage and became the airport water and septic facility. This property, and the adjoining 16 pieces of property are all agricultural farm land with high quality soil. If one goes, the odds are very high on all the rest being “integrated” into the airport sooner or later. If the property owners want to sell their land, they should do so within the zoning and to people who plan on farming.
2. In the Applicant’s Statement, Statewide Planning Goal 3-Agricultural Land is summarily dismissed in a five work statement: “not applicable to this proposal.” The hubris is astonishing! The north end of the Willamette Valley south of the river, like all of French Prairie, and like all of the Willamette Valley contains among the highest quality farm lands in the world.
The fact that the Aurora Airport sits in the middle of high quality farm land through a quirk of fate (the need for a second airport during World War II) does not minimize the value of the farm land. The economic interests and desires of the airport and the private commercial interest therein do not de-value the surrounding farm land. The purpose of Statewide Planning Goal 3 is to protect agricultural land.
Expansion pressures from Metro Portland in the past two decades have made the I-5 corridor south of the Willamette River among the most pressured to convert agricultural land for development. This area is the Gateway to the Willamette Valley—that is to say, the gateway from Metro Portland to the most fertile and productive lands in the state and the world. It has to be treated as such. All development in this area has to be considered with great care, and the value of the farm land has to be a major element in the assessment.
The starting point has to be that farmland should be preserved not developed. Climate change, rising fuel costs, contamination of imported commodities and other factors have all contributed to the understanding that we must “think global but buy local.” The fact is we may desperately need our farm land in a few years, and one certainty will always prevail: when farm land is taken out of agricultural usage and paved over, it never goes back.
[Download Applicant’s Goal 14 statement in PDF]FOFP’s Position on this application
FOFP is strongly opposed to this application and the conversion of any farmland for non-agricultural purpose where the change serves only a very small minority interest (those in the aviation industry) and does so at the long term expense of farming, farmers and our land. What is missing in this discussion is an Area or Regional Master Plan for the northern end of the Willamette Valley. FOFP is calling on Marion County and the leaders of the municipalities involved to table all development and begin the process of formulating a long term Master Plan for the area bounded by the north Marion County line, Ehlen Road, the Pudding River and Butteville Road. Until such a plan is completed, with adequate public input from citizens and municipalities, only agriculture-related development consistent with the current zoning should be allowed to go forward.
Aurora Airport Expansion
The Aurora Airport is already the busiest municipal airport in Oregon in terms of small plane take offs & landings, and has been the subject of numerous expansion and development proposals over the years. The most recent was Sen. Betsy Johnson’s attempt in the final days of the 2007 Oregon Legislative session to sponsor legislation that would have created a self-directed taxing district to enable “tax increment funding” of sewer and water development without the governance of a local government.
This was really a real estate speculation on the part of owners of property at, and adjacent to, the airport, and would have allowed property outside of the airport and airport security to have access to the airport.
Many economic interests, outside our community seek unbridled commercial development with no meaningful input from the people who live here and deal with the consequences. Fortunately, media coverage of this self-serving legislation resulted in a public outcry which assured the measure’s death in committee at the Legislature. We are sure that those interests will be back, motivated by the large profits of such a land speculation selling prime farmland for commercial and industrial development next to this ‘rural’ airport.
A New Expansion Threat
For the airport to expand significantly, it needs an FAA-regulated control tower. Marion County has applied for full or partial financing for a new airport tower from state Connect Oregon II, Intermodal Transportation funds, generated by higher vehicle registration fees.
The presence of a control tower would allow two significant things to happen at Aurora Airport:
- Relocation of many corporate jets from Hillsboro to Aurora to provide more convenient access for corporate owners.
- Significant airport-related developments, such as a rumored air freight hub located away from Portland International Airport.
Either of these developments would greatly increase local traffic on Hwy 551 (the Canby/Hubbard cutoff), I-5 access at Charbonneau and the Donald/Aurora exits, increase noise pollution for Charbonneau and Aurora, and stress the limited local infrastructure.
This has the potential to become the springboard for much bigger commercial developments, such as the Langdon Farms casino project or the conversion of Langdon Farms or other property adjoining the airport into light industrial developments. All of these will add pollution, traffic and will convert prime farmland to ugly industrial sprawl – not the vision the local community has for its future.
