Urban/rural reserves: No designation for Beavercreek, Stafford
The county declines to name Beavercreek a rural or urban reserve
The two most controversial areas in Clackamas’ urban/rural reserves discussion were, for the most part, left alone, leaving all but small portions of Stafford and Beavercreek undesignated as either urban or rural.
The urban/rural reserves process is a regional endeavor to decide what areas will be developed and what will be protected as farmland over the next 50 years. Clackamas County spent nearly a year and a half discussing new designations for areas around all of the county’s urban areas, with details still being hashed out last Thursday when the county commissioners approved the recommendations. The “core four” — with a representative each from Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties plus one from Metro, the regional body that plans for growth, will receive each county’s recommendation and try to come up with a regional plan beginning this week.
Beavercreek and Stafford
Both Beavercreek and Stafford were facing potentially large swaths of land being designated urban reserves, which would potentially give neighboring cities the go-ahead to annex and develop them. Oregon City asked for a portion extending down to Leland Road along Beavercreek Road to be considered for an urban reserve.
Beavercreek residents pushed heavily to become a rural reserve. They said that matched the character of their community, and said steep terrain makes urban development unfeasible.
The Stafford Triangle is an area bound by Lake Oswego, West Linn and Tualatin, a largely untouched pocket of land. To planners, it seemed a sensible absorption considering that it’s surrounded by suburban areas and has infrastructure connections with the highway. But residents and property owners again pushed back.
So the county commission decided to compromise — leaving large portions of both areas undesignated and letting their respective hamlets guide their own development over the coming 50 years and see where they go.
“Because we have a hamlet, they’re further along the road to charting their own course for the future and it gives them more ability to do that if we leave it undesignated,” County Commissioner Charlotte Lehan said of Beavercreek and Stafford, who will represent the county on the core four board.
She said it also allows people there to continue activities such as agriculture and winery events or corn mazes that might be restricted or precluded as a rural reserve.
The only part of Beavercreek that will be made urban is a strip along Henrici Road, from just west of Molalla Avenue to east of Beavercreek Road.
“It’s still three miles from Henrici to Beavercreek and … when you drive down Henrici it looks like Oregon City,” said Oregon City Mayor Alice Norris.
Christine Kosinski, a Hamlet of Beavercreek board member, said she’s not happy with being undesignated because 90 percent of the residents she talked to asked to be designated rural.
“The problem with being undesignated is it’s going to be a constant land use battle,” she said. “Yes, at this point the areas are protected by the zoning, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be land use issues.
“The biggest factor in the Beavercreek area is the costs for transportation are prohibitive. There is only one way in and one way out; it is considered Clackamas County’s cul-de-sac. Highway 213 is the only way down; it’s failing and there is no money to fix it.”
Similarly, in Stafford, a portion in the southwest corner has been labeled an urban reserve, allowing for some development while protecting the winery and other agricultural uses going on there. The commissioners debated extending that section farther north, but, because the concessions took such an effort to hash out, they decided to go back and talk to the community before officially extending it.
Other areas
Elsewhere around Oregon City, the county recommended making the Newell Creek Canyon an urban reserve because it’s almost entirely surrounded by the city, though that doesn’t mean the commissioners want or expect the area to be developed.
“You have a very unique landscape feature in the Newell Creek Canyon so it’s not likely to be developed,” said Doug McClain of the county Planning Division. “But the city can protect that … and we don’t want to create an island of county jurisdiction (within Oregon City).”
Norris agreed, and said she’d ask both the city and county to implement some kind of tree cutting ordinance to prevent clear cuts there and to “make sure we have adequate protection along Holly Lane, as it drains into the canyon.”
The county also wants to give the city a “cap” northeast of Park Place and running nearly up to the Clackamas River. The area is mostly a plateau that would be difficult to serve, so the city doesn’t really want to develop it, the county commission said. Although the county kept the recommendation in the plan approved last week, county Chairwoman Lynn Peterson said the county would talk to the city and consider swapping that land for a portion the city has asked for southeast of Newell Creek Canyon.
“I think it looks rural, feels rural, it’s difficult to serve with transportation,” Norris said of the northern area by Forsythe Road. The portion below Holcomb Boulevard southeast of Newell Creek Canyon makes sense and is contiguous.