By PATRICK JOHNSON
Wilsonville Spokesman
Regional focus.
It’s the tenor of two recent luncheons sponsored by the Wilsonville Chamber of Commerce. Last month, noted economist John Mitchell told a multi-chamber group about where our economy may be headed. This past week, Portland General Electric CEO Jim Piro spoke to the same multi-chamber group about the challenges facing his utility.
Piro spoke during the Wilsonville Chamber of Commerce’s Oct. 13 luncheon series sponsored by the Stafford Woods Conference Center, Hayden’s Lakefront Grill and Fred Meyer. The group of about 80 people met at Stafford Woods. Chamber members from Wilsonville, Tualatin, West Linn, Sherwood, Lake Oswego and Tigard chambers were invited.
Economic development depends on energy availability and costs, said Piro. To help rebound the economy his company is looking at ways to provide low-cost power to the Willamette Valley.
He said that a six-city region, which includes Wilsonville, West Linn, Lake Oswego, Tigard, Tualatin and Sherwood, has 90,000 customers and makes up 11-percent of PGE’s total customer base.
There has been a $45 million investment in infrastructure in this region, increasing capacity by 18 percent. Over the past five years, PGE’s entire system has been expanded by $775 million worth of projects.
“It’s one of the fastest growing areas in our service area,” Piro said. “Just in terms of large customers ... this area has grown by 18 percent.”
Piro said this growth creates challenges for his company. He expects the long-term retail load to grow more than 45 percent by 2030. During that time, several long-term power purchase contracts also will expire, driving the need for additional resources.
He hopes that through efficiency PGE can reduce the load.. To do so, however, the next 20 years will have to reveal new energy sources to meet the demand. “We do not have enough resources to meet our customer’s loads,” Piro said. “Today we go to the marketplace and buy that energy, but over time that surplus is going away. We cannot depend on the markets to provide those resources. We do not have a very vibrant power business in the west.”
Existing sources of energy for PGE include coal and natural gas plants, which make up the bulk of the energy production. Hydroelectric power makes up a smaller segment of the power, and renewable power sources, primarily wind, make up about 15-percent of the power generated. Piro said the goal is to reach 25 percent by 2025.
PGE has outlined several ways to try to help meet the power needs of his customers by 2015. Those include creating more energy efficiency measures, new renewable resources, efficient natural gas-fired generation and demand-side resources.
“Demand-side resources include time of day pricing or controls that we are working on,” Piro said.
He also said PGE will be putting environmental controls on its coal-powered Boardman plant in eastern Oregon. It has a proposal for a $750 million transmission line project which will connect the Boardman plant to the Salem area.
“Energy efficiency is really the cheapest resource we can acquire,” Piro said. “It comes from the customers changing the technologies in their home, changing to energy efficient lighting, using variable speed drives in business areas.”
Piro said he plans 20 megawatts annually saved through energy efficiency gains. PGE uses programs like “Save more, matter more” which recognizes businesses that save energy and also pledge to implement energy efficiency measures. “The most expensive load to service is the peak load,” Piro said. “The cold winter day or hot summer day where the air conditions are on or the heaters are on, that’s very expensive for us to serve.
For residential customers, Piro said PGE is looking at different approaches, including time-of-day pricing to give people incentive to not use power during peak times, and discounts for off-peak usage. He also suggested using “smart” appliances that react to heavy load periods and switch off.
“For example, hot water heaters. Electric water heaters don’t have to run at the peak hour,” he said. “They can run before that and then recharge after that. We are trying to find ways to set up a smart grid.”
PGE Website
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Friday, October 9, 2009
Government outlines H1N1 flu guide for small businesses.
The Department of Homeland Security and the Small Business Administration have paired with the Centers for Disease Control to create an H1N1 flu "preparedness guide."
According to Homeland Security, outbreaks of H1N1, also known as the swine flu, are occurring across the country, including a very large breakout in eastern Washington, and are expected to coincide with the return of flu season in the fall and winter.
The agency encourages small businesses to put strategies in place before the flu season hits. To view the preparedness guide, visit http://www.flu.gov.
Economist Speaks to Multi-Chamber Luncheon Hosted by the Wilsonville Chamber
While the economic downturn draws to a close, one question still looms: How fast will our economy recover?
Article by Patrick Johnson
Re-printed from the Wilsonville Spokesman
Noted economist John Mitchell, a former economist for U.S. Bancorp, and a professor at Boise State University, addressed this topic to a crowd of more than 150 at the monthly Wilsonville Chamber of Commerce luncheon series last week.
