Urban Conservation

Metro and Counties Prepare to Designate Long-term Urban and Rural Reserves

Decisions will shape regional growth for decades and determine the fate of some of the region’s critical biodiversity lands and surrounding farmland.

Should Metro expand the Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) south of the Willamette River?

Should additional urban development be allowed on the west flank of Forest Park?

Should we allow urban growth to consume ecologically rich bottomlands and high value agricultural areas in Washington County?

Or should these natural and working landscapes that powerfully define our region’s sense of place and quality of life be put off-limits to new urban development the next 40 to 50 years?

What decisions about where and how we grow that will help most in efforts to lower greenhouse gas emissions in our region?

These are some of the questions the region will grapple with over the coming year as Metro and Multnomah, Clackamas, and Washington Counties embark on a planning process that will guide future expansions of the UGB and determine the shape of the region for decades to come (see background below).

Metro and the three counties will make their decisions on rural and urban reserves by the end of 2009. 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 to grow and that the Portland region reduces its greenhouse gas emissions.

There are at least three ways you can take action and get involved to be a strong voice for protecting our region’s natural and working landscapes:

1. Attend one of the six upcoming community open houses in June and July throughout the region. These open houses will be the first of several opportunities to weigh in on rural and urban reserve designation.

2. Please make your voice heard on this critical issue. 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:

2. Check out the websites for the Urban and Rural Reserves set up by Metro, Multnomah, Washington, and Clackamas Counties. Metro has a Reserves Steering Committee made up of local elected officials that meets once a month (this Tuesday May 14^th). The Counties also have policy advisory committees that are meant to represent you!

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.

Farms and riparian corridors in Washington County form a mosaic of natural and working landscapes that should be a top priority for long-term protection. Photo by Mike Houck.

^{Farms and riparian corridors in Washington County form a mosaic of natural and working landscapes that should be a top priority for long-term protection. Photo by Mike Houck.}

Background

Under a new state law passed by the 2007 Legislature, Metro and the Counties can simultaneously designate “long-term” (40 to 50 years) urban and rural reserves. Urban reserves will identify lands where Metro will expand the UGB- as currently required by state law- over the next 40 to 50 years. 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 equally with commercial forestry and farming values in deciding where and when the region expands the urban growth boundary.

In the past, state law has generally required cities to avoid high-value agricultural soils first in determining which lands to urbanize. As a result, cities are often forced to expand onto the most sensitive natural resource 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.

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. The inventory includes places like Willamette River, Willamette Narrows, the Sandy River Gorge, Tonquin Geologic Area, the Chehalem Mountains, Forest Park, and Sauvie Island.You can view slideshow by Mike Houck (9.8 MB) of the regional inventory of important natural natural features in Portland-Vancouver region.

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?

 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?