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

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“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.

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