Oregon Public Broadcasting

Thursday night in Hillsboro, the public reacted to Washington County planners’ recommendation to  protect more than 100,000 acres of rural land.

But the more controversial aspect may be the recommendation to potentially urbanize more than 30,000 acres of farmland. State law would have prohibited that kind of proposal, until recently. Rob Manning has more.

Alan Schaaf comes from a long line of farmers, dating back 120 years.

Alan Schaaf farms grass seed and a little wheat and clover. Like many of his neighbors in the Helvetia area north of Hillsboro, Schaaf comes from a long line of farmers, dating back 120 years.

Alan Schaaf: “The original farm is there – great grampa’s place is in the center of this 150-acre parcel. This was all forested when they got here – this wasn’t fields. They cleared little sections, and they had a lot of fruit trees, and then they had cattle, and hay.”

Alan Schaaf used to grow a lot of wheat. He later moved to grass seed, in part, because it kicked up less dust – which was a big concern for the increasing number of non-farming neighbors he had. And nearby development has made farming harder, with traffic and weeds.

In the 1970’s, Oregon created urban growth boundaries around cities to keep development away from good farmland. But two years ago, lawmakers allowed Washington, Multnomah and Clackamas counties to use a looser set of rules to draw up a 50 year growth.

The plan will use “urban reserves” – to designate future development, and “rural reserves” – for protected lands.

The idea with urban reserves is to replace the sole emphasis on farmland with en emphasis on healthy economic growth. But critics say Washington County’s staff recommendation – to put more than 30,000 acres of what’s currently farmland into an urban reserve – is potentially devastating to farmers, like Alan Shaaf.

Alan Shaaf: “Well, that encompasses every acre that I farm which is 14-hundred acres. And it isn’t only my farm that’s going out. In this area alone, here, I can think of 15 other farmers that would be going out of business, too, because of that.”

The leading land-use planner at the state Department of Agriculture backs up Schaaf’s observations.

Jim Johnson mapped productive farm areas for officials to use in designating reserves. He says Washington County’s urban reserves aren’t consistent with the map he drew of what he calls “foundation” farms.

Jim Johnson: “Not at all. In fact, short of a couple of instances adjacent to the existing urban growth boundary, most of the lands that are foundation lands that are under any kind of threat from urbanization at all have been proposed as urban reserves.”

Washington County officials say that the rural reserves started out with Johnson’s map.

The urban side started with information from the development group, the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties.

But Mike Dahlstrom, with Washington County, says farmland protection and urban growth were on a collision course.

Mike Dahlstrom: “You just hit on the very key question – that the same lands were going to be desirable for urban and rural reserves.”

But Dahlstrom says the new criteria pointed the county in a particular direction.

Mike Dahlstrom: “If there’s an overlap of suitability for an urban reserve, or a rural reserve, the demand number pushed it towards the urban reserve side.”

The demand number as Dahlstrom calls it, is the estimate of how much land for urban development the cities of Washington County will need in the next 50 years. Farm advocates say Washington County’s number is inflated.

Dahlstrom points out that some advocates of urban development aren’t happy either.

Urban growth in Oregon is always controversial – and with 140,000 acres at stake, Washington County’s reserves are no different.

The recommendations will come before county commissioners and the Metro Councilors before the end of the year. Some of them are already making their views known, like Rod Park.

He is a Metro Councilor, and he owns a nursery.

Rod Park: “I think it’s way too much. I think they’re encroaching right into the heart of the farming areas. I would question, if we were to do that particular much, how much farming would remain in Washington County.”

Park and farmer Alan Schaaf say that farming requires a certain “critical mass” to support ancillary businesses, like processing plants and tractor shops.

Washington County officials say they’re sensitive to the potential problems, but say they haven’t seen strong enough data to change the lines on the map.