McMinnville adopts updated parks, recreation and open-space plan into city comprehensive plan

The McMinnville City Council voted unanimously to adopt ordinance 5157, incorporating relevant portions of the June 2024 Parks, Recreation and Open Space (PROS) Plan into the city's comprehensive plan.

Councilors approved the ordinance on a first and second reading after staff and the planning commission recommended amendments. The ordinance brings park inventory and open-space background data into Volume 1 of the comp plan, updates goals and policies in Volume 2, and amends the framework plan in Volume 3 to reflect a reduced parkland level-of-service and adjusted acreage in the city's urban growth boundary expansion areas.

City planners told the council the PROS update reduces the adopted acreage level of service from 14 acres per 1,000 residents to 10.3 acres per 1,000 residents and, for the UGB expansion areas, reduces the future parkland allocation roughly from 254 acres to 127 acres. Staff said the change reflects updated population planning, an equity-based methodology for siting parks (proximity, socioeconomics and density), and recognition of recent constraints on building in floodplain, steep-slope and protected habitat areas.

The planning commission held a public hearing in November 2024 and deliberated in December 2024 before forwarding a recommendation. Staff recommended several technical changes to the planning commission's recommendation; the council adopted the ordinance in that amended form. Among the edits adopted by council was removal from the land-use adoption of portions of the PROS report that address maintenance standards and recreation programming, language staff said belongs in internal program documents rather than the comp plan.

Council discussion focused on two recurring themes: (1) whether the plan's reduced acreage target properly balances acquisition and long-term maintenance costs, and (2) a new comp-plan policy that makes the parks director the initial decision-maker about whether the city will acquire specific parcels identified in the PROS plan.

Councilor concerns about the acquisition authority prompted staff to propose returning with a separate property-acquisition framework for council consideration. City staff said final property purchases would still require council approval, but the new policy (comp-plan policy 170.18 as adopted) authorizes the parks director to decline acquisition of a parcel identified in the PROS plan if the director determines acquisition would not meet the city's needs based on the plan's standards and financial/maintenance analysis. Staff and a consultant explained the policy is intended as a practical "relief valve" to prevent the city from taking on sites it cannot afford to maintain.

The council also reviewed public testimony submitted to the planning commission and asked staff to ensure the Fox Ridge Road area plan language matches the updated PROS classification: staff said a parcel previously characterized as a "community park" in that area better fits the PROS definition of a natural-resource greenway and the adopted amendments align those documents.

After councilors moved and seconded the ordinance in amended form, a roll-call vote recorded unanimous approval. The council directed staff to return if further changes to land-acquisition procedures are warranted and to provide more detail on maintenance budgeting and acquisition procedures in a follow-up staff report.

The ordinance adds the PROS background, revised goals and framework-plan amendments as exhibits to the comprehensive plan. It removes or narrows sections of the PROS report dealing with maintenance standards and programming from the land-use adoption and leaves those items to be implemented through departmental budget and program documents.