Westside Economic Alliance this week filed a list of objections to Metro’s 2030 Capacity Ordinance - a regional plan which is intended to assure the Portland metro area has enough buildable land to accommodate housing and jobs through the year 2030.

Predicting our future population growth and demands for housing and jobs is not an easy task, but late last month Metro completed a 20-year forecast of the population growth in Oregon’s three largest counties to assure an adequate supply of land is available to meet future needs.  

In a five page letter to state land use director Richard Whitman, WEA challenged several of the assumptions and conclusions contained in Metro’s regional “capacity ordinance.”

The latest findings from the 2010 U.S. Census released this week confirmed that population growth in Washington County continued at a robust pace of 18.9 percent in the past 10 years, while Clackamas County grew by 11.1 percent, and Multnomah County welcomed 11.3 percent to their neighborhoods. These impressive growth trends illustrate the importance of getting accurate and credible growth projections.

Westside Economic Alliance contends Metro has significantly misjudged and underestimated future employment opportunities in the tri-county region, and the Alliance listed at least five objections to Metro’s 20-year vision for regional growth:

1. Metro’s plan assumes a continued decline in manufacturing employment in Oregon, justifying changes and reductions to the amount and location of employment land needed in the tri-county metropolitan region.  In contrast, WEA highlights westside companies who are making record expansions and investments in the region.
   
   
2. In addressing the long standing and recognized need for large-lot industrial development for future employment growth opportunities, Metro has offered a bare bones approach of only 310 acres.
   
   
3. Metro is relying on inconsistent and inflated inventories of developable land inside the Urban Growth Boundary and existing communities to meet the region’s need for housing and jobs.
   
   
4. The regional agency assumes future housing and employment growth will be concentrated near existing urban centers and infrastructure services, limiting the needs for future UGB expansion.
   
   
5. By limiting the land supply available for growth and development opportunities, Metro’s ordinance encumbers Goal 9 (Economic Development) compliance requirements imposed on cities and counties.

When filing these objections, WEA noted the recent change to the Metro Council.  Half of the Metro Council members are new since the first of the year and will be working in the shadows of decisions their predecessors made.  Metro President Tom Hughes, Councilors Shirley Craddick and Barbara Roberts deserve a chance to review and improve the growth management plans if the Land Conservation Development Commission agrees these changes are needed.

For a complete copy of WEA’s letter to Richard Whitman, the director of the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development, click here.