Westside work group urges Metro and local leaders to fix industrial land 'readiness mismatch

A months-long Westside Economic Alliance work group presented to Clackamas County city leaders its findings that a recurring mismatch exists between Metro's buildable-lands inventory and what private-sector practitioners consider market-ready industrial land. Jamie, representing the Westside Economic Alliance and C4 staff, said the coalition included private developers, Metro staff, and state DLCD participants and met monthly from February through September to identify practical fixes.

"We immediately recognized there's so much with economic development that's so much bigger than industrial land," Jamie said, summarizing the group's conclusion that the conversation must focus on site readiness and not just acreage. The work group produced a memo with several recommendations that Jamie said align with a concurrent Metro Council work group and Metro staff proposals.

Key recommendations the group plans to advance to Metro Council and MTAC/EMPAC include:

- Adopting a clear problem statement that defines the mismatch between Metro's methodology and private-sector market expectations for "buildable" industrial parcels. - Creating a public, searchable grading and tiering tool that shows parcel-level readiness (utilities, ownership complexity, environmental constraints) so businesses can evaluate sites and local governments can coordinate investments. - Increasing local economic-development capacity (staffing and funding) so cities and counties can better prepare sites and pursue midcycle UGB changes when appropriate. - Publicizing and using a midcycle UGB-expansion pathway (available in state/local rules) that the group said has existed but is rarely used. - Exploring a forward-looking, market-guided methodology for forecasting industrial land needs rather than only projecting demand from historical trends.

Jamie and attendees highlighted past UGB expansions and pitfalls (e.g., under-planned infrastructure, annexation challenges) and urged stronger alignment between concept plans and later comprehensive planning to avoid losing critical infrastructure commitments. The work group identified several technical partners at Metro (including Ted Reed and David Tetric) who participated in the effort.

Metro staff in the meeting agreed there is value in better cataloguing site readiness and noted the political and forecasting challenge of protecting land for targeted industrial uses while avoiding misallocation to lower-value uses. Andy Shaw, Metro's director of government affairs, said the state has invested intermittently in the Oregon Industrial Lands Program and in brownfields cleanup credits, but officials told the group that funding levels remain modest compared with the costs to prepare large industrial sites.

Why it matters: Several local officials said new and existing industries (including AI and advanced-manufacturing firms) have differing land, utility and workforce needs. The work group's grading/tiering proposal and a public tool aim to reduce uncertainty for private investors, shorten timelines to market readiness, and make it easier for state and regional partners to target scarce public resources toward projects that would enable job growth.

Next steps: The Westside Economic Alliance will present the memo at MTAC and EMPAC later this month and intends to bring the findings to Metro Council. Local cities said they will continue coordinating with Metro staff and private-sector partners to pilot a parcel-readiness inventory and to consider staffing support and targeted funding.