Battle For North Plains Future To Be Debated At Saturday Forum But City Officials Refuse To Show

Editors Note:  The future of the City of North Plains is being debated across the State because the decisions to double the size of the town and place heavy industries adjacent to Schools and people is raising serious questions.  On the one hand are local farmers and residents of North Plains who have lobbied for a decision to be made by a city-wide vote on growth.  On the other is the City of North Plains Mayor, City Council, State Leaders like Senator Janeen Sollman, and Governor Kotek and her team, who seem to want to more than double the size of North Plains and silence the voters and citizens at all costs.  This has been done by City and State laws that were hurried through in March to stop the vote and strip the locals of their choice.  North Plains now finds itself as Ground Zero of the question- do local Oregon citizens have any choice in their futures, or is the State now controlling everything? What kind of world would that be?  Certainly not one true to Oregon’s guiding principles.

This Saturday, there is an old-school town hall-style event to debate the merits of both growth and no growth.  All of the information is listed below.  So far, City officials have rejected the invitation to attend, as have the Portland Metropolitan Association of Realtors and other supporters of the Yes on Growth side, which I find appalling and telling.  They know this sort of forced growth is dangerous and not supported. Whatever they have going on, they should come and make their case.  That is the Oregon way- not hiding in offices and hoping the Governor and Courts force the agenda through. Rumors are swirling that land deals have been made and that a big Industrial user is in the queue that may end up in North Plains and North Hillsboro – these forced decisions are needed to lay the groundwork for a fast-track approval.  Time will tell, but that is not out of the realm of possibility and lines up with land options and other details we have.  It may answer the question as to why these elected officials are putting themselves in this position of evil overlord and risking their positions.  None of it makes sense otherwise.  But who really knows/

Please attend – no matter what side you are on.  Go to the Eagles Nest Reserve and listen, ask questions, and hear the various arguments.  Listed below is the press release sent to the Herald and all the information you need to get involved and hear some great neutral panelists.

Release Date
Wednesday, April 17th, 2024
For immediate release

North Plains, OR. Friends of North Plains Smart Growth will be attending a neutral community forum to discuss and debate the coming Urban Growth Boundary Ballot measure in North Plains. This forum will include Aaron Nichols from FNPSG, Dean Moberg, an NRCS commissioner and the co-author of “The Soils of Western Oregon,” and Ron Bunch, the only city planner to date to do an order-of-magnitude analysis of the UGB expansion plan to give a rough idea of the costs and impacts of the expansion. The Yes campaign, the Mayor, and representatives of the city have all been invited, and a chair will be reserved for them, though, to date, none have agreed to participate. The panel will be moderated by long-time resident Linda Galas-Merton. Those in attendance will be welcome and encouraged to ask questions of the panel.

Background: In September, the North Plains City Council voted to expand their city by 855 acres – the largest Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) expansion by percentage basis ever in Oregon. Shortly after, Friends of North Plains Smart Growth collected signatures to have the city’s UGB expansion plan put to voters this May as measure 34-327. This was the first time in the 50-year history of Oregon’s land use program that a referendum was called on a UGB expansion decision.

The referendum was thrown into chaos when the State legislature, heavily lobbied by the city, passed a last minute bill to retroactively disallow all referendums on UGB issues – a law clearly targeting only the North Plains referendum. The governor signed the bill into law on Wednesday,
March 20, giving the group mere hours to file a temporary restraining order to prevent the county from removing the referendum from the May ballot. The judge in the case, Judge Erwin, granted the restraining order on March 21st ensuring the referendum would stay on the ballot
saying: “Elections laws should be liberally construed to the end that people should have the opportunity to express opinions concerning vital matters to their welfare. Expression, not suppression, tends toward good government. The great constitutional privilege of the citizen to exercise his sovereign right to vote should not be taken away by narrow construction.”

Since the 21st, both the No and Yes campaign have been canvassing the city arguing that a vote for their side will protect farmland, keep the small town feel of North Plains, and better serve the city long term. Aaron Nichols, an organizer from Friends of North Plains Smart Growth, states in an open letter to the Yes campaign, that while both sides express the same values, he is concerned how the Yes campaign is “going about making [their] arguments to the citizens. All the information for every argument in favor in the voter’s pamphlet is provided by one person – not a city councilor, not a resident – but Amy Ruiz, a paid public relations expert who lives in Portland. These arguments are primarily paid for and promoted by … the Portland Metro Association of Realtors who donated $10,000 to [the yes] campaign. It’s important not to let the money of well-heeled and narrow interests speak for us in this campaign. It is important to talk about the facts, not poll tested talking points.” He went on to challenge the Yes campaign to a debate either at this forum or a forum of their choosing – as of this press release, neither the yes campaign nor any city councilors have replied.

Community Forum: This Saturday from 3-5 PM at Eagles Nest Reserve Winery the public will be able to not only hear from experts on the history of this one-of-a-kind referendum, from a retired city planner with deep knowledge of Oregon small towns and this issue in particular, a local farmer-advocate concerned about farmland and communities, and a soil scientist with a lifetime of experience in soils in the area. In the years that the city has been working on its UGB expansion plan, this is the first widely and proactively noticed meeting where people will have a chance to ask questions of experts and, should the Yes campaign show up, hear multiple sides of the issue.

Press and the public are invited to the event (3-5 PM) and the subsequent Happy Hour (5-6PM) at the winery. Eagle’s Nest Reserve is in Helvetia: 12995 NW Bishop Rd, Hillsboro, OR, 97124. Previous events of a similar nature brought over 100 people from North Plains and the
surrounding area and a large attendance is expected for this event. For further information, please reach out to Aaron Nichols at friendsnorthplainssmartgrowth@gmail.com. See previous articles on the subject here.