Basic HTML Version
ATE 2
By Mimi Doukas,
Venture Properties, Inc.
Inside
Line
Your
Industry
LEGISLATION • GOVERNMENT RELATIONS • POLITICS •
FEBRUARY, 2013
• PAGE 9
HBA
News
HOME BUILDING
HBA
PDX
.
ORG
PROTECTING
Oregon Update
Wonder what that legislature of yours is
up to that might be affecting you? Find
out all the ways you can stay up to the
minute with the OHBA’s information
stream.
—See page 10
Permit activity by county
Improvement in the economy, increase in
home values, and low interest rates point to
continued growth in 2013.
—See page 10
By: Justin Wood
HBA Staff
Over 100 members and elected
officials attended the recent HBA
All Member Lunch on Thursday
January the 10 to hear Metro
Council President Tom Hughes
look back on his first two years in
office and what his priorities are
for the next two years of his term.
With three new incoming Coun-
cilors, the Metro Council will take
on a dramatically different look in
2013-2014. Councilors Craig Dirk-
sen, Sam Chase and
Bob Stacey will be
replacing Rex Bur-
kholder, Carl Hos-
ticka and Barbara
Roberts.
Council President
Hughes begun the
lunch by describing
Metro as “the most
impor tant gov-
ernment agency
that no one knows
about.” Metro was
created in 1977 and
is the only elected
regional govern-
ment in the United
States. Many HBA
members know that Metro is in
charge of regional land use and
transportation planning, but
Metro is also in charge of solid
waste collection, the Oregon Zoo,
the Convention Center and over
16,000 acres of open space in the
tri-county region.
Historically Metro has not been
tasked with economic develop-
ment, but Hughes has worked
hard on making the metro region
competitive for economic devel-
opment opportunities. These op-
portunities work to provide job
growth and economic strength
to the region, thereby increasing
the livability in the region (which
is a goal of Metro).
Recently in working with the
Port of Portland, a study was
commissioned to evaluate our
region’s shovel-ready large lot in-
dustrial land. The study showed
that there were only nine sites be-
tween 50-100 acres and of those
nine lots only four were read-
ily marketable. Additionally, the
study identified approximately 42
– 50 sites that, with some invest-
ment and consolidation, could
be added to the pool of ready
industrial land. The plan of Metro
and the Port of Portland is to now
look at ways to find investment
dollars (both private and pub-
lic) to work to make these lands
ready to develop.
Council President Hughes also
discussed the topic of recent and
future urban growth boundary
(UGB) expansions. In 2012 Metro
approved a UGB expansion of
over 1,900 acres of industrial and
residential land in Washington
County. While many argued that
this expansion was not enough,
ultimately the unanimous Metro
Council decision was deemed
a compromise which will be re-
evaluated in 2014 – 2015. He also
went on to discuss how UGB ex-
pansions are made and why they
are now done better today than
they used to be. In past years UGB
expansion lands were chosen
primarily by land type with little
regard for any other factors. Now
with identification of Urban and
Rural Reserves, a road map has
been laid for where we will grow
in the future. To determine the
need for land expansions, Metro
uses modeling computers called
“MetroScope.” These computers
look at many angles such as mar-
ket factors, refill rates, density
and population projections. With
this information Metro is then
able to determine which Urban
Reserve lands are most ready for
expansion to meet the popula-
tion projection needs.
In closing, Hughes placed
high importance on the value
of a strong housing market in
the Portland region. He linked a
strong housing market to strong
economic development and job
creation. When travelling around
the world trying to bring busi-
ness to our region, questions he
is often asked include, how do
our housing prices compare to
other regions, what is our avail-
ability of workforce housing, and
what is our availability of execu-
tive housing. Understanding the
importance of available land to
these issues is one of his goals to
finding a fair balance between
land protection and economic
growth.
