Urban/rural reserves: No designation for Beavercreek, Stafford

The county declines to name Beavercreek a rural or urban reserve

By Matthew Graham

The Clackamas Review, Sep 15, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009

ADVERTISEMENTS

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.

1 | 2 Next Page >>