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Recent Land Use News
November 2011: Coalition of business and labor submits letter to Metro regarding Urban Growth Boundary expansionThe Alliance recently coordinated testimony by the Coalition for a Prosperous Region (CPR) submitted to the Metro Council regarding proposed expansion of the Urban Growth Boundary. Read testimony >>November 2011: The Alliance submits comments on two West Hayden Island development proposalsIn a recent letter to Portland Mayor, Sam Adams, the Alliance comments on two West Hayden Island development proposals, citing potential strengths and weaknesses of each alternative. The letter supports Alternative A as the option that provides the best habitat protection and development potential. Read the letter >>10/03/2011: Alliance comments on important Metro land use decisionThe Alliance drafted an opinion piece in support of Land Conservation and Development Commission (LCDC) approval of the agreement worked out between Washington County and Metro President, Tom Hughes, to add industrial lands to the urban reserves designations near Hillsboro. The op-ed ran in The Oregonian and was signed by the Alliance's regional partners in Clackamas, Washington and Multnomah counties as well as John Mohlis from the Building Trades Council. LCDC approved the additions. Read the letter >>08/25/2011: Urban ReservesOn August 19, the Land Conservation and Development Commission (LCDC) approved the urban reserves, including critical large lot industrial sites in Washington County, on a 6-0 vote. On August 18, an opinion piece submitted by the Coalition for a Prosperous Region ran in The Oregonian in support of adoption of the proposed urban reserves in Washington County. The urban reserves identify areas for potential development during the next 50 years. Read The Oregonian opinion article >>08/25/2011: Wyden LegislationU.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) has co-sponsored two bills recently that delay air pollution rules for industrial boilers and protect timber owners from increased federal regulation. Although Senator Wyden is upsetting many environmental groups, Governor Kitzhaber also supports backing off increased regulation of logging roads, and Senator Wyden has stated that the Senate's industrial boiler bill is more environmentally friendly than the House version and would protect Oregon's efforts to burn wood biomass for power.07/29/2011: Industrial Lands ProjectThe Alliance is partnering with the Port, NAIOP, Metro and others on a regional industrial land inventory. This inventory will focus on the actual supply of sites that are considered development-ready and are in the urban growth boundary or urban reserves, versus land identified as industrial but may have slope, parcel aggregation and contamination constraints. The purpose of the study will be to identify the readiness of the regional industrial land supply, and guide policy decisions to make more land development ready with infrastructure funding, mitigation, parcel assembly and expansion decisions. The scope of work for the analysis can be read here.03/10/2011: Alliance shares position on the city's goal to increase Portland's tree canopyThe Alliance board recently voted to support, with conditions, the Citywide Tree Policy Review and Regulatory Improvement Project. Identified in the City's Urban Forestry Management Plan (UFMP) as a high priority item, this project is a multi-bureau effort to clarify, simplify and provide a consistent and effective regulatory framework for trees in the City of Portland in order to enhance the urban forest canopy. The stated goal of the tree improvement project is to increase the city's tree canopy by about 100 acres per year in areas where landscaping is already required. The project has had significant input from homebuilders and developers and has been modified to address many of their initial concerns. The Citywide Tree Project exempts specified industrial, employment and commercial zones that do not already have landscaping requirements, it streamlines and simplifies existing regulation, it emphasizes adding trees to already landscaped areas (rather than requiring new areas to be landscaped) and it allows a reasonable fee-in-lieu option for businesses that simply don't have room to accommodate trees. As part of its support for the Citywide Tree Project, the Alliance urges the city to maintain these conditions as well as further consider opportunities to manage the existing and future tree canopy in a way that is cost effective for all bureaus and does not raise fees for taxpayers. 02/05/2011: River Plan remanded for reducing industrial land availabilityOn January 21, 2011 the State of Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA) remanded the City of Portland's River Plan. LUBA agreed with the Working Waterfront Coalition (WWC) that the River Plan "could reduce the amount of industrial land available for development," thereby reducing the ability to create new jobs and support Portland's economic viability and livability. Read the Portland Tribune's article about the remand >> The WWC and the Alliance are working on strategies to ensure that the underlying substantive issues regarding economic viability and job creation in the River Plan are addressed by the city. 08/05/2010:
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