Molalla's Urban Growth Boundary (UGB)

Thank you for your question!  I'm going to start with the last one and work backward, I think the response will make more sense that way. 

1. Is there a map?  No map has been developed, proposed, or approved for UGB modification. 

2. Is that true (that there is a proposal to incorporate areas south of town)?  No, the UGB expansion process will ultimately lead to a proposal to add land of some sort, but we are quite a way off from that point in the project.  If you go to the Molalla Current page for the UGB, it runs you through the steps of the process.  One of those steps that has not been reached yet is to conduct land studies.  These studies typically occur on all of the land within 1-mile of the current UGB in all directions.  One of the outcomes of that land study is identification of the land that would be proposed to come into the UGB to meet the 20-year housing and employment demand.  The land is assessed based on several factors to determine what the most appropriate land to expand the UGB would be under state law.  At that time, a proposed expansion area will be identified.  

Our best guess as to when that proposed expansion area will be identified is likely late 2025 or early 2026.  

Sincerely, 

The Molalla Current Project Team

Hi Mike - the plan is roughly to fold public and semi-public land needs into the overall expansion study rather than into the individual studies. The City has also begun work on a new parks master plan and, while can't plan for the lands that we'll ultimately expand into, we've conveyed to our consultants that guidelines and implementation strategies for UGB expansion need to be a part of the document. Notably, there's a 20% land donation or fee in lieu of that's a part of our comprehensive plan that is not codified in the municipal code for subdivision expansion (though it has been for master planning) and we're also looking to rectify that. We've discussed the potential to amend our workplan to include the updated parks master plan with DLCD, which will allow us to take the policy suggestions from that document and incorporate them into our UGB expansion. DLCD has conveyed that they are amenable to that. Last, we intend to include the school district on our UGB TAC team and otherwise heavily consider their land need input.  

The answer to this question is going to continue to evolve as we move forward with the TAC and our new consultant and we encourage you to continue to be a part of that conversation, as you have. 

Thank you for your question, and our apologies for the delay in responding... somehow this question got missed.  We'll be updating our processes to ensure that does not occur in the future. 

Staff cannot say with absolute certainty when each study will commence.  We do have a workplan that we will post on this Project page now, but things like budget, manpower, grant opportunities, grant application outcomes, and other variables tend to turn these sorts of long-term workplans into more of a flexible guide than an etched in stone calendar.  

Please take a look at the workplan and stay tuned in to this project page and the newsletter for more!

Best Regards, 

The Molalla Current Project Team

Thank you for your question.  There are several strategies that address your concern and a list of all strategies is provided within the survey.  Whether your elected officials adopt a strategy that addresses the concern will depend, in-part, on feedback from the community via the survey.  

Warm Regards, 

The Molalla Current Project Team 

Thank you for visiting the Molalla Current!  Your questions have been reproduced below for ease of responding: 

I live on Main St and can barely get out of my driveway due to traffic. There are new apartments being built on the South side of the street which will dump more traffic on the Main St what is the plan for this added traffic? Main St. (aka OR-211) is a state highway under ODOT jurisdiction and control.  ODOT provides a Q & A board for you to ask your questions here: https://highway.odot.state.or.us/cf/comments/comments.cfm.  Additionally, the City's transportation system master plan is the document that plans how the streets in Molalla should evolve, you can view that here: https://www.cityofmolalla.com/documents. 

2 years ago sidewalk was put in between Safeway and Ona St. However, it stops 3 or 4 houses before joining the sidewalk at Hizzie st. Why was it not finished? See the Ask ODOT link above. 

There is no crosswalk at the end of the sidewalk to cross 211 to reach a sidewalk. This is so DANGEROUS ! Is the plan to wait till someone is killed before finishing it! Public projects are not scheduled based on harms to individuals, so no, that is not the plan. See ODOT link above. 

 What about sidewalk on 213 from Big Meadow? See ODOT link above. 

There is another dangerous area for pedestrians. We need sidewalks, wider main streets and bypasses for 211 and 213. The City is proposing a budget line item to aid in sidewalk infill, this program, if approved, will provide $350,000 to aid individual property owners in development of appropriate sidewalks.  With that said, all of the items mentioned cost a lot of money, money that Molalla does not have.  It is not simply a matter of restructuring the budget, certain funds can only be spent on certain things, and even if the entire budget was dedicated to streets, it would not be able to widen all main streets and place sidewalk on all streets without it.  Instead, these things are disposed of over time with a measured approach and an understanding that urban design and public improvement are marathon undertakings, not sprints. A lot has improved over the last few years, and will continue to improve for the foreseeable future! 

Thank you for your questions!  It was very difficult for staff to determine whether this was a set of questions or merely a "rant" as you stated. However, we were able to parse a few questions out and have responded below.  In the future, please ask questions and leave the excess out or staff will not respond.  Thank you. 

1. The Oregon Department of Economics keeps such statistics on individual businesses.  Though I can think of many positions that meet and exceed the threshold you mentioned, the City does not compile or keep such statistics. 

2. The City has several projects scheduled to provide public infrastructure to the industrial areas in the south part of town.  This should reduce the cost of development and thus increase the likelihood of development.  Additionally, the City just expanded it's enterprise zone to include all un-developed industrial land in the UGB, so there are some tax incentives for employment producing, traded sector development.  After that, it's up to the individual property owners, subject to the City's zoning and development ordinances, to decide what the best use of their property may be.  

