1/31/2023 Semiconductor Task Force update

Farm Food - not chips

Non-Transparent Process by our elected officials

Once again, we find ourselves scrambling to get our opinions heard! We have an opportunity to express our thoughts about the state's drive to bring new semiconductor manufacturers to Oregon but the timeframe is VERY short, due to the secretive and non-transparent process of the Joint Committee for Semiconductors, a bipartisan committee of members of the Oregon Legislature.

The Oregon Semiconductor Competitive Taskforce was created to enable Oregon to be competitive in the $52 billion 2022 CHIPS ACT, a nation-wide grant process to establish new semiconductor company sites in the U.S. It reports to the Joint Committee for Semiconductors. The Taskforce recently issued its preliminary recommendations: Create two 500-acre sites for advanced R&D or production fabrication operations and another 680 acres to create smaller sites of 15 to 100 acres. The Taskforce recommended that the state purchase these sites on an expedited basis in the next 12-24 months.

The Taskforce determined that the ONLY place in the ENTIRE state of Oregon that has sites that meet the Taskforce's criteria are in (drum roll, ta-da!) Hillsboro, North Plains and Helvetia!  At least two of the sites (about 2,400 acres of prime farmland in Hillsboro and Helvetia) were designated RURAL RESERVES as a result of the "Grand Bargain" negotiations in 2014, promised to be protected from urbanization for 30-50 years.

This proposed taking of RURAL RESERVE farmland is another egregious effort by our government leaders to void Oregon's highly-valued Land Use laws.

Due to the non-transparent process of both the Joint Committee and the Taskforce, the maps showing recommended sites have not been provided to the public. Save Helvetia was fortunate to receive, through a third party late on this last Friday evening, a notice that public comments could be made via email up until 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, February 1, 2023. Once again, citizens and our viewpoints get short shrift from our elected officials.

IF you have the time and desire, please email your comments by 5:00 pm on Wednesday, February 1, 2023 to:

Joint Committee on Semiconductors
Subject: Recommendations for Industrial Land in Semiconductor Industry
Email to: JSEMI.exhibits@oregonlegislature.gov

Testimony Tips

A short, personal paragraph is sometimes more memorable than a longer, more technical one. Express your personal connection to the Helvetia area. Some talking points you might consider:

Citizen input and involvement

• Why were citizens not informed of this opportunity to comment earlier?
• Why was the notice posted late on a Friday of the weekend before the scheduled Monday meeting of the Taskforce?
• Why were there no maps of the recommended sites so we could comment with specificity?
• This is not a transparent process - why the secrecy?

Sites in Hillsboro/North Plains/Helvetia

• Again, where are the maps?
• Why does the plan appear to be to centralize semiconductor manufacturing in north Washington County?
• Why not share the wealth with other parts of Oregon? Hard to believe there are NO other sites anywhere in Oregon
• There is currently too much congestion (have you seen the single-driver cars lined up at the freeway on-ramps Brookwood Parkway and Cornelius Pass after an Intel shift ends? Thousands more tech employees will bloat our existing infrastructure.

Demise of Oregon's land use laws

To acquire and develop the sites in Hillsboro/North Plains/Helvetia as soon as possible, it will require expedited authority by the state to go around the established land use laws.

If the Taskforce's recommendations are followed, Rural Reserves could be brought into the UGB BEFORE Urban Reserves and Undesignated Lands - completely upending Oregon Land Use Laws and reneging on the 2014 negotiated "Grand Bargain."

• Several of the sites (at least 2,400 acres) we are aware of in Hillsboro and Helvetia are designated as RURAL RESERVES.
• The Rural Reserves designation were supposed to last 30-50 years, in order to provide farmers with certainty so they could make the necessary expensive investments for successful farming.

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