Christmas is almost upon us, so taking on a heavier topic other than relaxing is hard. But at some point during your Holiday, I want you to all consider our town and the things that make it great. And I also want you to consider who is behind what happens to our City and how we live here. Are you and your household and family members being prioritized, or are outsiders and outside interests? There can be no doubt, and the record is clear, that the people of Hillsboro have seen more development and job growth than anywhere else in the State of Oregon. Many benefits have come with that, but it has come at significant costs. Hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars have been given away to get all of these tech firms here. In recent years, members of our current City leadership and the State of Oregon have been conducting meetings outside our boundaries to grow our city even more. It will happen, and tens of thousands of jobs are probably coming.
All of this success for corporations has already caused our people to have to scramble for housing, with most of our children moving away to more affordable places. Water rates have increased 100% in recent years. Power rates are going up. Last year, the City of Hillsboro was listed by the FBI as having one of the highest increases in crime in the nation year over year. Air quality concerns abound now as Intel seeks to more than double its DEQ permits to expel offput from its plants. And traffic – oh boy, are we in for trouble.
For those reasons and others, I am not surprised to read that some of Hillsboro’s most prominent leaders are part of a group that is now recommending tolling both HWY 217 and Highway 26 to charge all of those coming and going in and out of Hillsboro for their daily commutes. And you and I, my fellow citizens, will pay when we come and go from our City, too. In the Pamplin article, Westside transportation study proposes tolls for U.S. 26, Highway 217 the reporter did a pretty deep dive into the Westside Multimodal Improvements Study (WMIS) Steering Committee. The Steering Committee has been working this year to devise a plan for how to move more quickly to Western Washington County, primarily Hillsboro, Oregon.
That Committee is made up of:
Art Pearce, Portland Bureau of Transportation
(PBOT)
Brendan Finn, Urban Mobility Office Director,
Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT)
Councilor Beach Pace, City of Hillsboro
Councilor Juan Carlos González, Metro
Commissioner Sharon Meieran, District 1, Multnomah County
Karmen Chavez-Sam, Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon (APANO)
Mariana Valenzuela, Director of Community Partnerships and Advocacy, Centro Cultural
President Deanna Palm, Washington County Chamber of Commerce
Commissioner Pam Treece, Washington County
Tom Mills, Director, Planning and Policy, TriMet Committee Members
Mayor Lacey Beaty, City of Beaverton
The steering committee members are looking to address the transportation problems worsening on the Westside of the Portland area. In the Pamplin Article, Clifford Higgins of METRO was on the record that many of the concerns about Highway 26 and 217 are coming from businesses here on the Westside. Gee, Imagine that. Our leaders entice and incentivize corporations with land and tax bonuses to come to Washington County, and they come. The thousands of jobs brought here over the years have broken our inadequate road systems. Now, these businesses want the situation that they created fixed.
And guess what? YOU ARE GOING TO PAY FOR IT if these leaders get their way. The Pamplin article identified that the WMIS Steering Committee focused on the solution of Tolling the Sunset Highway and Highway 217.
Here is the report from the November 22nd WMIS Meeting: https://www.oregon.gov/odot/UMO/Documents/WMIS%20Steering%20Committee%20Meeting%20Packet%2011.30.23.pdf
In Scenario 4 of that report, Jennifer John, Parametrix Consultant to the WMIS Steering Committee, noted that the team identified congestion points in the major routes to the Westside where high demand fees may be introduced in addition to base toll fees on US26 and OR217. So the discussion and recommendations are to create toll areas and have even greater fees for “high demand” areas? In response to Ms Johns Scenario 4, one corporate leader had this to say:
Tim Layton, Director of State Government Affairs, Genentech: “I appreciate the conversation and
have learned a lot. This is a process that has impacted and will impact the operations of
Genentech, in terms of production, expansion, and deliveries. If the changes impact Genentech’s
ability to ship or deliver our products, we’ll need to move. When I look at the buckets and
scenario 4, while they’re expensive, those are projects that increase reliability and move.”
So Genentech, a major player in the North Hillsboro Industrial area, threatens to move its packaging business if the tolls go into effect. They and companies like them profited greatly and continue to do so from being in Hillsboro and immediately threaten to leave if they have to pay tolls. I get it- that is the way the game works.
In the last meeting on November 30th, 2023, the steering committee agreed that there is much to do and that tolling is the way to pay for the needed improvements. Here is a link to that meeting- https://www.oregon.gov/odot/UMO/Documents/WMIS%20SC6%2011.30.23%20Slides.pdf
This is a screenshot from the presentation:
As of this moment, it appears that this Steering Committee, which includes Hillsboro Councilwoman Beach Pace, who has told the Herald she will be running for Mayor next year, and DeAnn Palm of the Washington County Chamber of Commerce (formerly Hillsboro COC), are going to recommend to the State, ODOT, Metro, and the effected Cities that tolls be pursued.
What I know from the Report:
- The tolling scenario presented to the steering committee included a base toll for all cars on these roadways, as shown on the map above.
