Urban Conservation
Connecting Green
City of Portland and Metro Contact Info
Friends and Advocates of Urban Areas (FAUNA)
Metro and Counties To Determine Critical Regional Growth Decisions in 2009
Make sure these decisions conserve wildlife and their habitat!
Please Attend Open Houses and take Metro's Online Survey
In the June 2008 and March 2009 Warblers we reported on pending decisions by Metro and Multnomah, Clackamas, and Washington Counties that will dramatically impact the region’s wildlife habitat and farmland for decades to come. These decisions about where and how the region should grow and develop will determine the future shape of the Portland-Metro and the fate of some of the region’s highest value habitat areas and other natural features critical to water quality, scenic beauty, and sense of place.
This month Metro and the counties released candidate urban and rural reserves. Metro and the counties are currently taking feedback from the public at the open houses listed below and via an online survey. This will afford citizens a critical opportunity for citizens to weigh-in on these decisions.
Urban and Rural Reserve Open Houses April 27-30
April 27 6pm to 8pmPortland, Linnton Community Center, 10614 NW Saint Helens Rd.
April 29 5:30 to 7:30 pm
Rock Creek Elementary 4125 NW 185th Ave., Portland
April 30 5:30 to 7:30 pm
Wilsonville City Hall 29799 SW Town Center Loop E, Wilsonville
Check the Metro website in case these times and locations get changed.
Metro is also taking public input via an online survey. Please read the talking points below and do the online survey.
What to tell Metro and the Counties:
1. Metro and the Counties should
limit the size of new urban reserves in order to save natural areas, farmland,
and limited funding for public infrastructure. We need to save limited taxpayer
and ratepayer infrastructure dollars to build great communities inside the
existing UGB. Focusing development in our existing centers and corridors will also support vibrant walkable communities better served by transit and will help lower the region and the State achieve goals for reducing green-house gas emissions.
2. In accordance with state law, Metro should not designate urban reserves where important natural landscape features and high value farmland could be lost or irreparably jeopardized by future UGB expansions.
3. Metro and the Counties should instead designate important natural landscape features and high value farmland as rural reserves that will be off-limits to urbanization for the next 40-50 years. Specifically, Metro and the Counties should be considering the following additional areas as candidate rural reserves:
- Clackamas Bluff and Deep Creek Watershed
- Mollala River corridor and floodplain
- Willamette Narrows and Canemah Bluff
- Johnson Creek Watershed in rural Clackamas County
Please make your voice heard on this critical issue. You can help ensure that the best natural resource and agricultural lands are protected, that urbanization is planned for areas where it makes the most sense and that the Portland region fosters vibrant walkable neighborhoods that reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
1. Learn about how you can give feedback on the candidate urban and rural reserves by checking for updates on the Urban/Rural Reserve websites set-up by Metro and Multnomah, Washington, and Clackamas Counties. See Portland Audubon's comments on the candidate urban and rural reserves.
2. Please attend one or more of the public open houses listed above and voice your support for protecting wildlife and their habitat in making these decisions (see background and information below).
3. Metro is also taking public input via an online survey. Please read the talking points above and do the online survey.
4. If you live in the Portland metro area, please click on your local elected official's e-mail address to send them a message of supporting protection of high value natural resource lands in the process of designating urban and rural reserves. See background information below to be better informed.
|
Metro Councilor Kathryn Harrington |
|
|
Clackamas County Commissioner Charlotte Lehan |
|
|
Multnomah County Commissioner Jeff Cogen |
|
|
Washington County Commissioner Tom Brian |
3. Email Jim Labbe at Audubon Portland if your are interested in getting more detailed updates and information on the Urban and Rural Reserve Designation Process.
4. Check back here for updates and find out how you can get involved.
Background
Under a new state law, Metro and the Counties will designate urban and rural reserves directing growth for the next 40 to 50 years. Urban reserves will identify lands where Metro will expand the UGB first when required by state law to meet the 20-year land supply for residential housing and industrial land. The new urban reserves are meant to provide land for a 40 to 50-year planning horizon. Rural reserves, conversely, will designate lands off-limits to UGB expansion over the same time period.
One of the major weaknesses of Oregon Land-Use Planning System in protecting wildlife habitat relates to how urban growth boundary expansion decisions are made. In 1993 the Oregon Legislature passed a law requiring all cities and Metro to expand their urban growth boundaries to maintain a 20-year supply of residential land. In 1995 the Homebuilders Association lobbied for and secured the passage of legislation requiring Metro to specifically evaluate its 20-supply of residential land every 5-years and expand then its UGB to maintain any deficiencies in supply. Meanwhile the 1995 Legislature also passed a law that established a hierarchy for bringing new land into UGBs and required prime farm land to be last on the list of lands brought into the UGB. In 2001 the Legislature also required Metro to provide a 20-year supply of industrial land inside its UGB. The effect of these laws in combination was to require local governments to expand their UGBs onto the highest quality habitat areas and on to environmentally sensitive lands. As precious as farmland is, we need a better balance. Both agricultural and natural landscapes should be treated as an integrated whole, equal parts of a holistic landscape mosaic that define our region’s economy and culture.
