Letters

Pacific Crest Accoyo America owner deplores urban-centric planning approach

June 10, 2009

To: Metro Reserves Steering Committee

As a Washington County farmer I would like to address some major concerns that I have concerning the Metro Urban and Rural Reserves process. My wife and I currently own and manage 200 acres of farm and forest land in Western and Eastern Washington County near Helvetia and Banks, an operation that includes breeding stock production, grass seed production and actively producing forest land. It is clear to me that Washington County emphasizes an “inside the urban growth boundary looking out” perspective that in the long run jeopardizes Washington County’s, Oregon’s, and America’s most valuable natural resource, our prime agricultural land. There is a terrible imbalance between input put forth by the city and urban-oriented county governments and that or rural agricultural residents and producers. This perspective ensures continued urban development and sprawl over some of the best farmland in the world that will, in the end, result in urbanization from the Cascade foothills to the Coast Range. It emphasizes “development at the urban-rural fringe” in lieu of less expensive and less destructive infilling within the urban growth boundary. This approach will selectively cover the flat, prime growing land with the best topsoil adjacent to Hillsboro, Cornelius, and Forest Grove with housing developments and factories. It will leave our children with an automobile and hydrocarbon-dependent world in a time of rapid climate change, unprecedented CO2 pollution, and sea level rise with glacier’s sliding into the sea.

The vast majority of residents and agricultural producers in the Washington County reserves study area do not want this urbanization, and I am convinced that a majority of county residents at-large want agricultural and forest open-space areas to remain as they are and emphasize in-filling development with existing or easy-to-develop infrastructure for future growth. We can simply not afford to not change our approach to growth any longer. We can’t afford as a society to just listen to urban governments and city and county planning departments who overemphasize large-developer and business clients/interests at the expense of a larger, meaningful world view. It is a nihilist vision from a Kafka novel that makes no sense and offers no hope for our children’s future or the survival of our planet.

Sincerely,

Greg Mecklem

Pacific Crest Accoyo America

Helvetia, Oregon

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