What's New

                                                 February 22, 2010 update
Washington County Board of Commissioners will vote on approving a Resolution & Order 
adopting the Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) with Metro at their regularly scheduled meeting,
Tuesday, February 23, 2010, 6:30 p.m., Shirley Huffman Auditorium, in the 
Charles D. Cameron Public Services Building, 155 N. First Avenue, Hillsboro.  

The IGA adoption begins development of ordinances that include rural reserves in the county's Comprehensive Plan. Metro is voting on the IGAs
for all three counties Thursday, February 25. When accepted Metro will include urban reserves
in their Regional Framework Plan to draw upon for future Urban Growth Boundary considerations.  

The current Washington County - Metro IGA and the Core 4 Map of Urban and Rural Reserves are the current key documents.  A map of reserves in Washington County is also available.                                            

                                            February 2, 2010 update
Regional open houses and Metro Council public hearings had good attendance. More than 850 people attended the open houses and more than 270 provided oral testimony to the Metro Council. An additional 11,000 visited the virtual open house online. A Draft Public Comment Report was prepared for the Core 4 February 8 meeting.

Next up is the February 8 Core 4 meeting with the goal of reaching agreement for urban and rural reserves around the region. If agreement is reached, the Washington County Board of Commissioners is scheduled to adopt the Metro - Washington County Intergovernment Agreement on February 23. Following that, rural reserves inclusion in the county's Comprehensive Plan will begin.

                                                 January 8, 2010 update
Revised Urban and Rural Reserves map available. Today Metro provided a new version of the reserves map to be used in the open houses and online. The map indicates the same areas for discussion as the December 16 map, it is revised to provide an easier approach to adding comment. The map will also be used on the online survey to be launched on Monday, January 11. The survey can be accessed at: www.oregonmetro.gov/reserves.

                                                December 23, 2009 update
Core 4 Urban and Rural Reserves Proposal for public comment and draft Inter-government agreements are available. At the December 16 Core 4 meeting a map indicating areas of agreement and areas for further discussion was developed for public comment. The Core 4 also reached agreement on a Draft Inter-government Agreement (IGA) for public review. These two documents will be the focus of regional open houses starting January 11, 2010. The December 17 Metro Council meeting resulted in two Resolutions regarding the map and Draft IGAs and the Council decided to hold regional-located public hearings with three of the open houses.

The schedule is:

Monday January 11, Multnomah County East Building, 600 NE 8th Street, Gresham
4:30 - 6:30 p.m. open house, 6 p.m. Metro Council public hearing

Thursday, January 14, Metro Regional Center, 600 NE Grand, Portland
4:30 - 6:30 p.m., open house,6 p.m., Metro Council public hearing

Saturday, January 16, Washington County Charles D. Cameron Public Services Building, 155 North First Avenue, Hillsboro, 9 - 11 a.m., open house

Tuesday, January 19, Clackamas County Development Services Building, 150 Beavercreek Road, Oregon City, 4:30 - 6:30 p.m., open house

Wednesday, January 20, Sherwood City Hall - Library, 22560 SW Pine Street, Sherwood
4:30 - 6:30 p.m., open house, 6 p.m. Metro Council public hearing

Thursday, January 21, Wilsonville City Hall, 29799 SW Town Center Loop E, Wilsonville
4:30 - 6:30 p.m. open house, 6 p.m. Metro Council public hearing

An online version of the open house also will be available beginning January 11. Public comment can be provided at the open houses, hearings, online surveys, email to: reserves@oregonmetro.gov, fax to: 503 797-1797, or a hotline will be available throughout the comment period (visit the Metro reserves website for more info: www.oregonmetro.gov/reserves)

Following the comment period the Core 4, on behalf of the respective governments, will propose final maps and IGAs for formal approval by the three commissions and Metro council in February 2010.

                                        December 15, 2009 update
Bragdon-Hosticka map refined. At the December 10 Metro Council meeting the Bragdon-Hosticka map was refined in the David Hill area west of Forest Grove. The map will be considered by the Core 4 at their December 16 meeting.

                                        December 9, 2009 update
Core 4 provided additional input for reserves discussion. The Core 4 continues their discussions to find agreement regarding urban and rural reserves across the region. At the December 9 meeting Metro Councilor Carl Hosticka provided a map of proposed reserves resulting from conversations he and Metro Council President David Bragdon have held across the region. This additional information, referred to as the CHDB map, was discussed by Core 4 members with areas of agreement and areas for further discussion identified. It provides one more piece of information for Core 4 consideration. The discussions will resume December 16 at which time the Core 4 will reach their "best efforts" at recommendations. That information will be brought to the public for review and comment in January along with draft inter-government agreements (also for review and comment).