- On Highway 26, variable rate tolls will be for two high-congestion: Vista Ridge Tunnel and between Cedar Hills Boulevard and Murray Boulevard.
- Businesses in Washington County have been complaining that travel times are becoming a problem for them.
- Tolling will cause people to go off the highways to avoid the fees and jam neighborhood streets and internal transportation corridors. This is a horrible outcome.
- Traffic on US 26 Westbound could double by 2045, effectively crippling the economy out here.
Questions abound. This steering committee is only recommending these tolling solutions. The Herald will contact both Pace and Palm to ask for their specific involvements and recommendations to the committee. But there are more:
- Who made up this steering committee?
- Why are there no citizens on this panel who might be the voice of the working men and women of Washington County?
- If businesses caused this problem, why are they not paying for it?
- Why is the head of the Chamber of Commerce on this steering committee? Clearly, her organization’s interests will not prioritize the citizens’ best interests of Washington County.
- Why are the State Of Oregon and the City of Hillsboro pursuing with break-neck fervor the expansion of the Urban Growth Boundary onto almost 2,000 additional acres of prime farmland off Jackson Schools Road when we can not even manage the roads we have? That land is enough for four more Ronler Acres-sized Chip Fabs, which would be 70,000 additional jobs, doubling traffic at a minimum.
- This study by the steering committee is on the record now- our systems are collapsing, and things are at an inflection point – why is our City admitting we have a problem, participating in a plan to toll all of us, and then knowingly growing the job base to exacerbate the problem?
Good people of Hillsboro, can you not see we are all being played? We pay more for water than big business users do in Hillsboro. They get Millions in tax breaks; we get plugged roads and out-of-control rents. They threaten to leave, and we will have to pay to drive in and out of our City- are you following me here?
If we are going to toll drivers, it needs to be delivery trucks and semis coming to these factories (which we can toll when they come and go from the locations) and people living in Vancouver, Salem, Clackamas, and areas outside of Washington County. I will be damned if we should all get taxed for going to the airport, or to see our kids in Portland, or do the things we have always done before this Industrial engine was built.
You are not being well represented, and we are all being played. This is one of many issues that, on their face, prove the City of Hillsboro is being run in a way that favors big business interests and not our best interests. If we were being represented, this plan would be rejected or stopped until the people of Western Washington County weigh in on it- and only now, after the work is done, has news even come out about these tolls. That is bad government. It is also proof of my point.
Who is representing you?
As soon as I saw “Metro” in the article… say no more. Out of touch quasi government bodies like this need to get out of our business. Tax tax tax. Answer to everything. That sucking sound is greedy business always with the switch set to “take.” Real citizens need to run that board, not interests from Multnomah county.
I recall (maybe incorrectly) hearing that a lot of people who work at Intel and some of the other high-paying “tech” companies actually live in Washington and commute to Hillsboro for work. I heard this as a Planning Commission meeting a few years ago as things were really getting started on developing South Hillsboro. I know there are some financial breaks for doing this, but if they are contributing to their own challenges, how do we create incentives for them to move to Hillsboro and put their earnings into this community?
Well – that is their choice and Vancouver was cheaper- still is by a bit. I would propose any tollling be for people coming to Hillsboro from outside of Western Washington County. If you want to work here and live in Salem or Vancouver or Clackamas- you pay for that choice.
FYI, Several years ago, Genentech, pursued then Governor Brown to study tolling on Hwy 26. At that point she gave ODOT $1million dollars to do the study.
Interesting- I wonder why they did that? Clearly they would be effected but overall they have a low traffic footprint. There are not that many trucks coming and going from there! Thanks for the input!
Wasn’t this the reason that voters were persuaded to approve funding for buses and light rail? How’s that working for us?
It seems like a reasonable compromise to limited resources (roads) and higher cost of living would be to toll-by-plate and any tolls in your home county would be excluded. This charges those who choose to live in one are and work in another to pay for the increased use of our limited resources.
One quibble with the article – the land at Jackson School road and Evergreen is not prime farmland. It lacks the water rights to do anything but grow hay. That couple-hundred acres on rhe corner would be good residential land for the many high-paying jobs in that immediate area.
It was stupid to expand jobs in Hillsboro and the residential growth in Damascus and by McMinnville. That forces people to take a job in Hillsboro but live in those distant areas.
Don;
By State Law irrigation is not a criteria for High Value Farm land- an those soils typed put it in the high-value status. That corner would make AMAZING residential land. Having said that, the City of Hillsboro and State have it slated for semi-conductors despite my testimony that this would put people in harms ay and ruin that residential area which is considered our best! So I do agree with your points- things are not being done for the peopls best interests!
