June 9, 2008

Gorge Commission to debate boundary issues
Three expansion requests have yet to be filed with panel

By SUE RYAN
Hood River News

     The Gorge Commission will go back in time before moving forward in the discussion of how to handle pending requests to expand the urban growth boundaries in the region.
     On Tuesday, the commission meets in Hood River and has a list of heavy hitters lined up to discuss how the original boundaries of the Columbia Gorge National Scenic Area were established.
     The work session doesn’t handle any application requests. In fact, none have been filed so far with the Gorge Commission although three are known to be in the works.
     That includes a future request from Hood River County, which involves property bought by the school district near Westside Elementary for future schools. County planning director Mike Benedict said while the parties involved have held a pre-application conference, the county is not even close to submitting its applications to the Gorge Commission.
     “They (the school district) have a number of issues to resolve before even we can approve their application,” Benedict said.
     The other two pending requests involve Lyle and The Dalles. City manager Nolan Young said they don’t have a firm date yet on when they would start the process.
     The executive committee for the Gorge Commission met in Sept. 2007 to discuss the issue and recommended the full commission hold a work session on it. That will be Tuesday’s session.
     On tap to discuss the origins of the urban areas for the National Scenic Area will be:
     • Joe Mentor, former staff counsel to Senator Daniel Evans,
     • Mike Salsgiver, former staff to Senator Mark Hatfield,
     • Jeff Breckel, former director of Oregon and Washington Columbia River Gorge Commissions,
     • Mary Ann Duncan-Cole, city administrator in Stevenson, Wash.
     • and Steven B. Andersen, former planning director for Klickitat County.
     When Congress established the boundaries of the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area more than 20 years ago, they included 13 urban areas within its limits.
     The National Scenic Area stretches 85 miles from east of Troutdale and Washougal to the Deschutes River.
     The urban areas were intended to be where economic and residential development and growth were concentrated.
In Oregon, those urban areas include Cascade Locks, Hood River, Mosier and The Dalles. In Washington, the areas are North Bonneville, Stevenson, Carson, Home Valley, White Salmon, Bingen, Lyle, Dallesport and Wishram.
     The Congressional act that created the National Scenic Area was passed in 1986, and the bi-state commission that oversees its regulation was created a year later.
     The scenic area is managed on a partnership basis by the six Gorge counties, states of Oregon and Washington, the U.S. Forest Service and the Gorge Commission. Tribal trust lands within the Gorge are managed by the four Columbia River treaty tribes with interests in the Scenic Area. Those who play an important role in implementing the management plan and protecting cultural resources include: The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla, the Nez Perce tribe and the Yakama Indian Nation.
     The commission’s makeup includes 12 volunteers appointed by the counties and state. Under the commission’s umbrella are an assortment of committees that research and discuss issues to forward onto the general commission. One of these is the executive committee, which met last fall to go over the process for how requests to expand boundaries should be handled.
     Up until now, the original boundaries have remained the same except for adjustments in response to mapping errors. How to handle future expansion requests is new territory for the commission.
     At that time, Gorge Commission Executive Director Jill Arens stated that while no application had yet come to the commission, the pressure to expand urban growth boundaries was already there.
     “Congressional representatives have been fairly clear they don’t want the issue to come to Congress. The word is we should handle it locally, on a case-by-case basis, rather than all 13 at once,” she said.
     Although the Act established the broad purposes of its mission, the Commission interprets and administers the Act through its general management plan. The language of the Act spells out that mission as being twofold:
     “To enhance the scenic, natural, cultural and recreational resources of the Columbia River Gorge; and support the economy of the area by encouraging growth to occur in urban areas and allowing economic development consistent with resource protection.”
     During the years, a number of tools have evolved to assist the commission in its work including a 1992 boundary revisions handbook. Its intent was to help guide local jurisdictions through the boundary revision process.
     However, during discussion at the fall meeting committee members made it clear that the handbook was a guide and not intended to dictate policy to the commission.
     “What is in the handbook does not make it our policy; it is not in the management plan,” said Joyce Reinig, Hood River County’s representative.
     The Tuesday meeting begins at 9 a.m. in the Columbia Room at the Hood River Best Western Inn, 1108 East Marina Way.