From laura.buhl at state.or.us Fri Aug 26 14:36:39 2016 From: laura.buhl at state.or.us (Buhl, Laura) Date: Fri, 26 Aug 2016 21:36:39 +0000 Subject: [LandUse-News] Land Use News for August 26, 2016 Message-ID: Welcome to this week's roundup of the Land Use News! The Land Use News is an electronic news clipping service provided by the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development (DLCD). Land Use News emphasizes local reporting and commentary on land use in Oregon and other states. The links to copyrighted news stories in Land Use News are not archived by DLCD, and the archiving policies of these sources vary. The stories, if available, reside on the site of the original news source. Please direct requests for archived stories, or permission to reprint them, to the original news source. Past Land Use News weekly e-mails may be found here: http://listsmart.osl.state.or.us/pipermail/landuse-news Anyone may subscribe, unsubscribe, or change their subscription to the free service by visiting this site: http://listsmart.osl.state.or.us/mailman/listinfo/landuse-news. ________________________________ Oregon's Top Commodities Portland Oregonian In 2015, Oregon was home to 34,600 farms on 16,400,000 acres, according to the Department of Agriculture. Oregon as a whole is about 63 million acres. Oregon was the nation's No. 1 producer of blackberries, boysenberries, hazelnuts, black raspberries, various seeds including orchardgrass and ryegrass, peppermint and Christmas trees in 2015. Draining Oregon: What Can We Do About Over-Pumping? Portland Oregonian Excessive pumping threatens communities with economic upheaval. It can rob water from streams where threatened steelhead struggle to find cool water spawn. It can sap wetlands where other species rely on spring water to thrive. New court ruling limits historic designation statute Salem Statesman Journal The Oregon Supreme Court has narrowed property owners' options for removing their historic designation. The court's Aug. 4 decision allows only the original property owner to request the local government remove the historic designation; subsequent owners can not make such a request. Washington County Sets Vehicle Fee In Motion Portland Tribune Washington County commissioners have set in motion a plan to impose a vehicle registration fee to raise money for local road work. But the proposed $30 annual fee, equal to an amount that voters rejected in 2014, would be delayed until after the Oregon Legislature ends its next regular session in mid-2017. St. Helens awarded grant to fund transportation improvement plan Scappoose South County Spotlight St. Helens was one of 15 cities in Oregon to receive grants ranging from $75,000 to $200,000 from the Transportation and Growth Management Program grant, which is supported by the Department of Land Conservation and Development and the Oregon Department of Transportation, according a press release sent out Wednesday, Aug. 17. What will maps mean to you? Daily Astorian Residents in Gearhart, Seaside, Cannon Beach, Clatsop County and those in Warrenton's Diking District No. 1 will be unable to buy flood insurance, renew existing flood insurance policies and will face additional consequences unless their jurisdiction adopts new federal flood insurance rate maps. Bend Residents Clash Over Neighborhood Marijuana Grow Bend Bulletin -Figuring out what's legal and what isn't can be confusing for residents and law enforcement alike- Bend resident Art Johnson and his wife wanted to retire in Bend. But so far, retirement hasn't been quite as relaxing as they planned, Johnson said. After Johnson moved into his home in east Bend, the house next door was sold to new neighbors who started using the property to grow medical marijuana. A warehouse next door constantly smells like marijuana and most of the windows are blacked out. Hundreds Show Up To Give Feedback On Proposed UGB Bend Bulletin -Plan sets guidelines for Bends urban growth- After listening to dozens of Bend residents give feedback on the citys plan to expand its urban growth boundary, Bend city councilors are working toward approving the plan. Car Camping Raises Enforcement Questions In Bend Bend Bulletin -While neighbors feel unsafe, court rulings make it tricky to enforce- How to deal with people who sleep in cars throughout Bends neighborhoods has become a thorny enforcement problem for city officials. Last week, the issue became a topic of debate at the Bend City Council meeting, and it's something that has been brought up at various meetings since April. The most recent discussion was spurred when the city received an email from a Bend resident wondering what to do about a man sleeping in a van in her neighborhood. Janet Stevens Column: No Quick Solutions To Bend's Affordable Housing Problem - Opinion Bend Bulletin Only one city in Oregon has built more affordable housing than Bend in the last 10 years, and its more than seven times larger than Bend. That said, both Bend and Portland continue to have some of the least affordable housing in Oregon. Jim Long, the city's affordable housing manager, knows that Bends shortage won't end anytime soon. Meanwhile, the city continues to work to improve the situation, and with good reason. How Cities Are Preserving Affordable Housing Next City Building more units will help, but preserving existing affordable housing is critical too: It's generally cheaper than new construction, prevents displacement, takes advantage of existing land use patterns and allows people to remain where they already live. But preservation also presents challenges of its own, often necessitating the blending of multiple federal, state and local funding sources and greater collaboration between developers, policymakers and other stakeholders. Cloud Computing Brings Sprawling Centers, But Few Jobs, To Small Towns New York Times A giant Microsoft facility just outside this very small town hides behind a quarter-mile berm and a guard house, across the highway from the rubble of a demolished prison. Behind the berm, six unmarked hangars each hold tens of thousands of computer servers. Microsoft has cleared enough scrub trees and vines for at least 15 of these buildings, and six more are already under construction. The Atlantic Notes: Race Relations in Portland The Atlantic Monthly - online Readers and staffers, primarily from Portland, Oregon, discuss and debate the various issues surrounding race, ethnicity, and class in the city. (The ongoing conversation was spurred by Alana Semuels's article "The Racist History of Portland, the Whitest City in America.") Portland Wants to Rethink Speed Limits By Factoring in Walkers and Bikers Streetsblog USA State statutes usually limit how cities set speed limits. In Boston, for example, the City Council has voted numerous times to reduce the speed limit to 20 miles per hour, but state law won't allow it. Now Portland is taking on this problem. A pilot program expected to be approved by the Oregon Department of Transportation proposes a new way to evaluate what speeds are appropriate for urban areas. Engineers to U.S. DOT: Transportation Is About More Than Moving Cars Streetsblog USA A trade group representing the transportation engineering profession thinks it's high time for American policy makers to stop focusing so much on moving single-occupancy vehicles . . . In its comments to the Federal Highway Administration about how to measure performance, the Institute of Transportation Engineers - a trade group representing 13,000 professionals - said that, in short, the system should not focus so heavily on cars. SJ looks to finalize winery ordinance The Record (Stockton) The San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors will hold a public hearing to discuss an amendment to the ordinance relating to winery operations and events. Changes to the ordinance, which was drafted in 2014, have been sought by residents who have become increasingly upset with the number of events held at neighboring wineries. The events, residents say, can attract hundreds of guests and generate unwanted traffic and noise, particularly amplified music. Study Reveals Surprising Role of Haze In the Warming of Chinese Cities Yale School Forestry & Environmental Studies A new Yale-led study published in the journal Nature Communications sheds light on the surprising role that haze in China plays in promoting the urban heat island effect [UHI], a process whereby city centers tend to be significantly warmer than surrounding rural areas. Laura Buhl, AICP, CNU-A | Land Use & Transportation Planner Planning Services Division | Transportation & Growth Management Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development 635 Capitol Street NE, Suite 150 | Salem, OR 97301-2540 Direct: (503) 934-0073 | Main: (503) 373-0050 laura.buhl at state.or.us | www.oregon.gov/LCD/TGM -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: