METRO POLICY ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING RECORD

June 11, 2003 – 5:00 p.m.

Metro Regional Center, Council Chambers

Committee Members Present: Charles Becker, Nathalie Darcy, Rob Drake, Dave Fuller, Eugene Grant, Ed Gronke, Judie Hammerstad, Alan Hipolito, Laura Hudson, Tom Hughes, Vera Katz, Richard Kidd, Mark Knudsen, Doug Neeley, Cheryl Perrin, Craig Pridemore, Martha Schrader

Alternates Present: Bernie Guisto, Jack Hoffman

Also Present: Hal Bergsma, City of Beaverton; Beverly Bookin, CCA/CREEC; Al Burns, City of Portland; Brian Campbell, Port of Portland; Bob Clay, City of Portland; Brent Curtis, Washington County; Mike Dennis, TriMet; Bob Durgan, Andersen Construction; Kay Durtschi, MCCI; Elissa Gertler, PDC; Marty Harris, PDC; Jim Jacks, City of Tualatin; Hannah Kuhn, City of Portland; Irene Marvich, League of Women Voters; Doug McClain, Clackamas County; Rebecca Ocken, City of Gresham; Pat Ribellia, City of Hillsboro; Amy Scheckla-Cox, City of Cornelius; Rick Williams, CREEC

Metro Elected Officials Present: Liaisons – David Bragdon, Council President; Brian Newman, Council District 2; Rod Park, Council District 1.

Metro Staff Present: Kim Bardes, Dick Benner, Dan Cooper, Andy Cotugno, Ross Roberts, Mark Turpel, Gerry Uba, Mary Weber

1.  INTRODUCTIONS

Mayor Tom Hughes, MPAC Chair, called the meeting to order at 5:04 p.m. Those present introduced themselves.

2.  ANNOUNCEMENTS

Richard Kidd commented on the subregional subcommittee. The subcommittee had met four times in April and May. The next meeting was scheduled for June 25^th at 4 p.m. in Room 270 at Metro.

Dan Cooper informed the committee that he would make staff available for the subregional subcommittee.

3.  CITIZEN COMMUNICATIONS

There were none.

4.  CONSENT AGENDA

Meeting Summary for May 28, 2003.

5.  COUNCIL UPDATE

Council President Bragdon gave a short presentation of pictures of Mayor Hughes demolishing a building.

Rob Drake spoke about the Regional Emergency Management Group (REMG) which had been operating since 1993 by a number of agencies. He said they were in the process of applying for a grant from the office of Homeland Security. He asked members who were representatives for REMG to provide their signatures on the grant letter, supporting the application for the grant.

Council President Bragdon said that Land Conservation & Development Commission (LCDC) acknowledged Metro’s Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) decision, which he felt was a very important decision for the region.

6.  ORDINANCE 03-1007 REGIONAL TRANSPORTATION PLAN AMENDMENT FOR SOUTH CORRIDOR

Andy Cotugno gave a brief overview of the amendment and introduced Ross Roberts, Corridor Planning Manager.

Ross Roberts reviewed the materials included in the packet, the map, and program in general. Packet materials are attached and form part of this record.

Charles Becker asked how far the terminus was from the central city of Milwaukie.

Ross Roberts replied that terminus was at the junction of Lake Road and McLoughlin.

Charles Becker asked if the recommendation came from the City of Milwaukie.

Ross Roberts said yes. The City of Milwaukie passed a resolution in favor of this option. He said that Metro had received very strong support from Milwaukie.

Charles Becker said that when they had discussed light-rail in Gresham there had been opposition towards it going into the downtown central area. He said that they now wish it did go into that area and urged this kind of alignment.

Councilor Brian Newman said that two stations served central Milwaukie – one near City Hall and the other at the south side of downtown.

Doug Neeley said that what they had before them was text amendments to the original text. He asked if rapid bus transit was in the original text.

Ross Roberts said it was. He said there was currently connecting bus service and that it would continue to be part of the RTP.

Bernie Giusto said that the TriMet Board had taken a number of actions in support of the amendments. One example was that they purchased Southgate as a park and ride. He said that TriMet had made several adjustments in their plans in anticipation of the amendments taking effect.

Alan Hipolito said that the amendment provided for further assessment. He expressed concern about environmental impacts. He said it was his hope that in the final EIS they would not just scrutinize the transit impact, but also the social and economic impact.

Vera Katz said she supported the Ordinance.

7.  REGIONAL EMPLOYMENT LANDS STUDY (RELS)

Andy Cotugno reviewed key points pertaining to the study and introduced Rick Williams.