A new state law (SB1011) passed in the 2007 Legislature aims for a better balance. It allowed Metro and the Counties to simultaneously designate “long-term” (40 to 50 years) urban and rural reserves. Urban reserves will identify lands where Metro will expand the UGB first if required to meet the 20-year land supply for residential housing and industrial land. The new urban reserves are meant to provide land for a 40 to 50 year planning horizon. Rural reserves, conversely, will designate lands off-limits to UGB expansion over the same time period.
Metro and Counties must designate urban and rural reserves simultaneously and in coordination. In doing so they must consider a variety of factors. Rural reserves will be designated based largely on the quality and location of high value farm, forest, and natural areas outside the UGB that is vulnerable to future urbanization. The designation of urban reserves must consider the suitability of the land for urbanization; the ability to protect important natural landscape features such as steep slopes, floodplains, stream corridors, and wildlife habitat; and whether urbanization would displace high-value farmland and biodiversity lands.
All this is a new approach, especially in considering impacts to natural areas. For the first time the value of rural lands for fish, wildlife, clean water, and sense of place will be considered alongside- if not equally too- commercial forestry and farming interests in deciding where and when the region expands the urban growth boundary.
To inform the designation of urban and rural reserve decisions, Metro brought together natural resource professionals and regional experts to map the “natural landscape features” that ecologically and culturally define the region (see map to right).
State rules requires that when designating rural reserves for "important natural landscape features" Counties must consider Metro's Inventory of Natural Landscape Features and whether lands considered for designation:
2. Are important fish, plant or wildlife habitat;
1. Can be designed to preserve and enhance natural ecological systems.
Will urban and rural reserves support the long-term protection of these natural features? It is to early to tell, but below a number of questions citizens should be asking:
1. How much land will Metro need to bring in the UGB and how large should the urban reserves be?
2. Will Metro base its land needs on how we have grown in the past in an era of highways and low-density sprawl or on how we know we should grow in the future in order to meet the challenges of global climate change, peak oil, and the imperatives for greener, smarter, and more pedestrian and transit oriented urban communities?
3. Will Metro avoid important natural landscape features that could be lost or irreparably jeopardized by future UGB expansions? Specifically, should future expansions of the urban growth boundary (UGB) occur south of the Willamette River in Wilsonville, on the west flank of Forest Park in Multnomah or Washington Counties, or on to ecologically rich bottomlands and high value agricultural areas in Washington County? Or, should these same natural and working landscapes be put off-limits to new urban development the next 40 to 50 years?
4. How will Metro and the Counties ensure natural features brought into the UGB are adequately protected, restored and managed in designing and developing vibrant new urban communities?
5. Will rural reserves include the highest value natural landscape features with the highest value forest and farmlands?
Measure 26-80 Update
Region Protects 800 acres to-date!
Over two years ago Audubon members helped convince regional voters to pass Measure 26-80. The measure raised $227.4 million to purchase and protect the regions best natural areas and purchase land trails and local parks. As of November 2008 Metro and local governments have already purchased and protected over 800 acres regionally significant natural areas, permanently protecting them for clean water, wildlife, or public enjoyment. For more information see Metro's website.
Election 2008: Victories for Habitat, Parks and Zoos
In the wake of the November 4, 2008 election, Portland Audubon members can be proud in helping win three key victories for wildlife, natural areas, and the Oregon Zoo:
-
Ballot Measure 63 Defeated: Measure 63 would have allowed numerous small development and construction projects to bypass safeguards for public safety and environmental protection, including local tree preservation rules. Voters soundly defeated this measure sponsored by Bill Sizemore.
- Parks and Natural Areas Bond in Washington County: Voters in Washington County narrowly passed Measure 34-156, the $100 million Tualatin Hills Park and Recreation Bond Measure. The bond measure will allocate more than $12 million to purchase and restore natural areas with a focus on preserving water quality, protecting fish and wildlife habitat and providing access to nature. Another $16 million for trails and greenways will also improve access to nature in Washington County. For more information see the THPRD website.
- Oregon Zoo Bond Measure: Audubon supported and helped pass Measure 26-96 to improve conditions for animals at the Oregon Zoo and reduce impacts from the zoo on water quality. Measure 26-96 will provide more humane cages for animals such as elephants, polar bears and hippos and allow for replacement of the zoo's outdated veterinary hospital. From an environmental perspective, it allows for substantial improvement in zoo infrastructure including green building strategies and replacing the zoo's outdated sewer system. For more information go to: http://www.oregonzoo2008.com/.
