MINUTES OF THE METRO COUNCIL GROWTH MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE

Tuesday, April 27, 1999

Council Chamber

Members Present:  Susan McLain (Chair), David Bragdon (Vice Chair), Rod Park

Members Absent:    None

Also Present:    Bill Atherton

Chair McLain called the meeting to order at 3:46 P.M.

1.  CONSIDERATION OF THE MINUTES OF THE APRIL 20, 1999, GROWTH MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE MEETING

2.  RESOLUTION NO. 99-2782, TO GRANT A 4-MONTH EXTENSION OF THE CONDITIONS OF TSUGAWA URBAN GROWTH BOUNDARY RESOLUTION

Mark Turpel, Manager, Growth Management Services, presented Resolution No. 99-2782. A staff report to the resolution includes information presented by Mr. Turpel and is included in the meeting record.

Chair McLain said she supports Resolution No. 99-2782. She said the property is a logical addition to the UGB, and that the applicant could not be faulted for the elimination of the Metro Area Boundary Commission.

Dan Chandler, attorney with Ramis, Crew, Corrigan and Bachrach, said he had nothing to add to Mr. Turpel’s presentation.

Councilor Park asked why the property was not originally included in the urban growth boundary (UGB).

Mr. Turpel said he believed that when the UGB was drawn, the owner wanted the land to remain rural because it contained a young filbert orchard. He noted that the property is surrounded by exception lands.

Councilor Park said he would support the resolution, as the Eastern filbert plight has ruined filbert orchards in Washington County.

Councilor McLain will carry Resolution No. 99-2782 to the full Metro Council.

3.  URBAN GROWTH REPORT - CONTINUATION OF PRESENTATIONS

• NON-RESIDENTIAL REFILL
• ENVIRONMENTALLY CONSTRAINED LANDS

Chair McLain said her goal was for the committee to give any instruction to staff and forward the factors to the Metro Technical Advisory Committee (MTAC).

Non-Residential Refill

Sonny Conder, Senior Regional Planner, Data Resource Center, distributed aerial photographs of Nike and Intel campuses to use as examples for how the buildable lands are calculated. Copies of the photographs are included in the meeting record. He introduced Carol Hall, Senior GIS Planner, Data Resource Center, and said Ms. Hall would be available to answer any technical questions. He noted that both photographs from 1998 include an overlay of open space and parks.

Chair McLain asked staff to bring aerial photographs demonstrating redevelopment and infill to a future committee meeting.

Councilor Park noted that part of Nike’s landscaping was calculated as developed on the aerial photograph. He asked if Nike has the option to develop the land, or if the landscaping was required by the municipality.

Mr. Conder said Nike could choose to redevelop the landscaped area, although it may prefer to develop less expensive land instead.

Chair McLain said the main question is whether Metro will have an accurate estimate of capacity if is considers landscaped areas as developed. She asked how staff compared developed land with refill opportunities.

Mr. Conder said if a company added capacity to a landscaped area, the refill rate would increase.

Mr. Turpel said the Nike campus may be an unusual example, because the company may consider its landscaping and soccer field as part of its marketing. He said Nike could choose to redevelop its landscaped area at a later date; it would be calculated as non-residential refill. He said it is difficult to predict future refill rates by looking at past rates, and the Council would have to make the policy decision of what refill rate to predict for the next 20 years.

Councilor Bragdon said it is important to balance the snapshot of past conditions with expected economic trends and policies.

Chair McLain summarized that when considering refill rates, Metro should be cognizant of how “buildable” and “refill” are defined and calculated.

Mr. Conder said his technical memo on non-residential refill, dated April 12, 1999, included a narrative description of policies that could affect the refill rate. A copy of the memo is included in the April 20, 1999, Growth Management Committee meeting record. He said he expects the refill rate to increase over the next 20 years.

Mr. Turpel said at MTAC’s next meeting, the advisory committee can consider ways to address Chair McLain’s desire to connect policy direction with numbers.

Councilor Bragdon said it is important for Metro’s forecasts and analyses to be as creative as flexible and the real estate and corporate markets. For example, no one would have predicted the renovation of an old hospital into a shoe company in Northwest Portland, or that the Tokyo stock market would crash and suddenly Japanese business would sell their stockpile of land in Washington County.

Environmentally Constrained Lands

Mr. Turpel concluded the staff presentation on environmentally constrained lands. A memo from Mr. Turpel to Chair McLain regarding ongoing work on environmental lands includes information presented by Mr. Turpel and is included in the meeting record. He noted an error in the memo: preliminary estimates are that those lands between Title 3 and 200 feet may amount to approximately 3,000 net acres of land, not gross acres. He asked if the memo met the committee’s interests and concerns.

Councilor Park asked why the study assumes no development on slopes steeper than 25 percent, when development on even steeper slopes is common near the old Montgomery Wards building in Northwest Portland.