Moving Forward
In the upcoming year the HBA
will be working with Metro to
look at what factors will be going
into their calculations for the next
urban growth report. This report
will begin the foundation for how
much UGB expansion land will be
added in 2015. Key questions that
the HBA works with our members
to help inform Metro’s decision
are:
• Accurate consumer housing
preferences
– Some studies at
Metro have shown that there
will be a large shift to multifam-
ily housing in the next 25 years.
This assumption would drive
Metro to set aside less land for
single family houses. The HBA
will strive to ensure a balanced
land supply which allows for all
housing types.
• Realistic density rates –
When
Metro uses density rates of 15
or 20 units to the acre for new
UGB expansions, it unrealisti-
cally assumes large multifamily
developments will be built on
the urban fringes where there
are not services to support this
level of development. The HBA
will work with Metro to average
density across the region and al-
low cities to increase density in
their city centers while provid-
ing less density on their edges.
• Realistic redevelopment rates
–
Some cities account for their
projected growth by assuming
very high levels of infill and re-
development. While we agree
that redevelopment is good and
needed, assuming that existing
neighborhoods will redevelop
at twice their current levels is
unrealistic in any near future.
• Counting actual buildable
land –
Currently there are many
pieces of land inside the UGB
which are counted as “buildable
land” when in reality they can-
not develop due to many differ-
ent factors. We are working with
Metro to accurately count lands
which can only realistically be
developed in a reasonable time
frame.
All of this work with Metro is
ongoing and there are needs to
members who have interest or
special skills in these areas. If you
would like to help on any of these
issues, please contact Justin at
the HBA or feel free to attend an
upcoming Government Relations
Committee meeting on the sec-
ond Thursday of every month at
10:00am.
Tom Hughes outlines Metro’s 2012 priorities
at January’s member networking lunch
Happy New Year and welcome
to 2013. I hope you are ready…
There was no Mayan apoca-
lypse, and thanks to the zom-
bies in congress we were able
to enter the New Year without
(almost) going over the fiscal
cliff. It is time for a fresh start. If
you attended any of the annual
economic forecasts in December,
you should understand that the
American public is relying on our
industry to single-handily lift the
US economy up in 2013, yet again.
Residential construction and de-
velopment has led the way out of
every modern recession and it is
time for us to do it again.
As your Government Relations
Chair for 2013, I am here to re-
port that our organization will be
working hard to make sure that
the public agencies are staffed
and prepared for construction
and development to increase.
We will continue to fight for low
impact fees and review fees. And
we will always push the regional
powers to respect the market-
place and provide for adequate
land for new growth of single
family homes and high wage em-
ployers as well as a fully function-
al transportation system.
HBAworks hard on these fronts,
and has pushed this effort consis-
tently over the years, but we need
industry voices to be heard at
public hearings. HBAstaff attend
more hearings and meetings
than most of us would ever care
to imagine and they advocate
hard, but when a framer, or an
electrician, or a general contrac-
tor stand up in a public hearing
to tell public officials that their
public policy decision directly
affects the residential construc-
tion industry and their personal
business, it simply means more.
Those officials need to know that
they are affecting the businesses
of their neighbors and voters.
Decisions are not just about im-
pacts to the back yards to homes
or someone’s commute, but they
also affect livelihoods.
So I ask you to add one more
item to your list of New Year’s
resolutions: attend a hearing and
testify for our industry. Just one
meeting can make a huge dif-
ference. I know it is hard to make
time away from family or work,
but if we all made testified on
one critical issue, I assure you, the
policy makers would take notice.
Let’s be heard in 2013.
A)
Metro Council President, Tom Hughes
address an active and engaged audience.
B)
A large crowd of industry and government
leaders attend the first member networking
lunch of 2013.
C)
HBA President, Steve Heiteen and
Associate Director, Victoria Garcia congratu-
late and recognize Spike winners.
A
B
C
CHECK WWW.HBAPDX.ORG/GOVERNMENT-RELATIONS FOR ALL THE LATEST AROUND THE REGION ISSUES AND INFORMATION.