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Woodburn staff recommends removing 2,500 peak‑hour trip cap in SW industrial area
Summary
City staff told the Planning Commission it recommends striking a 2,500 peak‑hour trip cap tied to a 20‑year planning horizon in the interchange management overlay while retaining parcel‑level trip budgets and other IMA protections. Staff said the cap could become a de facto moratorium if left in place.
City staff recommended that the Planning Commission remove a 2,500 peak‑hour trip cap from the interchange management overlay in the Woodburn Development Ordinance while keeping parcel‑level trip budgets and other protections in place.
Chris Kirk, the city’s community development director, told commissioners that the 2,500 number was set as a planning‑horizon cap and that staff’s interpretation is it was intended to apply through 2025. “That cap, that budget cap was set at 2,500 peak hour trips,” Kirk said during the presentation. He argued that leaving the cap in place after the planning horizon ends could “severely impact our ability to approve any future developments in the area” and could function as an effective moratorium when the cap is reached.
Staff said the parcel‑level trip budgets that allocate peak‑hour trips to individual vacant lots would remain and that other IMA provisions — such as required Transportation Demand Management (TDM) measures and full Traffic Impact Analyses (TIAs) — would remain in force. Kirk stated staff’s current tally of counted peak‑hour trips in the Southwest Industrial Reserve is “about, I wanna say, 1,800 or so,” leaving some room under the cap but not enough to guarantee continued approvals if a single large project arrives.
The commission heard from ODOT representatives who disagreed with removing the cap (see separate article). Commissioners questioned how peak hours are defined, how offsets (shift changes or TDM) affect counts, and what process would be needed to amend the IAMP; staff and ODOT described the alternative mobility target and TDM tools as mechanisms to manage demand. After deliberation the commission voted to recommend LA 23‑01 be forwarded to City Council for review and adoption with the staff amendments.
