[Grovenet] Future of Downtown Forest Grove (WAS: Fwd: Land Use Update August 16th)

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

One of the compromises of land use planning is that Forest Grove is  
required to accept the status of "bedroom community" as it is forced  
to accept the assigned population growth even though it isn't  
"assigned" a similar share of the business or industrial growth.  And  
it is prohibited from delaying residential growth as it tries to  
build local jobs.  Measure 37 doesn't get credit for creating this  
mess, but it does make it worse by increasing the housing stock to  
attract even more residents.

David

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I can understand your frustration over the effect of the Portland metro area
on what has happened to Forest Grove. So I can understand, too, your
frustration over any changes that exacerbate that effect, including M37. 

I saw an ethical conflict that trumped all other considerations, so I didn't
even look at things like that. I saw that some landowners, big and small,
were being what I felt was unfairly penalized at random by the
implementation of the land use laws. That ran counter to my personal
principles, so I supported M37 especially since, after a hiatus of four
years since M7 had been approved, the opposition didn't come up with a
solution to the basic problem. 

I'm still glad I supported M37 for that reason. 

It always seems to happen in metropolitan areas. Not only jobs but shopping
becomes diffused over the entire metro area. A nice "neighborhood" shopping
area doesn't happen by accident, and it never competes with the "big boxes"
in anything but convenience. Now that a Wal*Mart will soon be open right on
the edge of Forest Grove there's even more competition for the locally spent
dollars. 

Ron D'Eau Claire