Today’s Daily Journal of Commerce reports that Metro presiding officer David Bragdon will propose a resolution saying that Goal 5 (the statewide land use goal that protects natural resources such as trees, fish, rivers, elk, and gravel pits) will not be interpreted to prevent people from “currently allowed uses on developed property.” This proposal was spurred by a recent event in Wood Village, in which a landowner, Glen Edgerton, cut all the trees on his developable acreage because he did not know if future regulations would prevent him from cutting the trees. Metro had classified Mr. Edgerton’s 2-acre parcel as “moderately limit” in its preliminary Goal 5 work, but did not or could not tell him what limits a “moderately limit” designation would impose. The article includes this passage:
“There has been some misunderstanding amongst some homeowners that there will be regulations that would prevent them from trimming trees, from having a dog run or from doing gardening,” Bragdon said. “I thought it was important to let them know that this is not what the Metro Council is considering, that existing homeowners will not have regulations for those kinds of activities that don’t require a permit today.”
The City of Portland already has regulations prohibiting or limiting homeowners’ right to trim trees, have a dog run, or plant a garden in portions of their yards. Maybe Metro doesn’t know about these regulations yet, but quite a few upset City homeowners do.
Metro won’t be able to persuade landowners that it and the cities won’t impose the requirements that Mr. Edgerton feared and Mr. Bragdon described unless it can persuade the cities that already have those regulations to repeal them.