                                        November 25, 2009 update
Core 4 continue discussions, Washington County Board of Commissioners offers times for public testimony and next round of regional open houses scheduling begins.
The Core 4 continue their discussions concerning regional urban and rural reserves areas of agreement and areas for further discussion. Some changes have occurred since the October update that are reflected in the November 20 map. Core 4 meet three more times to arrive at their "best efforts" for recommendations on December 16.

In the meantime the Board of County Commissioners scheduled public hearings on December 8 and 15 (refer to the Public Involvement & Events page for more info).

As the Core 4 arrive at their recommendations and the public hearings provide opportunity for the Board of County Commissioners to hear your input, regional open houses and other opportunities for public comment, are being scheduled for January. The tentative schedule is available on the Public Involvement & Events page. Following consideration of public comment inter-government agreements (between Metro and each of the counties) will be drafted for adoption and provisions included in the Metro Regional Plan and the counties' comprehensive plans. Public hearings will be included in each of those stages.

                                         October 13, 2009 update
Proposed preliminary areas of Core 4 agreement
At their September 30 and October 9 meetings, the Core 4 focused discussion on the suitability recommendations for urban and rural reserves. Working their way around the regional map, they identified areas where there was initial alignment between the county suitability analysis, county advisory committee input, adjacent cities' aspirations and Metro's Chief Operating Officer September 15 recommendation. The also considered ways of reconciling differences between recommendations.

From these discussions the Core 4 developed a list of "proposed areas of preliminary agreement" and a list of "areas for further discussion". These lists and a corresponding map are available for your review and consideration. Note that discussions to this point have focused more on urban reserves with more work to follow on rural reserves and undesignated areas.

The Core 4 emphasizes that this is a tentative first round proposal resulting from two discussions and is not intended to convey that decisions have been made or conclusions reached. They are not. This proposal is a way to help focus the areas for Core 4 and the regional Reserves Steering Committee discussions at the October 14 RSC meeting as well as subsequent Core 4 and governing board discussions and public involvement.

                                           
                                           September 10, 2009 update
Washington County Reserves Coordinating Committee recommends approximately 34,300 acres of urban reserves, approximately 109,750 acres of rural reserves and leaves approximately 27,200 acres un-designated in Washington County's Reserve Study Area.

The complete report, transmittal memo to the Reserves Steering Committee, all maps, cities' Pre-qualified Concept Plans, issue papers and other appendices are now available. You can also just view the map.

On September 8 the WCRCC voted 11  to 2 to move recommendations from the September 1 Staff Report forward to the regional Reserves Steering Committee (RSC) for their deliberations starting September 23.

A 150-acre adjustment was agreed to removing a buffer area between the cities of North Plains and Hillsboro from urban reserves recommendations and leaving it un-designated. An additional adjustment of approximately 200 acres occurred as a result of re-mapping the cities' areas of interest.

The RSC will deliberate through October 14 at which time their recommendations will be formally provided to the Core 4 decision-makers. A series of regional open houses will provide opportunity to review and comment on the RSC recommendations in mid- to late-October.

Also of interest is Metro's COO, Michael Jordan, released a trio of reports on September 15 including the Regional Transportation Plan, the Urban Growth Report, and initial considerations on Intergovernmental Agreements on Urban and Rural Reserves. Mr. Jordan's release of these begins a 30-day comment period including a series of open houses. The first open house is Monday, September 21, 2 - 4 p.m., Hillsboro Civic Center. For a complete list of events and more information please visit: www.oregonmetro.gov/greatestplace

                                                 September 3, 2009 update
Revisions to August 3 Staff Report - Draft Urban and Rural Reserve Recommendations were released today identifying changes to the August 3 staff recommendations. A transmittal memo provides an overview.

An agreement between the Cities of North Plains and Hillsboro will affect approximately another 100 - 150 acres to be removed from the Urban Reserves. Staff is currently including the revisions and the results will be posted soon.

Staff in cooperation with, and consensus of, the Project Advisory Committee recommends two revisions to urban reserves: Add approximately 640 acres of recommended urban reserves and remove approximately 200 acres of recommended urban reserves for a revised total of 34,250 acres for urban reserves.  An additional approximately 950 acres of land were added to rural reserves.

The 640 acre addition reflects the City of Tigards clarification for areas under review. The 200 acres reduction represents the City of Sherwoods refined Pre-qualified Concept Plan for their area under review. And the 950 acre increase in rural reserves reflects a re-calculation of lands north of Highway 26 from earlier mapping efforts.

The Washington County Reserves Coordinating Committee will deliberate to a recommendation for urban and rural reserves at their Tuesday, September 8 meeting, 1:30 - 4 p.m, Beaverton City Library. That recommendation will be forwarded to the regional Reserves Steering Committee for deliberation on September 23 and October 14 at which time they will provide a recommendation to the Core 4 (representing the three counties' boards of commissioners and the Metro council.) Another series of public events is scheduled to review and comment on those recommendations in late October prior to the Core 4 decisions in November and December.