Rick Williams gave a presentation on the materials provided in the meeting packet, which are attached and form part of this record. He said that the Commercial Real Estate Economic Coalition (CREEC) had found two things that were very important: 1) they were able to come to a consensus that there was an issue about how to define the term “availability.” In the region there was a lot of vacant land, but it was not necessarily available, and 2) pertained to the classification of land into tiers denoting the differing quality of lands. He said they were now working on policies, ideas, and strategies on how to attain an efficient land supply. He referred to Amy Rose’s report on encroachment. He said that the RELS process raised the issue of improper uses of land. A lot of uses in industrially zoned lands that occurred were non-industrial uses. He said they were proposing a three-phase process as was outlined in the materials included in the packet. He said that RELS was going to meet on the June 26^th to refine the study. The entire program could cost $250,000.

Ed Gronke asked what FARs meant.

Rick Williams said it was Floor Area Ratios.

Doug Neeley asked if it was a six-county evaluation.

Rick Williams said yes.

Chair Hughes asked how people could participate.

Rick Williams said that they should give him their business cards if they wanted to participate.

Cheryl Perrin asked if they would include the need for the warehouse and distribution part of jobs in the study?

Rick Williams was not sure. He said that would be addressed in the definitional phase of the study.

Andy Cotugno asked him to speculate about what sort of help the study would provide to focus development for centers.

Rick Williams said it helped in two ways. First it would encourage centers. He said that if there was a problem as to why certain types of jobs were not being attracted to centers that problem needed to be identified. Or, they needed to determine if they were missing a certain type of job demand that could be filled, but for whatever reason, was not being filled.

Bernie Giusto asked if he meant jobs as they applied to types of employers or as they applied to size of employers, and how that would relate to centers.

Rick Williams said he could not presage what the outcome of the study would be. He said that incentives would be different and it would also relate to the structure of the employment market. He said they were creating strategies and policies to attract employment into areas.

Bernie Giusto said that incentives become key, and that fees might be an issue.

Judie Hammerstad said she could see conflict with directing businesses into centers because there was often the desire by businesses to develop on virgin land. She questioned how to reconcile the desire to build on vacant land with the need to redevelop existing centers and business buildings. Expense also played a big role in wisely distributing land use.

Rick Williams said there was redevelopment land that was not turning as fast as they would like. He said that the market would always move towards the least expensive lands. The key question became how to attract businesses to centers, even if they don’t want to go there. He speculated that it would boil down to incentives, perception, message, and how development codes were structured. His major recommendation was to have a regional economic plan that would set priorities and allow people to fall back on a certain system of values that would facilitate decision-making.

Judie Hammerstad said that her impression was that many developers did not care or know about 2040. She said that it was important to bring those folks to the table when creating a regional economic plan so that they would support a larger plan for those areas that they seek to develop.

Rick Williams said that there were 16 organizations that CREEC was bringing to the table.

Bev Bookin said there were a lot of similarities between RILS and RELS regarding phases of work and public and private partnership. She said that much of the industrial land shortfall required expansion of the UGB. She said that this study would focus on redevelopment and that a substantial amount of new office and retail would be within the existing UGB. She said that she thought the study would be a tremendous asset.

Councilor Brian Newman said that Metro had its own centers initiative. He said that there were a lot of the same people Bev Bookin had mentioned on the centers task force. He said that the task force was looking at ways to make centers develop and he suggested that they work together so as not to duplicate efforts.

Andy Cotugno said that along the spectrum of different employment at one end was centers and the other end was industrial lands. He said that there was a lot of gray in-between those two points. Also, that there were a lot of places outside of centers and outside of industrial lands that had various kinds of employment. He said that they were in an implementation mode for centers, and that they were trying to implement industrial land, but that the industrial lands part would take some time to study.

Rick Williams said it might be good to have representation from both groups on both ends with frequent sharing of information and progress.

Rob Drake said he was generally supportive of the process, but he expressed concern about spending too much time and effort on studying things too much. There was also concern about funding issues and the multiple phases of the process. He said that every time one of those studies was done, it involved partner participation. That led to staff being tugged in many directions. He said that reporting requirements were becoming more difficult and that he was worried that something as significant as this could have a severely drawn-out time line. A good balance of public and private was very healthy, but a shorter period of time would be better to focus things towards centers.

Rick Williams said it was a good point but by using the RILS model, the three years is just there. He said they had a lot more data available and many more processes taking place at the same time, and therefore his hope was that the process would be shorter.

8.  REGIONAL ECONOMIC POLICY TASK FORCE

Chair Hughes introduced Marty Harris with Portland Development Commission (PDC) to talk about the Regional Economic Policy Task Force.

Rob Drake presented introductory material regarding the Regional Economic Policy Task Force.

Marty Harris reviewed the materials she handed out at the meeting and which are attached and form a part of the record.

Doug Neeley asked about Clackamas County representation.

