NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release: Tuesday, July 25, 2000
Contact: Randy Tucker, Mary Kyle McCurdy, or Robert Liberty, (503) 497-1000

"MANDATORY SPRAWL INITIATIVE" WOULD COST TAXPAYERS,DESTROY LIVABILITY OF PORTLAND REGION

A local initiative expected to be filed this week would cost taxpayers millions of dollars, take away Metro’s power to promote efficient development, and lead to "uncontrolled urban sprawl from the Cascade foothills to the Coast Range," according to the land use watchdog organization 1000 Friends of Oregon.

The so-called "Neighborhood Preservation Act of 2000," sponsored by the anti-planning lobbying group Oregonians In Action (OIA), prohibits Metro from implementing the Region 2040 plan, which has been developed with the input of thousands of residents of the region over the last decade.

The net result of this initiative would be to cripple Metro’s ability to manage growth by encouraging efficient land use in the Portland region; to end the ability of individual cities to address housing needs together on a regional basis; and to require immediate and unnecessary UGB expansions onto farmland outside the boundary.

"This deceptive measure claims to be about neighborhood livability, but it would actually steal investment away from existing neighborhoods while forcing taxpayers to subsidize sprawling new development," said 1000 Friends executive director Robert Liberty. "OIA’s real agenda is allowing more development everywhere, including on good farmland," said Liberty. "But as far as we know, OIA is not offering to pay the cost of the new roads, sewer lines, and schools that their sprawl initiative would force on taxpayers.

"Unlike most large metropolitan areas, this region has decided to grow in a smart, efficient manner which saves farmland and open space, minimizes traffic congestion, and creates vibrant communities," Liberty said. "This initiative could turn us into ‘Houston on the Willamette.’

"This measure should really be called the ‘Mandatory Sprawl Act of 2000.’ Prohibiting compact development will lead to uncontrolled urban sprawl from the Cascade foothills to the Coast Range and shove our urban growth boundary down the valley toward Woodburn," Liberty continued.

Among other provisions, the initiative:

• prohibits Metro from requiring local governments within its jurisdiction to achieve the housing targets in the Regional Framework Plan;

• repeals any existing Metro ordinances establishing minimum housing density requirements on residential land;

• requires Metro to provide individual mailed notice of any local government actions which would increase housing densities; and

• requires Metro to prepare a costly, detailed report on the effect of any such proposed increase.

"To my knowledge, the sponsors of this measure have never even set foot in Metro," said Mary Kyle McCurdy, 1000 Friends urban development specialist who sits on Metro’s Technical Advisory Committee (MTAC). "It’s incredibly cynical for them to try to blow up a process they haven’t even bothered to participate in." The measure’s chief petitioner is Kate Schiele, fiancé of OIA’s executive director Larry George.