Chair McLain asked Mike Houck, Audubon Society of Portland, to address Councilor Park’s question, as Mr. Houck helped draft Title 3. She said the decision to classify steep slopes as unbuildable was due to concerns such as erosion, water quality, flood mitigation, and conservation.

Mike Houck, Audubon Society of Portland, confirmed that the steep slopes were classified as unbuildable for reasons beyond a technical or economic ability to develop them. Mr. Houck submitted further comments after the committee meeting, which are included in the meeting record.

In response to questions from Councilor Bragdon, Mr. Turpel said he was unsure of the time frame for measuring development on steep slopes, but he did not think staff was dependent on aerial photos. He said building permit information is available on a quarterly basis, and should provide fairly recent data.

Councilor Bragdon said he wants to safeguard against assuming environmentally constrained lands are unbuildable, for purposes of the Urban Growth Report, when in reality, statistics show they were developed at a rate far greater than anticipated.

Councilor Park said in order for Metro to survive a legal challenge, it is essential to keep the setback regulations for Title 3 separate from the setbacks for Goal 5. He said the tone of Mr. Turpel’s latest report and presentation did not convey the tone he intended to communicate during the last committee meeting.

Mr. Turpel suggested that environmentally constrained lands could be a main heading, with separate line items for steep slopes, Title 3 regulations, and Goal 5/Endangered Species Act (ESA).

Councilor Park agreed, and said more precise classification would help him, legal counsel, and people who are not involved in the daily process.

Chair McLain asked Michael Morrissey, Senior Council Analyst, to write a one-page summary of the committee’s conversation and instructions to staff. She asked Mr. Turpel to report MTAC’s comments to the committee.

4.  AFFORDABLE HOUSING TECHNICAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE (H-TAC) UPDATE

Diane Linn, Chair of H-TAC and Multnomah County Commissioner, gave a brief overview of H-TAC’s goals and progress to date. She said H-TAC’s two main goals are to establish fair share goals for the region, and to design strategies to provide more affordable housing in the region.

Gerry Uba, Program Supervisor, Growth Management Services, updated the committee on the current work of
H-TAC. Documents in the agenda packet and a copy of his speaking materials include information presented by Mr. Uba and are included in the meeting record.

Councilor Bragdon asked Mr. Uba if he was using the term “publicly assisted” as synonymous with “affordable.” He said he would construe the term “affordable” as far broader than “subsidized.”

Mr. Uba directed the committee’s attention to Table 5: Example of the Amount of Subsidy Needed to Construct New Units at H-TAC Defined Income Levels, which lists affordable monthly housing payment by income level.

Commissioner Linn agreed with Councilor Bragdon that some housing has been developed with public subsidies, while other housing is affordable simply due to its size or design. She said H-TAC’s data should be able to distinguish between the two, and she will make sure that it does.

Commissioner Linn said H-TAC is working towards a set of recommendations that are both technically sound, and acceptable to the wide range of interests on the committee. She said H-TAC has requested $100,000 from Fannie Mae to support an aggressive outreach effort. Fannie Mae would like H-TAC to include a research project on the prospects of land banking and on regional funding strategies. She said the most time consuming part of H-TAC’s work will be the public outreach.

Councilor Park said the jobs/housing balance figures do not appear to reflect demographics, such as retired persons with low incomes but who own their own homes. He said such people may be able to live in a more expensive community due to their asset base. He asked if demographics has been taken into account.

Commissioner Linn said Councilor Park’s point illustrates the complexity of the affordable housing problem.
H-TAC has talked about factoring in demographics after it has developed a formula.

Chair McLain asked if H-TAC’s public outreach efforts will be coordinated with Metro’s communications team.

Commissioner Linn said Sherry Oeser, Manager, Growth Management Services, is a member of Metro’s communications team and is helping with H-TAC’s efforts. She said H-TAC is also working with members of the Metro Committee for Citizen Involvement (MCCI).

Councilor Atherton said in Mr. Uba’s speaking materials, Table 1, Factors Affecting Housing Costs and Potential Strategies and Tools, ranks local permit fees and system development charges (SDCs), and land cost and availability, as first priorities. He asked if the committee considered a relationship between the two, because in his experience, as SDCs increase, land prices goes down. He said he would share with Commissioner Linn a chart produced by the National Homebuilders Association which mentions the relationship.

Chair McLain said she realizes the Council has given H-TAC a very difficult task, and she said encouraged Commissioner Linn to request any assistance H-TAC may need. She invited the H-TAC subcommittees to update the Growth Management Committee on their work.

5.  COUNCILOR COMMUNICATIONS

There being no further business before the committee, Chair McLain adjourned the meeting at 5:02 P.M.

Respectfully submitted,

Suzanne Myers

Council Assistant

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ATTACHMENTS TO THE PUBLIC RECORD FOR THE MEETING OF APRIL 27, 1999

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