Marty Harris said that Clackamas County was the only member in the Clackamas area. Invitations, however, had been sent to every municipality in the region as well as several of the private sector economic development related organizations, and the ports in the region. Washington County had not yet signed the bylaws, but had stated their intentions to do so. Multnomah County and Clackamas County had signed the bylaws.

David Fuller asked if they had representation in the project up to the current point for East Multnomah County.

Marty Harris said that Shelly Perini was an active participant and read off the list of other participants. (See attached brochure with list of partners.)

David Fuller asked if there were business representatives on the list. (See attached brochure with list of partners.)

Marty Harris listed the business members.

Bob Durgan wondered if Ethan Seltzer was leading both groups. One group wanted to change the industrial land base, while the other group wanted to preserve the industrial land base, if Mr. Seltzer was leading both groups that would be a conflict of interest. Mr. Durgan said that his job was to find the best site for companies and that communities would compete for those companies. He said that he wasn’t sure what they were doing with the partnership since it was often up to the businesses where they located.

Marty Harris responded that Ethan Seltzer was not running the PDC program, but rather he facilitated the task force, and as a result of the task force the partners had drafted the policy. She said that she did not feel there was a contradiction between the policy and what the RELS group was looking at. She said that in both cases they were looking at preserving industrial land in a way that was responsive to what industry needed today. She said there might be some requirements of current industry that was not anticipated by current zoning, and therefore they needed to look at modifying zones in order to not drive business away from industrial areas.

Chair Hughes asked them to continue their discussion after the meeting.

Marty Harris agreed that communities do compete. She explained that when a company wanted to relocate or set up in the region, PDC would show them all the appropriate parcels throughout the region. She said that the regional partners did not poach and therefore she did not see a contradiction there.

Mark Knudson asked how the first set of cities was chosen.

Marty Harris said that it was mostly expediency. She said that the metals and transportation equipment industries were chosen simply because those industries were experiencing economic stress. Also, they did not want to give those industries the impression they were being left behind in the high tech rush. She said that there were key people in the region, as well as a congressman, active in bringing dollars to luring micro and nanotechnology. Other industries looking at the region include cyber security, and silicon wafer technology.

Mark Knudson said that if the model was successful then it would be used to study other industry clusters.

Marty Harris agreed.

Mark Knudson said that health care and education was an economic power in communities and should be studied as well. He said that they should look at other industries besides high-tech to provide economic power.

Alan Hipolito asked if they were going to do an analysis of demand drivers.

Marty Harris said that there was a substantial study done on sustainable industries that he could access on PDC’s website. She said that what generates a demand for a product or service could be driven by government regulation. In the area of healthcare there was new software applications and companies being created to deal with the ramifications of the HIPAA Legislation. She felt that a lot of sustainable industry was the result of environmental movements.

Alan Hipolito said he felt it was an important analysis.

Vera Katz said she agreed with him. She said that the City of Portland had adopted a higher standard for use of paper and that would cushion the market. She said that by our own regulations we were able to establish higher environmental standards.

Doug Neeley asked if tourism was part of the study, he did not see it.

Marty Harris said that the State Tourism Board would deal with that and that tourism fell outside of what PDC dealt with because it covered more than just the region.

Andy Cotugno said that the group was actively engaged in Metro’s effort to find two thousand acres of industrial land. The work reviewed in the study revealed the need for that much industrial land. That figure was determined by extrapolating from the current economic situation what the region would need for future growth. An economic development strategy would help inform that need for industrial land. He questioned if there was an industry sector that should be counted in the economic structure to help provide a stronger economy for the future.

Marty Harris said it would come out of each individual work plan. The hope was to be able to provide general guidance.

9.  TITLE 4

Dick Benner reviewed the materials handed out pertaining to Title 4. Those materials are attached and form part of this record. He announced that on Friday morning at 10 a.m. there was a Title 4 workshop.

Andy Cotugno said that Friday was the workshop that would start the mapping process.

Doug Neeley said that one of things pushed for at MTAC was educational training facilities going into industrial lands if there was an industry wide need. He said he did not see a provision for it in the current version.

Dick Benner said it was discussed at MTAC as Title 4 was being developed. He said that in 420 C there was general direction about the kinds of non-industrial uses that could be in a regionally significant industrial zone. He said it was written with the intention of allowing/including industrial training, educational programs, and schools with an industrial connection.

Judie Hammerstad said that the Lake Oswego City Council, after two years of work, passed an ordinance on compatible infill. She felt it would serve as a good model. She felt that the committee should focus on things that make their work successful around the region.

Chair Hughes invited her to bring the work and ordinance to MPAC for a presentation.

There being no further business, Chair Hughes adjourned the meeting at 7:00 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Kim Bardes

MPAC Coordinator

ATTACHMENTS TO THE RECORD FOR June 11, 2003

The following have been included as part of the official public record: