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Volume 3, Issue 10

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October 2005
     

“Big Bethany” to get planning—and to get even bigger?
by Virginia Bruce, editor

In 2002, Metro approved another expansion of the Urban Growth Boundary which included about 800 acres north of the present Bethany area. The Oregon Court of Appeals upheld Metro’s decision in a recent challenge to the addition.

Although Beaverton originally had plans to annex the area by extending a cherry stem up a road, the recent moratorium imposed by the state legislature ensures that the area will remain in unincorporated Washington County for at least the next few years.

So Washington County will do the planning for the area. It seems that the old adage that, “The County shall not provide urban services,” is falling to the necessities of current conditions. Creating an adequate infrastructure for the estimated 10,000 new residents will include planning for roads, sewers, schools and parks.

Growth in Bethany will inevitably affect Cedar Mill, as hordes of new residents make their way through our community on their way to Highway 26. And they’ll undoubtedly want to use the Cedar Mill library and shop in our stores.

Even bigger?

Now apparently the urbanized area is slated to get even bigger. Land just over the Multnomah County border is in the sights of Metro’s planners. If this rural, mostly farmed land is added to the urban area, it’s unclear which agency will undertake the planning tasks. Portland has said it won’t plan for areas that aren’t contiguous with the city. Multnomah County doesn’t have the staff to do the planning, and has proposed that Metro itself do the job.

The area being considered is contiguous with one piece of land that was added to the UGB in the latest round—Area 93 which is north of Thompson, just over the county line but still in the area known as Bonny Slope. Planning authority for that piece is also unclear at this time.
Residents of unincorporated Multnomah County who live on the wooded western slopes adjacent to Forest Park came together during the last UGB expansion to form a committee that they called ONRA - Outer Northwest Rural Advocates. Their essential goal was to protect the wildlife corridors, upland habitats, headwaters and streams of these slopes from the degradations of urban development. The group, alerted by the talk of Big Bethany, is now back in action and is committed to fighting further UGB expansion into what they consider very valuable natural resource lands.

They plan to form coalitions with other like-minded groups, lobby Metro and local governments, and develop strategies to maintain the rural character of the land, which they see as an important buffer between urban development and the protected lands of Forest Park.

 

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The Cedar Mill News
Published monthly by the Cedar Mill Business Association, Inc.,
P.O. Box 91177
Portland, OR 97291-0177

Publisher/Editor:Virginia Bruce
503-629-5799
12110 NW West Rd
Portland, OR 97229