“We won’t know for several years how long the recession is,” Mitchell said. “But the bottom line is that it is drawing to a close – I think that’s the most likely scenario, is that we are about there.” New economic indicators were expected this week, but Mitchell feels the worst of the economic downturn will be over by the end of next month.
“Four of five months ago there wasn’t a lot you could point to,” he said. “But now building permits are off the bottom, inventories are coming down. Look at the motor vehicle business, their inventories are depleted, so what do they have to do? They have to make more cars. Industrial production rose in July for the first time since … the recession started. … All those leading indicators are pointing toward rebound.”
Mitchell said employment growth lags after the economy rebounds, so it will be a while before there is significant job growth.
“That’s when people are going to feel better about it, and that’s going to be a while,” he said. But how will the economy rebound? Mitchell said there are several ways the economy can grow. “A ‘V?’ Is it going to be a quick down and a sharp up? That’s what normally happens after a quick recession, but I don’t think that’s going to happen this time,” he said. “Will it be a ‘U’ shape, where we linger down here before starting up? Will it be the dreaded ‘W,’ a double dip, start out, back down, then back up. Nobody knows.”
Mitchell said he felt the rebound would look like the letter L, where the economy drops suddenly and then grows slowly.
“The economy is not likely to play its traditional role,” he said. “You have that saving shortfall that has to be filled, credit markets are getting better but not like they were. I think that’s the most likely scenario. But again, there is a great amount of uncertainty here.”
Mitchell reminded the crowd of a good economy for the past 25 years, so it isn’t surprising the downturn happened.
“Remember, the last serious recession prior to this one ended in November of 1982,” he said. “So between November 1982 and the end of 2007 there was recession basically 5 percent of the time. There are a significant number of people who have never seen a significant business cycle in their lives until this one.”
Mitchell pointed out that this week would mark the first anniversary of the Lehman Brother’s failure and the AIG bailout. “What an exciting anniversary!” he said to a crowd that broke out into nervous laughter.
According to housing data, Mitchell said the decline in the housing markets “seems to be over” and that Oregon is ranked 47th in the country in job growth. “But, hey, we are ahead of Michigan, Arizona and Nevada,” he said. According to national data, he said North Dakota is ranked number one. “Bismarck or bust!” he said.
From December 2007 to March 2009, household net worth dropped from nearly $63 trillion to just more than $50 trillion. Mitchell said many of the recessionary cycles are based around housing starts. This recession is no different.
National data shows that at the peak of the economy in 2005, there were 2.3 million housing starts per month. At the bottom of the recession in January, there were only 500,000 starts nationwide.
“Bottom line, that equity spun out over that time period, house value have gone down — a tremendous decline in net worth,” he said. “Now, the importance of that is what are the implications on spending down the road?”
In addition, he said, Oregon’s leading production of lumber and wood products has been adversely impacted. “There are a lot of new issues out there. How is this new system going to work? ” he asked. “I would love to be a fly on the wall in the next Chrysler negotiations, with (the United Auto Workers union) on both sides of the table – how is that going to work? Besides being a chamber of commerce luncheon, this is a GM shareholders meeting. Think about that.”
Mitchell questioned how the government will handle its fiscal policy moving forward.
“How do you unwind it, and when do you unwind it,” he said. He pointed to 1937 when policy makers hurt the economy by pulling stimulus out too early. But he also said the inverse was true, as when Kennedy-Johnson tax cuts in 1966 and 1967 combined with the Vietnam War and the Great Society programs led to increased inflation, but policy makers didn’t pull the tax cuts out in time. That resulted in high inflation in the late 1960s and 1970s. “It’s a very tricky thing that policy makers are going to have to do,” he said.
The lunch topic attracted a wide-range of people from the region, including Oregon Senate Majority Leader Richard Devlin, state senator Martha Schrader, state rep. Matt Wingard, Metro president David Bragdon, Clackamas County Sheriff Craig Roberts and Alan Kirk, Wilsonville city council president.
It was an event that included the Wilsonville, West Linn, Canby, Sherwood and Tualatin chambers.
www.wilsonvillechamber.com
Article by Patrick Johnson
Re-printed from the Wilsonville Spokesman
Noted economist John Mitchell, a former economist for U.S. Bancorp, and a professor at Boise State University, addressed this topic to a crowd of more than 150 at the monthly Wilsonville Chamber of Commerce luncheon series last week.
“We won’t know for several years how long the recession is,” Mitchell said. “But the bottom line is that it is drawing to a close – I think that’s the most likely scenario, is that we are about there.” New economic indicators were expected this week, but Mitchell feels the worst of the economic downturn will be over by the end of next month.
