Wilsonville planners review industrial land inventory and favor state employment forecast for 20‑year planning

Wilsonville Planning Commission members on July 9 reviewed draft results of a citywide buildable lands inventory and an economic inventory that will feed an update to the city’s Economic Opportunities Analysis (EOA), and signaled a preference for using the Oregon Employment Department’s 0.85% annual employment growth forecast to guide 20‑year land‑need planning.

The work session matters because the EOA is used to comply with state planning rules and to guide infrastructure, zoning and investment decisions that determine whether Wilsonville will have enough development‑ready land for future industrial and commercial growth.

City staff and consultants presented two technical products: a buildable lands inventory (BLI) showing about 366 acres of unconstrained, buildable employment land inside the city and its portion of the Metro urban growth boundary, and an economic inventory with four employment growth scenarios. Nicole Underwood of Eco Northwest described the BLI methodology, saying the study area includes lands with commercial, industrial and town‑center comprehensive plan designations plus an undesignated railroad area being planned for industrial uses. Consultants removed mapped constraints such as floodplains, steep slopes, Title 3 stream and floodplain protections, and habitat conservation areas to arrive at the unconstrained acreage. Underwood…