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- Financing for the project doesn’t exist, and likely will never exist. Urbanizing the area would put undue hardship on the cities’ tax base.
- It would negatively impact the neighborhoods already in place, causing more traffic, and ruining the “semi-rural area with a pastoral setting” that the residents enjoy.
- The Stafford area’s natural drainage system would make development difficult, but works well as a buffer zone between cities.
- Simply, the letter states, the area “does not meet the factors necessary for designation of an urban reserve.”
Proponents of an urbanized Stafford say the location is prime for urbanization because it sits between developed areas, hugs Interstate 205 and lacks much fertile farmland. Leaders of the Stafford Hamlet also support some urban development.
Whether the letter will change the tide of Metro’s decision making regarding urban reserves is hard to tell.
“I have no idea,” Ogden said of its possible impact. “Every one of the Metro councilors I’ve talked to understands our position.”
Ogden said that Tualatin hopes to develop its own vibrant downtown, and doesn’t want to compete or see resources go to other urban development in Stafford.
“What would you make it? An East Tualatin? A West West Linn? A South Lake Oswego?” he said. “Urbanization ought to occur in cities, by cities, not counties.”
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How about Metro pay the costs, and sack it to their supporters who are mostly in the City of Portland?
I maintain that Washington County, and possibly Clackamas County, need to de-annex themselves from Metro. There's no reason that Portland should be making daily decisions outside of the City through its vehicle Metro despite the overwhelming objection of the region. Only 25% of the region's population lives within the City of Portland; yet somehow Portland gets majority representation in Metro, TriMet, and virtually every major decision made in the region.
That's just wrong.
(email verified)
Tue, Dec 01, 2009 at 05:05 PM
Agreed. Metro has done no favors for most of Washington County. Clackamas County too, for that matter.
Metro was created by the State of Oregon, but I don't think that there was ever a vote or election by the residence. As such, I should think that a referendum by the citizens of Washington County could get us free. For that matter, there is a significant chunk of Washington County that does not belong to Metro. (lucky them)
This definitely needs to be explored further.
So what is the first step?
(email verified)
Wed, Dec 02, 2009 at 10:17 AM
I think a petition needs to be signed by a certain percentage of voters within Metro's area within Washington County to put it on a ballot.
Several cities have voted out of TriMet (Sandy, Molalla, Wilsonville, plus unincorporated Damascus). So it just takes someone to start a petition drive to vote out Metro in the rest of Washington County. And frankly we could also vote out TriMet and start a Washington County transit system as well so that Washington County residents are not forced to subsidize transit within the City of Portland (i.e. the Portland Streetcar), and symbolically vote out the Port of Portland...although I'm not sure what we'd do with the Hillsboro Airport (unless someone has an idea to have it compete with PDX).
(email verified)
Thu, Dec 03, 2009 at 05:33 PM
If this "stern letter" is not just showboating,how about a "stern letter" to Trimet concerning the WES continuing financial blackhole? With ridership down (not up as Trimet projected) the trains in Tualatin are nearly empty on many runs. Before throwing tons of money at quiet zone consultants and construction, couldn't we look at whether WES makes any sense to operate?
(email verified)
Mon, Dec 07, 2009 at 08:36 AM
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Re: Tualatin sends stern letter to Metro
The solution seems pretty simple to me.
Tualatin, and the other cities involved simply refuse to annex or have anything else to do with projects in the Stafford Areal. This would force either Clackamas County, or the area itself to pay for all the costs of urbanization. That will either stop the project in its tracks, or show that the area really is desirable for large scale urbanization and hnece incorporation.
Is that so hard to figure out?
"Jim Ourada"
(email verified)
Sun, Nov 29, 2009 at 12:06 AM