Oregon Public Broadcasting

The horse barns and farms east of Portland have steadily given way to new houses and industries in recent years.

At the same time, Clackamas County is seeing as many as 7000 new residents a year, according to census estimates.

That means public services – like schools – have to battle to keep up. And it means the old haunts and landmarks locals have gotten used to, may get paved over.

As Rob Manning reports, the demands and conflicts of growth have come to a head on an old ranch in Happy Valley.

Jack Westfall bought his ranch in 1978. At the time, the landscape was pretty empty.

Jack Westfall: “There was nothing on it. Not a tree, nothing, no cross-fences, nothing.”

To see pictures of the farm, check out our audio slideshow of Jack Westfall's farm.

Over the years, Westfall built it up, with a workshop and a 5000 square foot house.

He’s now 85, but he still buys and slaughters a handful of beef cattle every year for his extended family. And he still uses an antique stove in his house, at least to keep warm.

Jack Westfall: “Something about stove heat, that’s somehow friendlier than the heat that comes up through the floor. They’re both heat.”

Rob Manning: “Right. Do you ever cook with it?”

Jack Westfall: “No, not now, with microwave, me being a bachelor, never cooked in my life.”

Westfall allowed a few modern conveniences into his house, but he says the modern reality of rapid residential growth remained at a distance. The warmth that he feels from his old wood stove, he feels for his neighbors, too.

Jack Westfall: “We weren’t tramping in and out of one another’s houses or anything, but there was no problems, and if ever anyone needed help, there was help. Otherwise, they left you alone. It was a great neighborhood. Anyone would bend over backwards to help you.”

But that cozy neighborhood is about to change completely. Westfall and his seven neighbors are all in the process of selling to the local school district – under the threat of condemnation.

Ron Naso is the superintendent of the North Clackamas Schools. He says Westfall is like many of the residents he’s dealing with: he’s an unwilling seller.

Ron Naso: “The reality is at this point, we don’t have a lot of property owners on the far east side where we’re in the process of purchasing property, who have ‘for sale’ signs out in their front yards.”

For months, the school district and Westfall and his neighbors fought over how much the properties would sell for. At this point, a few neighbors are still battling.

Jack Westfall has gotten his check. He’s getting just over $5 million including relocation expenses and legal fees. But he’s not happy about it.  That’s because after living on his ranch for 30 years, he’s been given three months – in the middle of winter – to move.

Back on the ranch, it’s starting to rain, and the wind is picking up.

Jack Westfall: “We understand that they have the power, but there’s ways to use power creatively and do what you want to do, because they have the right to do what they did. But you can do it in a creative way, they could’ve been really cooperative.”

The district contends that  enrollment is increasing so fast, that it has to  build  five schools in the next two and a half years. Officials say they couldn’t have paid Westfall much more quickly than they did.  

Westfall doesn’t come across as overly sentimental. But the attachment he feels to his property may have made negotiating a little messier.

The school district says he overvalued his property. And rather than simply moving – Westfall plans to actually have his house cut into parts, loaded onto moving trucks, and reassembled on another piece of rural land, later this winter.

Jack Westfall: “Right, absolutely, not going to leave it here. Because, you know, there’s lots here, my wife died here. We had 24 hour care here, she was ill for four or five years. Had ladies come in. But there’s a lot of memories, with the kids and the grandkids, they all remember it.”

Westfall says he and his neighbors resisted getting the area re-zoned years ago, so they could sell to developers.

Instead Westfall says he would’ve stayed on his property for as long as he could. At 85, he still finds lots of ways to enjoy  it - like firing up an old tractor he designed years ago to haul logs.

Rob Manning: “Looked like you were having fun driving it around.”

Jack Westfall: “Oh it’s always fun. Destructive occasionally, but...."

Westfall says he’s not leaving the tractor he calls the “Westfall Performer” behind, either. But he says it may ultimately wind up in an area museum. If it does, maybe kids from the grade school planned for his old property, will have a chance to see it.

To see pictures of the farm, check out our audio slideshow of Jack Westfall's farm.