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City of Tigard
Tigard Special Meeting — Minutes
TIGARD CITY COUNCIL
MEETING DATE AND TIME: April 1, 2008 — 6:30 p.m.
MEETING LOCATION: City of Tigard—Town Hall, 13125 SW Hall Blvd., Tigard, OR 97223
630 PAI
1. SPECIAL MEETING
Tigard City Council Present: Mayor Dirksen, Councilor Sherwood, Councilor Woodruff,
Councilor Buehner and Councilor Wilson
Tigard Staff Present:Assistant City Manager Newton,Assistant Community Development
Director Bunch,Assistant Planner McCarthy,Associate Planner Roberts, Principal
Planner Nachbar and Deputy Recorder Krager
Metro Council Present: Council President Bragdon,Councilor Hosticka,and Councilor Harrington
Metro Staff Present Policy Analyst Ray and Planner McArthur
Mayor Dirksen called the meeting to order and thanked the guests from Metro for attending. He said staff
prepared an agenda with three items but welcomed additional topics. Council President Bragdon suggested
discussing the local share on the ballot measure and the grant program for natural areas.
2. DISCUSSION OF TRANSPORTATION AND URBANIZATION ISSUES WITH METRO COUNCIL
PRESIDENT BRAGDON AND COUNCILORS HOSTICKA AND HARRINGTON
Mayor Dirksen opened the discussion on urbanization in unincorporated areas. He said at a recent MPAC
meeting he requested an amendment to the Great Communities Resolution be considered which says that new
urban areas should be planned and developed within the confines of municipal governments. Metro Councilor
Harrington noted that it passed unanimously.
Councilor Sherwood commented on unincorporated Metzger and suggested it would be more suitable for
Washington County's urban renewal efforts than the Bethany area.
Council President Bragdon said trends show that areas without municipal governance decline. He said the hard
part for citizens is connecting the dots about the source of services. He recalled attending an open house
meeting two years ago in Bethany where the services people said they wanted were libraries, better police
coverage and code enforcement,which sounded a lot to him like city services.
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Councilor Hosticka said conditioning new areas has strong support from Metro Council. He said the difficulty
is what to do with areas already inside the Urban Growth Boundary and this will be discussed at the upcoming
urbanization forum.
Metro Council President Bragdon asked, "Don't you also have to activate tie citizens and taxpayers of a city,
because there is a cross-subsidy going on that is not fair to them?" He said it is not just about government and
mentioned tie recent press coverage of issues between Beaverton and Nike which the press made into a
"government vs. the people"issue. He said it was really a fiscal matter,people in one area subsidizing people in
another,with perhaps neither realizing it.
Councilor Buchner gave an example of the Washington County Sheriff's East Precinct office, located on the
west side of Beaverton. She said those officers need to drive five mules through Beaverton or Tigard to get to
West Slope, Raleigh Hills or Metzger. She said the Enhanced Sheriff's Patrols are not bringing the level of
police service up to what it is in the cities and in general,the cities are picking up the difference.
Mayor Dirksen said the studies have been done; the issue is getting someone to do something about it. He said
the state needs to get involved and get counties to say they are either not going to provide urban services or
they are going to become urban service providers. Metro Councilor Harrington said she was aware of the
studies but noted there were credibility concerns.
Councilor Wilson said people know what the services are; they just don't know how they are paid for. He
noted that some people don't even know whether they are living within the city limits. Mayor Dirksen said the
City gets letters from people saying they live in die unincorporated area and know they don't pay for parks or
the library but can use them anyway—so why would they want to annex and start paying for things?
Council President Bragdon asked about city residents that are paying for these services, saying "When will they
rise up and demand that it changes?" Councilor Wilson said, "Those of us who are paying for the services for
everyone are eventually going to say, `Enough is enough.' but I don't know if we can legally refuse to send a
police officer or fix a water line break."
Councilor Woodruff said if it costs more people are going to choose not to join a city or create their own. He
said you can appeal to the fairness issue but people make decisions based on cost. Councilor Wilson said,
"People will however, vote themselves services that they want. As a practical matter it may be easier to form
special districts to provide those services that are not technically the City's. If it was financially neutral maybe
people wouldn't oppose annexation."
Metro Councilor Harrington said she doesn't see a solution yet. She said some residents of her district live in
the Bethany area and want services such as parks. But she said they want to know, "What would I get out of it
now?"rather than thinking about the services they may need as they and their children get older. She said she is
trying to educate citizens that there are services above the basic ones they currently receive.
Assistant Community Development Director Bunch said his research showed that it takes decades to begin to
resolve the issue. He said southern California experienced significant problems because of the growth of
unincorporated areas. They found that as these areas develop they detract from the quality of life and the ability
of existing cities to function well. He said they started legislation to deal with large unincorporated islands
inside municipalities,particularly in Santa Clara County.
Mr. Bunch said Washington County needs to stop urbanizing unincorporated areas and stabilize the degree of
services received by the unicorportated areas. He said the Counties have to realize the significant fiscal
challenges of providing these municipal-level services. Mr. Bunch said to resolve the issue the state, counties,
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Metro and cities need to address some of the annexation statutes, especially near the Portland area. He said
eventually addressing the annexation abilities of the cities will also be important to achieve the Metro 2040 goals
and objectives.
