Consultants say Cottage Grove faces industrial land shortfall; recommend infill, targeted UGB options

Consultant Beth Mayer told a joint meeting of the Cottage Grove City Council and county commissioners that an updated Economic Opportunities Analysis (EOA) shows the city will need about 102 acres of new commercial and industrial land over the next 20 years and faces a modest industrial land deficit.

Mayer said the analysis used a growth forecast drawn from state employment projections and local discussion and settled on an upper growth scenario that would produce about 986 new jobs. From that employment forecast the team estimated about 102 acres of land demand overall, with a roughly 13‑acre deficit of industrial land and a very small two‑acre surplus of commercial land.

The study found about 90 acres of vacant, unconstrained commercial and industrial land in the study area, roughly 64 acres inside the city and about 26 acres in the county, with about 42 acres of that inventory designated industrial. Most buildable parcels are small: “most of your land is on sites that are smaller than 5 acres,” Mayer said, and the city has only four sites larger than 5 acres (about 34 acres total) and no sites larger than 25 acres. Mayer also described standard physical…