Rare Unicorn Siting!

The process for planning the Stafford Hamlet moves on.

Thursday night dedicated neighborhood leaders gathered together  to conscientiously translate the information gleaned from surveys and neighborhood meetings into symbols and colors onto about 200 square feet of blank and partially colored maps. These maps will then be compiled into one comprehensive map of what the citizens here envision for their future.

This unicorn named One Acre Lots was recently seen trotting through the Hamlet

Person after person wants their property divided into one acre lots. They don't want to ruin the wonderful rural open feeling we now have. We seem to believe we can be different and special when it comes to zoning and basic economics.

There's a huge gap in reality here. How 'different' do you really thing we are in Metro's eyes?

This prevailing discussion that we can come into the UGB encouranging denser development in the 500 or so acres in Borland and then freely have Gentleman Farmer low density lots everywhere else is a fairy tale.

Remember when Tualatin wanted to zone 100 acres as one acre lots and Metro sued them and the surrounding cities vilified them? That's a city filled with townhouses and apartment complexes (the latest one coming in at 38 units/acre), and 4-6 units per acre housing.

It's not going to happen that we get any guarantee that the remaining 75% of our area can potentially be zoned as one acre lots.  Remember too that we have to be added to a city to come into the UGB -  what city would take on the burden of urban services for lands they aren't allowed to use to meet their own density requirements?

We really need to to find out about the feasibility of this plan before we draw one more thing on our maps. In an open forum too. I for one am not comfortable with the current model of just a couple of people on and off the board having private meetings with county or Metro officials to discuss our plans.

Clackamas County Business Alliance had a few representatives at our citizen planning meeting. They have zero interest in 1 acre lots except for use as exclusive housing for the business owners wanting to live close to the ventures they envision on newly added employment lands.

For that business growth to happen they know that the first hurdle is to get us into the UGB and after that....well... are there really any unicorns?