Mayor Dirksen noted that King County has made improvements in the last ten years to achieve more stability
in the county governance and large tnuncorporated areas are now choosing to become part of cities. In
response to a question from Mayor Dirksen about what was different about their processes or requirements,
Ml. Bunch mentioned four things:
• King County realized that they could not continue to provide municipal level services.
• Cities were willing to participate
• Growth Management Act
• Equalization of sales taxes
Metro Councilor Hosticka asked if the tax equalization was in the nature of revenue sharing. Mr.Bunch said he
thought it was a regional or county-wide sales tax administered through the state and utilized to provide service
enhancements over time. He said financing is one of the challenges for this area: He asked how
unincorporated areas such as Metzger and Aloha can get services appropriate to their level of needs once they
do come into cities.And if they don't,how can they be stabilized to prevent further decline?
In reponse to a question from Councilor Buchner, Metro Council President Bragdon said the percentage of
Multnomah County that is still unincorportated is very small, only 2-3%in terms of population.
Mayor Dirksen asked theMetro officials to do what they can to help with this issue and exert influence at the
state and county levels. Metro Council President Bragdon said there was a strong feeling among the Council
that future expansion areas should be conditioned.
Metro Councilor Hosticka suggested a discussion on using a regional infrastructure pool. He said this was
originally designed to encourage infrastructure in Centers but it might help provide money for underserved or
blighted unincorporated areas. He gave two examples of how Metro has used regional revenue raising capacity
to assist with issues on a local level — the Open Spaces bond levy local share, and the construction excise tax,
which is levied regionally but distributed to jurisdictions based upon their planning needs. He also suggested a
regional Systems Development Charge, saying, "You've got a huge revenue raising capacity in the entire region
and a case could be made that these are regional issues."
Council President Bragdon said there used to be a bias, heavily financed by the federal government, towards
building new things, which created many of the roads and infrastructure systems we are now struggling to
maintain. He said the legislature makes urban renewal harder to do and the current types of infrastructure are
not very well served by the traditional funding mechanisms.
Councilor Buchner said she was concerned about the State preempting local taxes. Metro Council President
Bragdon said it is crucial for legislators to understand the importance of local government.
Metro Councilor Hosticka said there is a recognization at the state level that there is a huge subsidy from the
urban areas to the rural areas of the state. He said Metro worked very hard in dle last legislative session to
create a metropolitan agenda which we all need to keep working on. He said the challenge in approaching the
legislature is to work together towards the same agenda and stop fighting among ourselves.
Councilor Sherwood asked, "What would you like to see us do?
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Metro Councilor Hosticka said the Washington County Urbanization Foiutn is a good place to start working on
a common legislative agenda and Clackamas County is talking about doing the same thing.
Councilor Sherwood mentioned that other councilors are taking on more of the Mayor's duties so he can attend
more meetings and make sure the City of Tigard is represented at the table. Metro Council President Bragdon
said that is very effective.
Assistant Community Development Director Bunch remarked that tie County said in its Washington County
2000 Plan that it was not an urban services provider. They reiterated this in several updates to the Plan. Yet a
population the size of Corvallis (55,000) has been accommodated in unincorporated Washington County. He
said there is a need for mayors and county commissioners to sit around a table without die special interests and
come to an agreement about common legislative issues. Metro Council President Bragdon said this is a
leadership opportunity for die mayors.
Metro Council President Bragdon mentioned that other jurisdictions are also working on fiscal challenges to
implement their design vision for their downtown areas. He said Metro partnered with the American
Association of Architects and others at die United States Conference of Mayors to put together a two-day
Design Problems Seminar and said that was something Metro can provide.
Mayor Dirksen said in most cases the issue in the City of Tigard is not what do we want to do,it's how to pay
for it. Metro Councilor Hosticka said from Metro's perspective at the regional level, development is subsidized
everywhere and we're trying to get some good data to look at comparative subsidies. He said his intuitive guess
is that you get more dollars for centers as opposed to development along the edge. He said there is not a
regional investment pool yet, although there is transit-oriented development program and MTIP funding. He
said he felt there was better return on investment in centers rather than on die edges.
Mayor Dirksen agreed, saying there would be a better return on tie infrastructure dollars but then you run up
against the problem where it is more expensive for private developers to redevelop existing centers than build
in greenfields.
Councilor Sherwood said that their trip to Port Moody was successful in that members of the City Center
Advisory Committee and Council both got to view what was being done successfully there. Mayor Dirksen
said his goal was to have everyone get die same mental picture, pleasant, aesthetic, higher-density development
that still maintains a smaller-community feel.
Councilor Buchner noted that most of die parking in Port Moody was underground. Mayor Dirksen noted that
circulation is a problem in Tigard's downtown and the railroad will not let the City make more at-grade
crossings. He described an idea to take the Ash Avenue extension off grade under the commuter railroad
station and put in another layer of parking, such as at tie Salem Capital Mall. He said it would be served by die
street without having to construct ramps. He said there were several possible sources of funding such as
transit,Tri-Met,urban renewal,and streets.
