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Monday Mailing

Year 22 • Issue 16 04 January 2016 1.

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Metro’s UGB Decision Will Have Impact On Canby Open House Planned On Jorden Cove, Pipeline Projects The States People Really Want To Move To – And Those They Don’t Farmers Must Disclose Field Locations In GMO Settlement Central Oregon Snowpack Measures Well Above Normal America’s 10 Best New Bike Lanes of 2015 Astoria-Megler Bridge Straddles 4 Miles, Guides Ship Pilots, Withstand Gust: ‘Spanning Oregon’ Drought Is Recurring Theme 2015’s Top Environmental Stories Why Business Retention and Expansion Plans are Important for Downtowns National Main Street Center, Inc. and Project for Public Spaces Bring New Placemaking Training to Five Pilot States 7 Of The Most Interesting Maps Of 2015

1. Metro’s UGB Decision Will Have Impact On Canby It’s a move that opens a window for cities like Canby, which sit just outside the UGB, to at least in the short term absorb some of the rapidly increasing population of the greater Portland metro region, and to attract large employers with its shovel-ready parcels and existing, ready-to-turn-on infrastructure that is in place in the Pioneer Industrial Park.

Quote of the Week: “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” ~Anais Nin

Oregon Fast Fact: In 1905 the largest long cabin in the world was built in Portland to honor the Lewis and Clark expedition.

Those in Canby who follow planning decisions closely say Metro didn’t decide against expanding Portland’s UGB just so the 26 cities inside the boundary could avoid finding solutions to tough questions, like how working-class and middle-class families can afford housing when the cost of a good single-family home in many Portland suburbs starts around $350,000 and the median Oregon household income in 2014 was $51,000, according to the Regional Multiple Listing Service (RMLS) and the U.S. Census.

To access the full story, click here.

2. Open House Planned On Jorden Cove, Pipeline Projects The Department of State Lands will hold a meeting in Medford next week to hear public comment about removal-fill permit applications for the Jordan Cove Energy Project and the Pacific Connector Gas Pipeline.

The meeting will be from 4 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 6, at the Rogue Regency Inn, 2300 Biddle Road, Medford. A similar meeting is planned Jan. 7 in Coos Bay. Jordan Cove Energy Project LP proposes to construct a liquefied natural gas export facility near North Bend capable of exporting up to 6 million metric tons of LNG per year.

For more information, click here.

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3. The States People Really Want To Move To – And Those They Don’t When the U.S. economy slowed during the recession, so did one of the major demographic shifts of the last several decades. For a brief respite, the Northeast and Midwest stopped shedding quite so many residents to the burgeoning Sun Belt. That trend, though — which has big consequences for politics, among other things — has been picking back up.

New census data shows the trend accelerating back to its pre-recession pace. Florida, which actually lost more domestic movers than it gained right after the housing bubble burst, picked up about 200,000 net new movers between 2014 and 2015 (this number includes people who move between states, not immigration into the United States from abroad). Illinois, meanwhile, had a net loss of about 105,000 residents, its largest one-year population leak in the 21st century.

To access the full story, click here.

4. Farmers Must Disclose Field Locations In GMO Settlement Alfalfa growers must submit their field data to attorneys representing biotech critics to participate in the GMO lawsuit settlement in Oregon's Jackson County.

Farmers who don’t want to remove genetically engineered alfalfa crops in Oregon’s Jackson County must submit their field locations to attorneys representing biotech critics.

They will also have to harvest the alfalfa before it reaches 10 percent bloom, to reduce the crosspollination risks, and monitor nearby roadways for volunteers.

These terms are part of a settlement deal resolving a lawsuit that challenged the county’s prohibition against genetically engineered crops, which voters passed last year.

To access the full story, click here.

5. Central Oregon Snowpack Measures Well Above Normal With winter just a week old, snowpack accumulation in Central Oregon, and the rest of the state, is off to a strong start.

“The whole state has above normal snowpack,” Julie Koeberle, a snow hydrologist with the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Portland, said Monday.

The snowpack in the Deschutes/Crooked River Basin is at 147 percent of normal for this time of year, she said.

The measurement is compiled from automated snow sensor readings around the Cascades near Bend and the Ochocos near Prineville.

“And this time last year it was only 39 percent,” Koeberle added. She and other federal scientists use snowpack figures to predict streamflow, or how much water will flow into rivers and creeks.

Streamflow forecasts in late winter and early spring indicate how much water may be available for irrigators — farmers and ranchers — the following summer.

To access the full story, click here.

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6. America’s 10 Best New Bike Lanes of 2015 In its 2010 ranking of the country's best biking cities, Bicycling Magazine opened with a question: Remember when a striped bike lane was a big deal?

