A NEW PROBLEM ON FRENCH PRAIRIE: METRO EXPANSION
The METRO Council and representatives of the Commissioners from Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington Counties, tasked with the decision on areas for expansion of the metro-Portland urban growth boundary (UGB) for the next 50 years, announced that lands within five (5) miles of the current UGB will be studied for UGB expansion consideration. Besides the monumental change from the historic one mile additional area for study, this announcement harbors two potentially drastic consequences.
First, the 2004 industrial lands process taught us that the very notion of “studying” land encourages land speculation and creates an atmosphere that often ends up with the desired end: the land is not just studied, it is ultimately expanded into. In other words, the decision to study starts the process with the end virtually decided in advance. Second, the initial proposed study area did not just include lands in Washington, Clackamas & Multnomah counties, but included land in Marion and Yamhill counties—lands outside of the scope of the METRO Council purview. What was implied here was the beginning of a sort of “intergovernmental agreement” process between Metro and Marion & Yamhill counties (primarily agricultural) to urbanize farm lands—and an attempt by Metro to substantially increase its scope of influence.
On April 9, at the METRO Urban and Rural Reserve meeting, Greg Specht (the Commercial Realtor representative), Tom Brian (Chair of the Washington County Commission) and Tom Hughes (Mayor of Hillsboro) stated publicly that all lands south of Wilsonville, along I-5 to Salem, should be studied for urbanization by the METRO Urban and Rural Reserves process. Karen Goddin, the representative of Oregon Economic & Community Development Dept. (OECDD) supported the position and stated that the Governor Ted Kulongoski supports this development concept.
This translates into a desire to create an “urban corridor” running along I-5 from Wilsonville to Salem. This type of expansion is not only far outside the scope of work and authority of METRO, but is clearly focused on taking prime farmland in the Willamette Valley and converting it to commercial use. Fortunately, the outcry from Marion and Yamhill Counties, including a letter to Metro from Marion County Commissioner Sam Brentano that stated “Look elsewhere to feed your monster!” forced Metro to stand down and limit the five mile study area to within the three Metro counties. However, to recover the acreage lost in Marion and Yamhill Counties by this decision, they actually further enlarged the “so called” 5 mile study area in the Metro counties!
WHAT’S WRONG WITH THIS HAPPENING
First and foremost, a large percentage of the land up for study in the five mile area is agricultural, and the majority of it on the west and south sides of Metro Portland is primarily agricultural.
Second, the stated approach is almost diametrically opposed to Metro’s own 2040 Growth Concept, which states:
The urban growth boundary and Metro's 2040 Growth ConceptThe 2040 Growth Concept is our region's growth management policy; it defines development in the metropolitan region through the year 2040. The 2040 Growth Concept guides how the urban growth boundary is managed in order to protect the community characteristics valued by the people who live here, to enhance a transportation system that ensures the mobility of people and goods throughout the region and to preserve access to nature. The 2040 Growth Concept
- encourages efficient land use, directing most development to existing urban centers and along existing major transportation corridors
- promotes a balanced transportation system within the region that accommodates a variety of transportation options such as bicycling, walking, driving and public transit
- supports the region's goal of building complete communities by providing jobs and shopping close to where people live.
While Metro is by law supposed to balance the preservation of farmland with providing developable land, in our view, the process is badly skewed to delivering an inventory of land for residential, commercial and industrial development at the expense of preserving farmland.
Read the entire Metro UGB description in PDF [click here]In other words, development is supposed to occur within existing urban centers, not by consuming all the available land that lies between them. To make the case that I-5 is an “urban corridor” stretches the concept almost to the absurd. Yes, it happens to link Salem to Portland and runs through the city, but once you cross the UGB at Wilsonville, it is what it is called: an Interstate Highway that links two large cities.
Third, the northeast tip of French Prairie is in Clackamas County—that is the area that includes Charbonneau, from about I-5 east and bounded on the south by Arndt Road (just north of Aurora Airport). This is the so-called “doorway to French Prairie” and is completely out of the hands of Marion County when it comes to development. However, this is where the dominoes could begin to fall in allowing commercial development that could result in strip development of the I-5 corridor to Salem, and begin the process of taking large quantities of French Prairie farm land out of production.
FRIENDS OF FRENCH PRAIRIE POSITION ON METRO EXPANSION
French Prairie is at the north end of the Willamette Valley, directly in the development path south from Portland, and possesses some of the most fertile soils in the world. This land was used agriculturally by Native Americans for centuries before white settlers arrived. Since then it has been inhabited, it has been an exceptionally productive agriculture region, producing fruit and vegetable crops, seed and nursery stock—all of which add up to Oregon’s second largest industry, which includes $1billion in exports per year, making it one of Oregon’s traded sector bright spots.
Everyone is aware of the worsening economy, unease which has now trumped the war in Iraq as American’s number one concern. And rightly so: gas prices in Oregon now average $3.49 per gallon; wheat is up over 100% in the past year; flour is up 173% in the last year, milk is up 33% year on year, electricity is up 11.5% (Oregonians Feel Squeeze; The Oregonian, April 16, 2008). Providing local food is healthy, environmentally sound and provides much needed agricultural employment at a time we need it most.
The week of April 7, 2008 we read and saw long haul truckers on the east coast stopped driving to protest fuel prices. The point is that all of these things are tied together, and unlike the 1970s when OPEC’s embargo temporarily spiked oil prices, today we’re in an entirely different global circumstance characterized by a shortage of established production sources, declining outputs in the Middle East, increasing demand in the developing world, and substantial geo-political unrest affecting oil prices.
These are directly translating into increased food costs. Gasoline is only one byproduct of oil refining, besides plastics, fertilizer, pharmaceuticals and fabrics. Our country’s food production practices are based on intensive monoculture in limited locales with a high usage of fertilizer and pesticides. Increasing oil prices drive up the cost of fertilizer, pesticides and diesel for tractors. Then this cost factor is further compounded by long haul trucking of our food from where it is grown to where we live. A hedge against this continuing economic dislocation is that we can and are growing local food, fuel and creating carbon offsets which are a critically important balance, and an important assurance in a time of uncertainty.
Are You Gonna Eat That?
Read a summary of the program
[Download PDF here]
The answer is that it would take a lot: economics, changes in buying habits (local varieties instead of California exotics), changes in growing choices (vegetables instead of rye seed), changes in lifestyle (no mangoes in December), etc. It would also take saving farmland. You can’t grow food locally if you’ve turned your farmland into industrial parks and housing developments.
We have an unparallel agricultural resource close to most of our homes and markets. Will we kill this unique resource so that a few land speculators and commercial developers can profit by “flipping” farm land for personal gain? Will this be the generation which trades our precious green landscape for the thoughtless development that Tom McCall warned us about a generation ago?
We are again at the critical fork in the road. One leads to the Californization of Oregon, the other traces the steps of earlier generations of Oregonians who view stewardship of this great green landscape as a birthright and a responsibility to generations of Oregonians yet unborn.
We have an unparallel agricultural resource close to most of our homes and markets. The sad reality is that the asset most coveted by developers is flat land with adequate water near a metro area. Flat land with good soils and adequate water is required for productive agriculture.
French Prairie is among the areas outside the metro Portland urban growth boundary facing the most development pressure. Some of it lies in Clackamas County, but most of it is in Marion County. That allows metro Portland growth and development forces to work on a “divide and conquer strategy” to not only develop farm land in Clackamas County, but extend the development all the way down I-5 to Salem.
If you think this is fanciful, then consider the list of proposed commercial and industrial developments listed below on this Current Issues page to assess the impact on French Prairie.
- Zone Change Request Adjoining Aurora Airport
- Langdon Farms Casino Project
- LNG Terminal & Northwest Natural Gas Pipeline
- Farm Implement store on Ehlen Road
- Donald UBG Expansion
- Willamette National Cemetery Expansion on French Prairie
All of the land associated with these development proposals is prime farmland, and almost all of it in production! This is, in fact, the very land that the Oregon Department of Agriculture has identified as “foundation farmland” that should be preserved, and should be designated as Rural Reserves to assure it remains as farm land.
Why should we care about that? Because we need to preserve that farmland, since the odds are good that we will need it before long to grow our food, when we need to go back to the old model of growing food locally for both nutritional and financial reasons.
If we don’t, then a few, moneyed speculators and developers will trade the heart of Oregon for a few bucks today, at the expense of all Oregonians in the future. They are the antithesis to the Oregon spirit: disrespect for the land, personal profit over public good, cashing in on our birthright, short term gain over a beneficial longer view, black asphalt over rich brown earth and the possibility of more prosperous green future for the next generation.
Recent media coverage of this Current Issue
Oregon at a Crossroads: Saving French Prairie
May 5, 2008
[Download PDF here]
Metro Agencies will plan for a long-term growth puzzle
June 8, 2008
[Download PDF here]
Hey, Portland: Try to fit twice the people here
June 8, 2008
[Download PDF here]
Growth battle line revisited
June 16, 2008
[Download PDF here]
Metro dealing with ins and out of long term growth boundary
Read a summary of the program
[Download PDF here]
Position letter from Friends of French Prairie to Metro re: UGB Expansion August 12, 2008
[Download PDF here]
Position letter from Portland Farmers Market to Metro re: UGB Expansion
[Download PDF here]