Metro Council President Bragdon said structured parking is a great answer. He said the lack of parking is a
major issue in many cities. He asked, "What if we expended money on structured parking instead of
highways?"
Councilor Wilson said there is plenty of private sector money but there must be a return on the investment
Assistant Community Development Director Bunch said Tigard has just completed a Highway 99W Corridor
Improvement and Management Plan. He related a conversation with a developer who wanted to place a 9-12
story building in the Tigard Triangle and praised Tigard's macro transportation advantages. When Mr. Bunch
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explained that the floor area ratio there was .4 instead of the 1.2— 1.4 floor area ratio due to the limited capacity
of die state freeway system and highway 99W, he said Tigard had "macro transportation problems as well." So
we have both advantages and problems. He said Tigard has come to die conclusion that die best hope for the
downtown is light rail and effective transit. He said Tigard has limited capacity on 99W even if the lanes are
widened because latent capaticity will use it up. Light Rail or some other kind of transit improvement is
essential.
Mayor Dirksen said the obvious choice for die next phase of light rail is extending it to Tigard where it can
serve 70,000 people, or 100,000 if extended to Sherwood.
Metro Council Hosticka said Metro is undertaking a high-capacity transportation study.
In response to a question frorn Metro Councilor Harrington about the number of bus lines that run through
Tigard,Councilor Sherwood said there are four.
Councilor Buchner said she gave TriMet General Manager Hanson of a tour of Tigard showing hire the new
growth that has occurred and the lack of bus service. She said he was not aware of the growth and density.
Councilor Wilson also mentioned that the densification of the edge- "the urban crust." He mentioned the area
between Scholls Ferry and Barrows Road,which has tremendous growth but no bus service.
Assistant Community Development Director Bunch noted that Tigard has some of die highest traffic volumes
in die state. Mayor Dirksen showed a map of 99W as it bisects Tigard noting that traffic is almost a barrier to
commercial customers along 99W rather than a conduit He said the City will be looking at changing the
zoning in some areas to high-density residential from commercial,which could be moved to the center and off
die corridor.
Mayor Dirksen handed out Tigard Traffic Volume Factoid Cards that were prepared by planning staff.
Metro Councilor Hosticka asked, "Since we probably cannot build our way out of congestion and fuel prices
are probably not going to go down, at what point do you have to start collapsing people's driving and provide a
fuller range of services closer to where they live?"
Assistant Community Development Director Bunch said the current traffic congestion is the contraining factor
to developing the Tigard Triangle.
Metro Council President Bragdon said the solution to the transportation issues will be hundreds of little things.
Mayor Dirksen said he recognizes that ODOT is great at doing big projects such as state highways but Tigard
doesn't need big projects. He said,"Maybe ODOT shouldn't be doing this planning."
Metro Councilor Hosticka asked how the Tigard Council avoided a referendum when the gas tax was passed.
The Councilors noted:
• Tigard citizens know that Highway 99W is a blighted area and they want the interesection fixed.
• Council was comfortable putting in a gas tax because they knew it could be referred.
• The gas tax contains a sunset clause and there is a specific project identified.
• The City didn't have time for a referendum because it made sense to fix some of die problems
with the Greenburg/99W intersection while work is being done to improve the nearby
Hall/99W intersection.
Mayor Dirksen said both a referral and initiative failed to get enough signatures. Metro Councilor Hosticka
noted that often elected bodies are afraid of the citizens so they refer it on their own. Councilor Buelhner
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said, "It came from a citizen commission." Councillor Wilson said surveys show residents say this is
Tigard's worst problem.
3. OPEN SPACES BALLOT MEASURE AND LOCAL SHARE
Councilor Sherwood asked the Metro representatives if they were aware that Tigard wants to finish the
Fanno Creek Trail this year. Council said Tigard's local share of die regional parks levy was going towards
that goal.
Metro Council President Bragdon said Oregon is in a good position as the federal reauthorization for
transportation is upcoming. He said there was a big shift that may make more dollars available for trails and
non-motorized forms of transportation. He said Oregon's legislators are asking for a package to present to
the Country as a model and Metro will prepare a coherent package by the end of 2008.
Metro staff brought a brochure on the Nature in Neighborhoods Capital Grants Program. A copy of this is
in the City Recorder's Office. Metro Councilor Hosticka said Metro is not only interested in trails but also
in tie acquisition of property along the trails because linking them is important. Councilor Buehner
mentioned a problem with a small piece of trail property owned by an unwilling seller. Metro Policy Analyst
Ray said an agency cannot use condemnation using local share finds as it is against Metro's Code.
Metro Council President Bragdon handed out copies of the Community Investment Toolkit— Volume 1, a
copy of which is in the City Recorder's Office.
Metro President Bragdon said he liked the format of this meeting with the Tigard City Council. Mayor
Dirksen said he'd be happy to meet with them again at their convenience.
4. Mayor Dirksen adjourned the meeting at 8:27 p.m.
Carol A. Krager, Deputy City Recorc t
Attest:
— Z,/�Y
Mayor, ity of Tigan//d
Date: �.f�G�
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