As a resident of that land, I’ve known two things to be true at once:
1. “The land at Jackson School road and Evergreen is not prime farmland. It lacks the water rights to do anything but grow hay.” Developers equate irrigated farmland with high-value farmland. Farmers—who’ve rotated oat, alfalfa and other crops on that land since we’ve been there and took steps back in 2015 to eliminate standing water and make better use of existing rows—recognize it as incredibly valuable land for both feed and seed. That it’s currently owned by speculative investors is of no consequence: It’s proven reliably viable farmland, and has rendered arguments against it moot.
2. “That couple-hundred acres on rhe corner would be good residential land for the many high-paying jobs in that immediate area.” On this point, everyone is in complete agreement. When you look at the neighborhoods to the immediate south of this land, the homes, schools, roads, parks and bike paths are all situated in such a way that the land surrounding mine should serve as a logical extension of those communities if it is pulled into the urban growth boundary. The recent push to use it as industrial land is not only questionable urban planning, but incredibly shortsighted when it comes to both the area’s housing needs and overall health. There seems to be a rush to turn this area into a silicon rust belt of sorts and to sacrifice air and ground water quality for a nominal number of jobs. Meanwhile, Washington County seeks only development-based solutions to problems that are in no way caused by developers. Homeowners are provided incentives here that simply aren’t offered to renters, there are no curbs on speculative investment, making a surprising number of my “neighbors” in these affluent neighborhoods simply empty houses with alarm systems and private security.
But neither the county nor its municipalities have shown much interest in housing equity or in giving even modest consideration to the practicalities of quick, cheap, stamped-out suburban expansion (think water issues in North Plains and Banks).
Residential would still be the best use of the Evergreen/Jackson land in question, but given municipalities and developers’ inability to even get that right… we may be better off hoping Kotek doles out the remaining funds to existing expansion and holds the line.
P.S. If the I-5 and 205 examples are any indication, we have a better chance on an NFL team landing in Hillsboro than we do of seeing toll scanners on 26 anytime soon.
I am not clear what-all government intends with tolling, nor am I immediately willing to outright condemn it . but . . I would love to see some well intended discussion from all concerned, how this toll is not just a tax that further separates those who can afford to pay it from those who cannot . . and thereby limit Western County residents, and those who commute here, to those whose income will allow them to mutter under their breath, but pay up when asked, because they have no choice . . I cannot imagine someone making 12-15 bucks an hour paying the same toll every day to go to their low wage jobs, as the well paid technical and or administrative wage earner, not to mention those with so much wealth, they can afford to snicker at the toll as an irritation and nothing more . . In my mind this country was built on a national highway system that allowed free interstate (not within a state) movement for ALL citizens, rich or poor; in fact when California tried to limit that freedom in the depression, the whole concept was declared unconstitutional, in my mind, rightly so . . . this kind of tax is the worst kind, one that leans on everyone, but only severely burdens the poorest amongst us . . Is there any other way to fund infrastructure we all need, to benefit only the few of us, whose personal income is NOT tied to inflationary pressures, like, as Dirk points out, the folks who run the companies whose employees are going to pay for it . . I’m suspecting those same employees are going to need higher salaries to pay for 23 or 46 tolls a month, NOT including, as Dirk also points out, trips for recreation, medical needs, etc. . . . not to scare monger, but the Golden Gate Bridge is as much as $9.75 a toll . . and that toll started at less than a dollar a trip, way back when . . now $230 a month for someone only using it ONE WAY for a 5 day work week . . who will determine when that toll should rise, would there be a way to exempt those who cannot afford it, or for medical trips, or funeral bereavement, or, or, or . . .
Much like California, we placed a cap on property taxes to limit the contributions of higher-income residents to state infrastructure and services. Much like California, we require more reductive, punitive measures measures to recoup the cost of infrastructure and services. We’re reaping what a myopic generation sowed.
Didn’t everyone notice how uncrowded the roads were during the pandemic? Yet now Portland is pushing businesses to require employees to commute into town! I see a simple solution, require employers to pay a daily fee for every employee working at their site, perhaps a percentage of the salary. The fee could be refined to include a factor based on the distance from work to the employee home location. Seems reasonable, given it is the requirements for onsite workers that is largely driving the traffic. The fee could be used used to improve public transport, like installing air cleaners to remove Fentanyl smoke from the buses and light rail cars, so that workers would feel safe using buses and trains. Unfortunately this goes against the government practice of addressing every problem by draining more money from the residents.
Here is an article on the broader WMIS study and transportation package. The entire concept has been underway for at least two years.
Yet ODOT, Metro, TriMet, the Port of Portland and others kept quiet. What an outrage. ODOT wastes billions mismanaging transportation projects, and then asks people to trust them with even more of our money.
Sign IP-4!
https://www.clarkcountytoday.com/news/northern-connector-to-provide-both-a-tunnel-and-a-new-bridge-over-the-willamette-river/
https://www.opb.org/article/2023/11/18/john-ley-washington-house-candidate-felony-voter-fraud-charges/
Thanks Dirk for keeping us informed because it’s obvious that our government folks don’t do it ….. until it’s done!
Thanks Dirk for keeping us informed because it’s obvious that our government folks don’t do it ….. until the damage is done!