3. The City does not build housing, nor does it bring in housing.  The decision of what, when, and how to develop a piece of property is up to the private owner of said property, subject to the City's zoning and development ordinances.  

4. Expansion - or not - of the UGB is a function of state law, it is not up to the individual cities.  The process is outlined in OAR 660-024 which also refers to several other requirements.  It seems that you have some misconceptions about how this process works, so you may want to read this section and the ORS that authorizes it... you can find all of this information by searching OAR 660 on your search engine.  In essence the land need is determined based on a set of mathematical equations - methodologies - that look at the 20-year population forecast and determine how much more, if any, land is needed to meet it. 

660-024-0040
Land Need

(1) The UGB must be based on the appropriate 20-year population forecast for the urban area as determined under rules in OAR chapter 660, division 32, and must provide for needed housing, employment and other urban uses such as public facilities, streets and roads, schools, parks and open space over the 20-year planning period consistent with the land need requirements of Goal 14 and this rule. 

Thank you for your questions. 

Thank you for your question, it's a great one!  I tried to boil this down the best I could....

1. There are no "plans" in relation to the Housing Needs Analysis/Buildable Lands Inventory, these are data driven processes that utilize a set of methodologies (which will be fully described in the report) to determine, based on population estimates, how much land the city needs for housing over the next 20-years versus how much buildable residential land the city currently has inside it's UGB.  The difference in these two figures provides the acreage that would need to be adopted into the UGB as residential land to comply with the Oregon Administrative Rules regarding UGB's: 

660-024-0040
Land Need

(1) The UGB must be based on the appropriate 20-year population forecast for the urban area as determined under rules in OAR chapter 660, division 32, and must provide for needed housing, employment and other urban uses such as public facilities, streets and roads, schools, parks and open space over the 20-year planning period consistent with the land need requirements of Goal 14 and this rule. 

2. To meet this requirement for purposes of public facilities (like open space, parks, schools, roads, etc) the City is applying a 25% addition to the net buildable lands in accordance with OAR 660-024-040(10): 

(10) As a safe harbor during periodic review or other legislative review of the UGB, a local government may estimate that the 20-year land needs for streets and roads, parks and school facilities will together require an additional amount of land equal to 25 percent of the net buildable acres determined for residential land needs under section (4) of this rule, and in conformance with the definition of “Net Buildable Acre” as defined in OAR 660-024-0010(6).

Have a Great Weekend!

-The Molalla Current Project Team 

Thank you for your question!  I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "how much," but for the sake of this response I will assume you are asking:  "how much land is allocated for affordable housing?"

The short answer is that the city allows affordable housing in any zone that multi-family housing is allowed to be built (e.g. Medium Density Residential and Medium-High Density Residential). There are no rules that limit the types of housing to only affordable in any zone as the city does not weigh in on the cost a private land owner chooses to charge for renting a space on their property. 

With that said, there are currently multiple affordable housing developments in Molalla, and a brand new one in development at 1000 W Main that will provide 60 units, with a second phase planned (but not yet applied for and approved) to add 40 more.  Thank you for your question!

-The Molalla Current Project Team

Thank you for your question.  The grant funding the consultant has a two year window, but we do not expect it to take more than one year.  We'll have a better idea once the consultant is hired and a schedule can be cooperatively prepared.  

1. Thank you for your questions.  A couple of other folks had some of the same about water and wastewater earlier, they appear below yours on this  current page with answers.  

As far as what housing types will be built in Molalla, that's what this process is all about.  No one knows what type of housing or businesses will come in, that is up to private property owners so long as they comply with applicable laws.  The goal of this process is to produce a technical report that uses data and public engagement to estimate the types and quantities of housing that will be needed over the next 20-years to meet projected growth, then to use that information to advises the elected representatives of the community on what housing policy decisions should or must be made. 

Now, on to getting roads fixed. The City Council passed a street maintenance fee a few years back like the one in nearly every other city of our size or greater in the region, and the voters overturned it by referendum which guaranteed that street maintenance would remain drastically underfunded. There are very few options to fund street maintenance as the laws surrounding the issues basically limit the remaining funding options to General Fund, and State Gas Tax sharing.  These limitations in concert with the states' one-of-a-kind property tax scheme mean that the funding for street maintenance is fairly slight, and more or less fixed year over year.  

City staff recently performed a pavement inventory and is in the process of preparing a street maintenance plan.  This plan will prioritize high volume streets, and streets that will require demolition if not immediately repaired.  The city will work through the maintenance on each street in accordance with priority until the available funding for the fiscal year is expended and pick up where we left off the next year.  

Another option that has been providing such improvements for years here in Oregon is the Local Improvement District (LID).  Basically, the LID process allows you and your neighbors to ask the council if you can form a LID and the City then performs the improvements on that street and each property in the LID is liened for their proportionate cost of the improvements.  The lien is paid down by each property owner in the LID over a period of years (or it can be paid in a lump sum) until it is extinguished.

With all of that said the Transportation System Master Plan lays out the long-term plans for Molalla's streets and is updated at least every 10 years.  You can find it on the City's website under Planning Department, Master Plans.