The future is still unfolding for the Stafford Basin

Urbanization appears to be in the works for Stafford: The questions remain how much and where

By Kara Hansen

The Lake Oswego Review, Nov 12, 2009, Updated Nov 20, 2009

VERN UYETAKE / lake oswego review

How will the Stafford Basin be treated in Metro’s latest round of urbanization for the urban growth boundary remains one of the key questions on the minds of many local government officials. Of local concern are Luscher Farm and Hazelia Field, above.

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Standing just outside of city limits, Lake Oswego Mayor Jack Hoffman was blunt with fellow council members about the surrounding area’s future.

“The writing is on the wall that Stafford is going to come in as urban,” Hoffman said during a tour of city-owned properties on the fringe of Stafford’s rolling hills and pastoral fields.

Nearby, West Linn Mayor Patti Galle offered a similar perspective.

“I don’t think the message has been anything else,” she said. “Cities will soon have to decide how they want to deal with that.”

Over the past year, cities and then counties along with Metro, the regional government, have been hashing out maps that illustrate where the urban growth boundary could expand over the next 40 or 50 years.

Now, the more than decade-old debate over Stafford’s use is back, West Linn planning consultant Tom Coffee recently said.

“The evidence of how this is moving along indicates at least some people are thinking what should happen to Stafford,” Coffee said, “and that’s clearly that it should be urbanized,” maybe all 3,900 acres of it.

West Linn hired Coffee to represent the city at months of county and regional meetings. With each step in the process, he said, chunk after chunk of Stafford has been added to Clackamas County’s list of possibilities for urban development.

Wankers Corner, at the intersection of Borland and Stafford roads, was an early candidate, and county commissioners expanded it to include land south of I-205 and east along Borland Road to West Linn. As of mid-October, Metro leaders put another 1,500 acres in upper Stafford on the table for discussion, along with 167 acres off Rosemont Road, just west of West Linn.

Developers argue Stafford is prime for urbanization because it sits between developed areas, hugs Interstate 205 and lacks much fertile farmland.

Metro Councilor Carlotta Collette recently encouraged West Linn city councilors to think about the potential tradeoffs from a regional perspective. Although Washington County has offered acreage for urbanization, development there would eat up some of the region’s flattest, most valuable agricultural land.

“We need to consider our ability to produce food locally,” Collette said. “How important is that going to be over the next 50 years? That’s a pretty critical need, I think.”

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