tworivers
01-23-2007, 05:21 PM
Metro, communities try to head off growing pains
Influence - The regional government and local officials will urge the Legislature to modify the planning process
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
LAURA OPPENHEIMER
In the next decade, thousands of Oregonians are supposed to move into new Portland-area suburbs that, so far, haven't been built. People still drive on gravel roads, use septic tanks and shop in the next town over.
But local governments don't have the cash to transform these rural communities -- from Bethany on the west to Damascus on the east -- into full-service neighborhoods.
So local politicians want the Legislature to help them overhaul the way we plan for growth. Metro, the regional government, is teaming up with mayors and county commissioners to ask for three things:
More time to choose the next batch of communities. New ways to raise money for roads, sewers, schools and other essentials. And the ability to line up land for future development while permanently protecting the best farming areas.
"The goal is to create more thriving urban communities, not just dots on the map," Metro President David Bragdon says.
Metro has to work quickly. By the time 2030 rolls around, economists say, the Portland region will be as big as Seattle is today -- 3 million residents.
Many newcomers will live in houses, apartments and condos in existing cities. To absorb the rest, Metro opens rural land to suburban development by expanding the region's urban growth boundary.
It's up to individual cities and counties to plan the nuts and bolts of new communities on their outskirts. But many don't have the money to do that, let alone carry out their vision.
To help, Metro created a regionwide tax on construction permits. The $6.3 million that will be raised in the next three years was recently divvied up across the suburbs. Oregon City, for example, is now planning residential and business areas that were on hold while the city dealt with pressing needs such as police and libraries.
But the construction tax addresses only part of the problem, said Metro Councilor Brian Newman, who led the process.
"Now that we solved this short-term, initial obstacle," Newman says, "how do we solve this much bigger gap?"
Legislators are unlikely to fix all the region's growing pains this year. Metro leaders haven't even drafted specific bills for some of their proposals, but they want to plant the ideas in Salem.
Area leaders are also lobbying for more transportation money. They say roads and public transit go hand in hand with planning for growth.
Metro's ideas get at basic questions about who pays for growth: the state, local governments, or builders and the people who buy their homes. People should remember their own neighborhoods were new once, too, says Jim McCauley of the Home Builders Association of Metropolitan Portland.
"It was a shared community investment at the time," McCauley says. "It needs to continue to be a shared investment."
Laura Oppenheimer: 503-294-7669; loppenheimer@ news.oregonian.com
Influence - The regional government and local officials will urge the Legislature to modify the planning process
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
LAURA OPPENHEIMER
In the next decade, thousands of Oregonians are supposed to move into new Portland-area suburbs that, so far, haven't been built. People still drive on gravel roads, use septic tanks and shop in the next town over.
But local governments don't have the cash to transform these rural communities -- from Bethany on the west to Damascus on the east -- into full-service neighborhoods.
So local politicians want the Legislature to help them overhaul the way we plan for growth. Metro, the regional government, is teaming up with mayors and county commissioners to ask for three things:
More time to choose the next batch of communities. New ways to raise money for roads, sewers, schools and other essentials. And the ability to line up land for future development while permanently protecting the best farming areas.
"The goal is to create more thriving urban communities, not just dots on the map," Metro President David Bragdon says.
Metro has to work quickly. By the time 2030 rolls around, economists say, the Portland region will be as big as Seattle is today -- 3 million residents.
Many newcomers will live in houses, apartments and condos in existing cities. To absorb the rest, Metro opens rural land to suburban development by expanding the region's urban growth boundary.
It's up to individual cities and counties to plan the nuts and bolts of new communities on their outskirts. But many don't have the money to do that, let alone carry out their vision.
To help, Metro created a regionwide tax on construction permits. The $6.3 million that will be raised in the next three years was recently divvied up across the suburbs. Oregon City, for example, is now planning residential and business areas that were on hold while the city dealt with pressing needs such as police and libraries.
But the construction tax addresses only part of the problem, said Metro Councilor Brian Newman, who led the process.
"Now that we solved this short-term, initial obstacle," Newman says, "how do we solve this much bigger gap?"
Legislators are unlikely to fix all the region's growing pains this year. Metro leaders haven't even drafted specific bills for some of their proposals, but they want to plant the ideas in Salem.
Area leaders are also lobbying for more transportation money. They say roads and public transit go hand in hand with planning for growth.
Metro's ideas get at basic questions about who pays for growth: the state, local governments, or builders and the people who buy their homes. People should remember their own neighborhoods were new once, too, says Jim McCauley of the Home Builders Association of Metropolitan Portland.
"It was a shared community investment at the time," McCauley says. "It needs to continue to be a shared investment."
Laura Oppenheimer: 503-294-7669; loppenheimer@ news.oregonian.com