What’s Wrong With Development Here?
The big missing ingredient is municipal infrastructure. The Aurora Airport is located in Marion County and is not within the urban growth boundary (UGB) of any of the nearby cities or towns. That means it doesn’t have municipal access to development funds and, more importantly, has no municipal oversight. Being outside of an UGB means that development there would lack the local control, checks and balances built into Oregon’s land use laws—especially if it could achieve an independent taxing authority such as that proposed by Sen. Betsy Johnson and her supporters in the aviation community.
The Aurora Airport is located on prime farm land in northeast French Prairie, is surrounded by agriculture, and sits squarely on EFU zoned land. It is also, along with Langdon Farms, part of the “doorway to the Willamette Valley” heading south from metro Portland. Development here has to be done carefully and with a long term view. Rampant and unchecked development would not only severely damage this local part of French Prairie, but could be the beginning of a development conduit down I-5 to Salem. Once farm land is gone, it never comes back.
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A better alternative is to keep Airport activity inside Urban Growth Boundaries, as is the case with the Salem and Hillsboro airports. Airports and associated developments are urban uses and should be kept out of farm country. Keeping Aurora Airport small, uncontrolled airspace will help protect this area from land speculation and unwise industrialization – there are clearly other, better places for this kind of urbanization.
What’s Wrong With a Control Tower?
In principle, nothing! However, recent development options have been pushed by private interests who stand to benefit from the airport expansion, an in practice there are at least three things:
- First, what’s missing? The public! The local residents who will be most impacted have had almost no say, and the public has been kept out by special interests.
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Those with vested long term interests, but who are being kept in the dark about the true intentions of the airport development are: - Charbonneau residents in the flight path of the airport, within 10,000 feet of the center of the runway.
- Local residents who live within five miles of the airport and will have to suffer high volumes of traffic, including the communities of Wilsonville, Aurora, Donald, Canby, Hubbard and Woodburn. All citizens within five miles of the Aurora Airport should have an active say in the future of this facility.
- Local businesses and residents who frequently suffer increased traffic, noise and air pollution from the commercial aviation activity at this airport including helicopters and corporate jet traffic.
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- The above impact map is based on an FAA standard of 14,000 feet around an airport, and shows the impact on the ground—but note, that the ring rises in the air as a cone representing airspace around the airport. That leads to the second point: it is entirely inappropriate for a development that is essentially a “municipal and public” asset like an airport to be developed without the impacted municipalities being involved and having a seat at the table. The absence of the public is a clear violation of Land Use Goal 1 – Public Involvement.
- Second, it is entirely inappropriate for a development that is essentially a “municipal and public” asset like an airport to be developed without the impacted municipalities being involved and having a seat at the table. The absence of the public is a clear violation of Land Use Goal 1 – Public Involvement.
- Third, the existing Aurora Airport master plan is ten years old and out of date, and the current expansion is going forward without a master plan. An airport expansion of this scope needs to have an updated master plan, be part of a larger French Prairie master plan that includes all effected municipalities, solicits public input, and gives emphasis to protecting the ‘agricultural foundation lands’ which are the best in the work, unique and threatened by development.
This kind of development should also fit into state-wide goals. For instance, as Salem Municipal Airport expands and adds commercial flights, shouldn’t significant airport expansion in north Willamette Valley occur there, in an urban and commercial setting, rather than in the middle of an agricultural area? Alternatives to Aurora Airport Expansion should be considered. Are there other airports already within Urban Growth Boundaries where this growth in aviation should be focused, where there are not the negative impacts on prime agricultural lands?
FOFP Position on the Aurora Airport Expansion
FOFP believes that while development at the Aurora Airport is likely, no development should occur without a new master plan that includes active participation of all effected communities, and also includes adequate public hearings. We have sent a letter to the Marion County Commissioners requesting that the tower funding request be withdrawn and a public hearing process begun. [Download the letter in PDF]
Local News Coverage of This Subject
Airport changes causing concerns
January 30, 2008
[Download PDF here]
Airport zoning upsets growers
Friday, March 14, 2008
[Download PDF here]
