Committee rejects narrow amendment to allow grub-control pesticide broadcast applications; item may still go before full council

The Portland Sustainability and Transportation Committee reviewed a proposed amendment to Chapter 34 (land use / pesticide provisions) that would have authorized a specific grub‑control broadcast application for athletic fields and modified the ordinance’s waiver language. After public comment and committee discussion, the committee vote to move the amendment to the full council failed in committee.

Staff said the amendment was drafted in response to a waiver request from Cheverus High School, which reported extensive turf damage from grubs and predator activity that has rendered about 20% of the playing surface unsafe for competition. Troy Moon, sustainability staff, told the committee the school had tried organic controls without success and that the proposed product is an EPA‑classified “reduced risk” option. Moon said the city consulted with the city attorney and then the Land Management Advisory Committee (LMAAC) on narrower draft language limited to the single product, to be applied by licensed applicators and reported to the city’s sustainability office.

Cheverus representatives told the committee the school’s campus master plan includes two artificial turf replacements and that the planning approval for those projects expires in November 2025; they said their immediate concern is player safety and playability in the spring and that the product’s narrow application window makes timing important.

Public commenters and several councilors raised environmental and process concerns. Speakers on the record urged the committee not to weaken the ordinance passed in 2018, pointed to the proximity of playing fields to Back Cove and shellfish habitat, and said public engagement and transparency were insufficient for a permanent ordinance change. Members of the Land Management Advisory Committee also reported disagreements in committee and a 2–1 vote at LMAAC the night before the hearing.

The committee then took a formal motion to approve and move the amendment to full council. The recorded committee vote in the meeting transcript was: Councilor Bullock — no; Councilor Ali — no; Chair Regina Phillips — yes. With that tally the motion did not pass at committee. Council members and the city attorney reiterated that committee recommendations are advisory and that the full council will have opportunity to consider the amendment on an upcoming council agenda.

Several councilors asked staff whether an alternative procedure could preserve committee oversight (for example, routing the product through the waiver process instead of adding a blanket exception). City staff and the city attorney said an amendment to remove the product‑specific subsection and rely on the existing waiver language could be proposed as an alternate approach, but that no binding decision was made at the meeting.

The committee’s discussion included technical clarifications: staff said the Cheverus field has drainage and is roughly 200 feet from the cove, that the proposed application must be performed by a licensed applicator, and that any use under the draft language would be reported to the sustainability director. Cheverus said the product’s effective application window is the first two weeks of May and that a delay could render it ineffective.

The matter may be placed on an upcoming full council agenda for further debate and a final vote.