Urban Conservation

Please read the background information below and take one or more actions below to help protect places for nature in your community!

What You Can Do

It is critical that the City Council hear from those who support natural resource conservation. Please help by doing the following:

Urban development can have destructive impacts on natural ecosystems including the clean water and abundant wildlife they support. That is why Lake Oswego's Comprehensive Plan calls for protection of the most environmentally sensitive lands in the community, streams corridors, wetlands and significant tree groves. Like many local governments in the region, Lake Oswego partially implements this policy through zoning regulations or Sensitive Lands Overlays (SLO) that apply to development and other disturbance activities in or near streams, wetlands, and tree groves. These urban natural areas support many native wildlife species, including over 200 hundred native bird species that inhabit and migrate through the Portland-metropolitan region. Lake Oswego’s SLO does not prohibit development; it merely requires that it or other disturbance occurs in a way that avoids or minimizes impacts on clean water, wildlife and their habitat.  Lake Oswego’s watersheds are currently degraded but have great potential for restoration and recovery. The environmental impacts of poorly planned development and pre-development clearing (above right) fall on neighbors, the public at large, and future generations. They can be enormous and long-lasting.  Lake Oswego's SLO minimizes the direct and cumulative environmental impacts of future development making it possible to enhance and restore water quality, wildlife habitat, and overall watershed health. It is a critical safeguard to protect the public interest in a clean environment.

Context and Background

Water and wildlife don’t recognize political boundaries. Regional natural resource planning through our regional government, Metro, ensures a consistent level of protection for stream and wildlife corridors that cross jurisdictional boundaries and support populations of wildlife throughout the northern Willamette Valley. To this end, local governments and the Metro Council adopted Nature in Neighborhoods in 2005 that requires a minimum level of protection for regionally significant habitat and water resource areas along streams and wetlands. Nature in Neighborhoods requires local governments to amend their zoning codes by adopting a model ordinance or develop their own program that “substantially” complies with the model ordinance.

Over the last year Lake Oswego has been revising its SLO to substantially comply with Metro, meet statewide planning goals 5, 6 and 7, and implement its comprehensive plan policies to protect environmentally sensitive lands for wildlife, clean water, and public health and safety. In response to a number of concerns raised about the existing SLO, the Mayor and City Council charged the “Second Look Task Force” (SLTF) to review the existing SLO regulations, issues and concerns expressed by some residents, and propose recommendations for changes to the SLO regulations. The SLTF was composed of residents of Lake Oswego including one member of the Planning Commission. The SLTF made recommendations to the City Council on May 28. After meeting for 9 months, the SLTF submitted 63 recommendations for clarifying aspects of the code and adding flexibility in the application of regulations.   The City Council reviewd the SLTF’s recommendations on June 22  and 23 and took public comment on these recommendations on June 29th and 30th.  On July 22 the Council adopted a resolution that directs staff to make changes to the Sensitive Lands Overlay based on the SLTF recommendations.  This substantial overhaul of the program will shape a final decision and adoption of new policies this.

There are a number of myths and inaccuracies about Lake Oswego's Sensitive Land Overlays circulating in the community. It is critical that residents get the facts in formulating their opinions of these policies and the recommendations of the Second Look Task Force.

Audubon Society’s Concerns and Position

Support for Comprehensive Planning: We support the City of Lake Oswego and the SLTF in developing environmental safeguards that comply with statewide goal 5, 6, and 7; Nature in Neighborhoods and the Lake Oswego Comprehensive Plan for the protection of fish and wildlife habitat, clean water and public health and safety.  Environmental protection and land-use regulations like the SLO are essential to protect environmental values and to ensure comprehensive urban planning that includes conserving a place for nature in the city. 

Goal 5, 6, and 7 regulations (the SLO) must apply to public and private land: In order to protect environmentally sensitive lands and the public values they support, land-use regulations like the SLO must apply to both public and private land. Wildlife like people need corridors to move across the landscape to find food, shelter, and to reproduce; water does not just flow on our public parks and open space. New development that puts wildlife, water quality and public safety at risk is most likely to occur on private land with environmentally sensitive lands. The SLO should be improved not weakened or eliminated. 

Voluntary measures are not enough. Environmentally sensitive lands should be protected, enhanced and restored through a combination of regulatory, incentive, and voluntary programs. Lake Oswego’s SLO provides a critical regulatory component because it is the only environmental regulation in Lake Oswego that requires that development and disturbance activities avoid, minimize and appropriately mitigate environmental impacts to environmentally sensitive lands. Voluntary programs like Portland Audubon’s Backyard Habitat Certification program are important but not enough to protect environmentally sensitive lands from development. Voluntary measures must compliment not substitute regulatory measures.

There has been some inaccurate information circulating about Lake Oswego's Sensitive Lands Overlay Program. Read responses to some commonly heard claims about Lake Oswego Sensitive Lands Overlays.

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