Urban Growth Framework will weaken guidelines
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By WillametteLive Editors
Jan 16, 2008
The amendment to weaken the Marion County Urban Growth Management Framework passed last night with a vote of 6-2 in favor.
According to Tresa Horney of Oregon League of Conservation Voters, the Framework ensures that local residents have choices in housing and transportation while protecting community identity and economic opportunities. It also encourages more efficient urban land use by adopting specific residential density guidelines for cities to meet and helps protect agricultural land.
Sid Friedman, a Willamette Valley Advocate for 1000 Friends of Oregon attended the hearing and called the evening a discouragement.
"Those amendments significantly weaken the guidelines for residential density within Marion County's 20 cities," he said.
According to Friedman, eight people spoke in opposition to the amendments, raising issues of farmland protection, carbon footprint, the health benefits of walking and biking and the increased costs to taxpayers to serve more sprawling development. He also said the County received 8 or 10 letters in opposition.
"No one testified in support of the amendments nor were there any written comments submitted in support of the amendments," Friedman said. Horney says that the Framework also protects farmland from urban sprawl, which, she says, is extremely important.
"The guidelines for compact development reduce our carbon output by making new development more walkable and bikable and making driving trips shorter. The guidelines should be strengthened, not weakened."
The speakers who attended the hearing represented 1000 Friends of Oregon, Salem Audubon, and several individuals, including at least one commercial farmer.
"It was great to see both environmentalists and the agricultural community on the same side," Friedman said.
