More than 100 people gathered at a packed public hearing Thursday night for competing visions for the future of a rural area near Hillsboro.
Elected officials, industry leaders, and some residents advocated expanding Hillsboro’s urban growth boundaries to make way for a major semiconductor research center. Other residents, including farmers and environmental and land conservation groups, criticized the majority, calling it an unnecessary land grab.
Also at the center of the dispute is Oregon’s 51-year-old state land-use law system, which serves as a guideline to prevent overdevelopment of land outside metropolitan areas.
On October 10, 2024, local residents, farmers, and environmental, land, and conservation groups rallied outside the Hillsboro Civic Center to oppose Governor Tina Kotek’s proposal to bring rural areas into the city’s urban growth boundary.
Alejandro Figueroa / OPB
Last month, Gov. Tina Kotek announced her intention to incorporate 373 acres of rural land north of Hillsboro into the city’s growth boundary through controversial temporary powers granted by lawmakers during the 2023 state legislative session.
Related: Growing Oregon: The evolution of Oregon’s unique approach to growth and how it impacts our lives today.
Oregon government and industry leaders hope to earn the National Semiconductor Technology Center designation, a federal center of excellence, which politicians say will strengthen the state as a leader in semiconductor manufacturing and position it for the future. They claim it will provide jobs for generations of Oregonians. – They view Hillsborough’s growth boundary expansion as a tool to recruit research centers funded by the federal CHIPS and Science Act of 2022.
Other states, including California and New York, are also fighting for federal designation.
Vince Porter, Governor Kotek’s deputy chief of staff for administration, said, “Other offers include attractive packages, including sufficient land to develop the NSTC (National Semiconductor Technology Center) site, which can be expanded over time. I am aware that we are providing it.” “We must ensure Oregon is competitive to attract these opportunities.”
Officials say Hillsboro, with its large concentration of semiconductor companies, including an Intel campus, is the perfect location for the research center. And the 373-acre property just south of U.S. Highway 26 is ideal because of its proximity to other semiconductor manufacturing and supply chain businesses.
Elected officials, including Washington County Commission Chair Kathryn Harrington (left) and Hillsboro Mayor Steve Callaway (center), move to make way for Hillsboro’s urban growth boundary to clear the way for semiconductor development. On October 10, 2024, we expressed our support for expanding the
Alejandro Figueroa / OPB
“Oregon and Hillsboro have long benefited from the economic opportunity and some stability that this industry provides,” Dan Diaz, Hillsboro’s economic development director, told OPB. “For these reasons, we are approaching this and looking at this as a short-term and long-term need and opportunity.”
Oregon has long played a role in the nation’s semiconductor workforce. The industry employs approximately 33,000 people in the state, representing nearly 15% of the national industry workforce.
But farmers and land and environmental groups say there is a lot of unused industrial land in and around Hillsboro, and the governor needs to bring an additional 373 acres to the city’s urban growth boundary for a federal research site. He claims no. They also claim that Hillsborough developers are wasting industrial land by allowing data centers that take up vast tracts of land and have few employees.
Map of the Region Oregon Governor Tina Kotek has proposed adding an urban growth boundary for Hillsboro as part of an effort to attract a semiconductor hub to Hillsboro.
Provided by City of Hillsboro
“There is no evidence that the success of this application (to become a center of excellence) depends on this 373-acre property. If you have that evidence, let’s bring it up and have a conversation,” said Oregon Agricultural Trust Executive. Director Nellie McAdams said. “This process is designed to preclude really informed decision-making and decision-making that involves the public and those who will be most affected.”
Oregon’s land protection law was included in Senate Bill 100, passed in 1973. The law guides the state’s planning system and protects farms and forests from urban sprawl. Extending urban boundaries into rural farmland typically requires a long process that requires input from the public.
RELATED: Oregon’s unique growth rules kept open space, but also created new conflicts
However, Senate Bill 4 of 2023 gave the governor the power to circumvent that process if he determines that suitable land does not exist for semiconductor manufacturing development. This authority expires at the end of 2024.
Aaron Nichols, a Hillsboro farmer and organizer with Friends of Smart Growth, said the state’s land-use system exists and that some of his neighbors and colleagues are so passionate about protecting their land. He said there was a reason for it.
The Willamette Valley has some of the most productive soil in the country, capable of growing all kinds of vegetables and fruits, and once it’s paved, it’s gone, Nichols said.
“The amount of prime farmland we have is very limited and it’s disappearing at a rapid and rapid pace,” he says. “We know that if we don’t protect farmland, especially enough to build agroecosystems, we will lose farmland and the infrastructure that supports agriculture.”
Local residents and land conservation groups hold placards protesting the expansion of Hillsboro’s urban growth boundary outside the Hillsboro Civic Center on October 10, 2024.
Alejandro Figueroa / OPB
Oregon did lose farms and farmland. From 2017 to 2022, Oregon lost 4% of its farmland, or about 660,000 acres, according to the latest USDA Agriculture Census. The state has the second-highest loss of farmland among Western states, after Washington.
Not all residents and landowners oppose expanding urban growth boundaries. Some residents at the public hearing said the area Kotek is proposing to include in the growth boundary no longer feels rural and is suitable for farming.
RELATED: Oregonians once feared their state would be destroyed by uncontrolled, irregular development
Cindy Hodges, who owns land within the proposed 373-acre site, said she and her neighbors fully support the governor’s decision.
“We respect opposing views, but this is a historical moment in which we need to think big. Our opposition can best be used for the greater good or other purposes. “We do not support urbanization of land outside the UGB (Urban Growth Boundary), regardless of supporting data,” she said. “We are aware of no property owners within the identified areas that oppose re-designation.”
Kotek’s office will accept written public comments until Oct. 30. Kotek can then decide whether to move forward with bringing the land within Hillsborough’s growth boundary or include more land.
In September, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported that Intel and U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden had asked Kotek to expand the growing space by up to 1,700 acres to make the state as competitive as possible.
Opponents, including the land conservation group 1000 Friends of Oregon, said they would appeal the governor’s decision if he decides to move forward.
