Metro is set to begin finalizing its urban reserves in Clackamas County on Oct. 8, a year and a half after a court said the region's long-range growth plan needed a technical fix.
The urban reserves plan set areas that would be the first targeted for any urban growth boundary expansions before the year 2060. It also designated rural reserves that would be off-limits for UGB expansions in that timeframe.
Both were designated after years of study and negotiations between Metro and Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties. The plans were approved by the three counties' commissions and the Metro Council.
But more than a dozen parties challenged the agreement in court, and some of the challenges were upheld. After a 2014 Oregon Court of Appeals ruling upheld challenges to the plan in Washington County, a marathon negotiating session resulted in a compromise between the litigants, the county, area cities and Metro on legislation to settle the issue.
That left outstanding court-directed corrections for certain designations in Multnomah and Clackamas counties. Without an agreement on reserves, any urban growth boundary expansion by Metro in Clackamas or Multnomah counties would have to occur on land with poor soil quality, areas that are generally harder and more expensive to develop.
Fixing the Multnomah County appeal is expected to be relatively easy, with little political disagreement apparent between the Metro Council and county leaders.
But reaching an agreement with Clackamas County about the fix needed in its reserves plan is expected to be more complicated.
The appeals court said technical data used to justify designating the Stafford Basin, north of Interstate 205 between West Linn, Lake Oswego and Tualatin, was insufficient. Metro lawyers say a simple update of technical data will be sufficient to address the court's criticism of the reserves plan.
But Clackamas County has sought to re-examine the entirety of the reserves map. Four Clackamas County commissioners joined the board after the 2010 agreement on reserves, and Clackamas County Chair John Ludlow has suggested the entirety of the county's reserves should be re-examined.
"It seems premature for the county to agree to a path that would leave the entire area as urban reserve," Ludlow wrote in a July letter to Metro Council President Tom Hughes.
Hughes repeatedly invited Ludlow and his board to participate in joint hearings to fix the urban reserves remand, most recently in August. The Clackamas County Commission declined these invitations.
In an email to Metro News, Hughes said leaders from around the region are urging the Metro Council to complete the reserves process.
"Unlike the lengthy and incredibly collaborative process that led to regional agreement on the urban reserve designations in 2011, responding to (the Land Conservation and Development Commission's) remand regarding the Stafford-area designations should be a much less complex process," Hughes said in the email. "Given that the remand concerns Metro’s designation of urban reserves, it makes sense for Metro to take on the bulk of the work and seek Clackamas County’s concurrence."
The hearing is set to begin at 3 p.m. Oct. 8 at the Metro Regional Center. A second public hearing on the reserves remand has also been scheduled for Nov. 19.