Five years later, it's time for an update. Remember when plastic posts were a big deal?

We still love separating bike lanes with posts, and preference surveys show that most Americans do too. But this month, as we set about making our third annual list of the country's best new bike lanes, we were overjoyed to realize that (with about 80 projects to choose from) almost every new lane on our list separated bike and auto traffic with some sort of permanent physical curb.

"The things that we thought were really out there a few years ago are now accepted as part of our design palette," said Jennifer Toole, president of the bikeway-focused Toole Design Group, in an interview Wednesday.

To access the full story, click here.

7. Astoria-Megler Bridge Straddles 4 Miles, Guides Ship Pilots, Withstand Gust: ‘Spanning Oregon’ In the shadow of the Astoria-Megler Bridge, river pilot Anne McIntyre climbs a swinging rope ladder up the side of a 34,000-ton ship, a swift current and a revving tugboat far below.

The only stationary form visible during McIntyre's ascent is the bridge, which in this age of GPS, radar and sonar, serves as her North Star and bookends her journeys up and down the Columbia River.

One false step and she'd submerge like the Columbia-bar pilot who fell into the frigid ocean and retired not long after. One slip on her watch as river pilot and a mammoth ship would founder, risking environmental catastrophe.

To access the full story, click here.

8. Drought Is Recurring Theme 2015’s Top Environmental Stories In 2015, Oregon environmental issues in the news included everything from contaminated clams to a carbon tax; pesticides to earthquake planning; and weed-eating goats to GMOs. But the biggest story by far was the continuing drought, which impacted recreation, agriculture, wildlife, water supplies and more.

Oregon – and the West – marked its fourth consecutive year of drought, and the toll is growing.

The state’s snowpack was the lowest on record, and it began to melt earlier than ever, draining the natural reservoirs that serve much of the state.

To access the full story, click here.

9. Why Business Retention and Expansion Plans are Important for Downtowns Small businesses are the driving force in today’s economy, especially in downtowns. According to the Small Business Administration (SBA), there are 28 million small businesses in the U.S. which account for 54% of all U.S. sales. Additionally, small businesses provide 55% of all jobs and 66% of Page 3 of 4

net new jobs since the 1970s (https://www.sba.gov/content/small-business-trends-impact).

Therefore, it’s critical for all communities and downtowns to have a business retention and expansion (BRE) plan in place to help local small businesses, providing them with opportunities to be successful. After all, small businesses help increase the number of local jobs, preserve or increase the local tax base, increase property values, enhance the community’s image, increase consumer confidence, and diversify the local economy.

It is easier and cheaper to keep an existing business than it is to replace one. A business retention and expansion plan, properly implemented, not only helps keep businesses open but possibly even helps them expand. For local governments, think of the sales and property tax lost by having a vacant building. For Main Street practitioners, think of the image of what an empty building conveys to consumers and how that affects the overall confidence for investment in your downtown. There are four major components to consider when designing a local BRE plan.

To access the full story, click here.

10. National Main Street Center, Inc. and Project for Public Spaces Bring New Placemaking Training to Five Pilot States Chicago - The National Main Street Center, Inc. (NMSC) and Project for Public Spaces (PPS) are launching Cultivating Place in Main Street Communities, a series of intensive trainings designed to strengthen and expand Main Street’s capacity for implementing Placemaking strategies and public space improvements.

Between January and June 2016, NMSC and PPS will bring the Cultivating Place in Main Street Communities training program to five pilot states, including Alabama, Connecticut, Missouri, Montana, and Oregon. NMSC and PPS will partner with Main Street Alabama, Connecticut Main Street Center, Missouri Main Street Connection, Montana Main Street, and Oregon Main Street to convene 35 communities in each state—with the potential to reach up to 175 communities in this first round.

Additionally, local and regional representatives of federal agencies and philanthropic foundations will be in attendance, working with trainers and trainees to identify ways to successfully grow, implement, and sustain Placemaking efforts in these states after the training.

To access the full story, click here.

11. 7 Of The Most Interesting Maps Of 2015 In 2015, one of the biggest stories told in maps was that of climate change: A series of maps showed which states are most at risk of wildfires, drought, flooding, and extreme heat—and how prepared they are (or not, ahem, Florida) for those risks.

While maps can make bigger trends clear—which countries are most violent, or how the population of the U.S. will dramatically change in the next decade and a half—they're equally interesting as a way to understand inner life. One startup made a gadget that measures stress, and then maps out where you're most likely to be stressed out in your daily life. And one artist questioned the whole concept of the traditional map: If GPS devices are helping us lose the ability to navigate, he argues, maybe sketching cities differently can help us gain it back.

To access the full story, click here.

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