“Four of five months ago there wasn’t a lot you could point to,” he said. “But now building permits are off the bottom, inventories are coming down. Look at the motor vehicle business, their inventories are depleted, so what do they have to do? They have to make more cars. Industrial production rose in July for the first time since … the recession started. … All those leading indicators are pointing toward rebound.”
Mitchell said employment growth lags after the economy rebounds, so it will be a while before there is significant job growth.
“That’s when people are going to feel better about it, and that’s going to be a while,” he said. But how will the economy rebound? Mitchell said there are several ways the economy can grow. “A ‘V?’ Is it going to be a quick down and a sharp up? That’s what normally happens after a quick recession, but I don’t think that’s going to happen this time,” he said. “Will it be a ‘U’ shape, where we linger down here before starting up? Will it be the dreaded ‘W,’ a double dip, start out, back down, then back up. Nobody knows.”
Mitchell said he felt the rebound would look like the letter L, where the economy drops suddenly and then grows slowly.
“The economy is not likely to play its traditional role,” he said. “You have that saving shortfall that has to be filled, credit markets are getting better but not like they were. I think that’s the most likely scenario. But again, there is a great amount of uncertainty here.”
Mitchell reminded the crowd of a good economy for the past 25 years, so it isn’t surprising the downturn happened.
“Remember, the last serious recession prior to this one ended in November of 1982,” he said. “So between November 1982 and the end of 2007 there was recession basically 5 percent of the time. There are a significant number of people who have never seen a significant business cycle in their lives until this one.”
Mitchell pointed out that this week would mark the first anniversary of the Lehman Brother’s failure and the AIG bailout. “What an exciting anniversary!” he said to a crowd that broke out into nervous laughter.
According to housing data, Mitchell said the decline in the housing markets “seems to be over” and that Oregon is ranked 47th in the country in job growth. “But, hey, we are ahead of Michigan, Arizona and Nevada,” he said. According to national data, he said North Dakota is ranked number one. “Bismarck or bust!” he said.
From December 2007 to March 2009, household net worth dropped from nearly $63 trillion to just more than $50 trillion. Mitchell said many of the recessionary cycles are based around housing starts. This recession is no different.
National data shows that at the peak of the economy in 2005, there were 2.3 million housing starts per month. At the bottom of the recession in January, there were only 500,000 starts nationwide.
“Bottom line, that equity spun out over that time period, house value have gone down — a tremendous decline in net worth,” he said. “Now, the importance of that is what are the implications on spending down the road?”
In addition, he said, Oregon’s leading production of lumber and wood products has been adversely impacted. “There are a lot of new issues out there. How is this new system going to work? ” he asked. “I would love to be a fly on the wall in the next Chrysler negotiations, with (the United Auto Workers union) on both sides of the table – how is that going to work? Besides being a chamber of commerce luncheon, this is a GM shareholders meeting. Think about that.”
Mitchell questioned how the government will handle its fiscal policy moving forward.
“How do you unwind it, and when do you unwind it,” he said. He pointed to 1937 when policy makers hurt the economy by pulling stimulus out too early. But he also said the inverse was true, as when Kennedy-Johnson tax cuts in 1966 and 1967 combined with the Vietnam War and the Great Society programs led to increased inflation, but policy makers didn’t pull the tax cuts out in time. That resulted in high inflation in the late 1960s and 1970s. “It’s a very tricky thing that policy makers are going to have to do,” he said.
The lunch topic attracted a wide-range of people from the region, including Oregon Senate Majority Leader Richard Devlin, state senator Martha Schrader, state rep. Matt Wingard, Metro president David Bragdon, Clackamas County Sheriff Craig Roberts and Alan Kirk, Wilsonville city council president.
It was an event that included the Wilsonville, West Linn, Canby, Sherwood and Tualatin chambers.
www.wilsonvillechamber.com
Friday, September 25, 2009
The Chamber fills a newly created position!
Brandi Hereford will join the Wilsonville Chamber of Commerce in late September as the new “Events & Membership Services Coordinator.”
Brandi comes with a very relevant work history and knows the ropes of Chamber work, events, and membership-based non-profits. She comes to our Chamber from the Prineville Chamber of Commerce where she has served as the Executive Director there for almost two years. She was hired over 25 other applicants in Prineville because their board felt she had the skills, knowledge and enthusiasm to take their Chamber to the next level. She had previously served as the administrative assistant to the former Executive. In the last two years she has proven them right and they are sad to lose her. Her move to Wilsonville brings her closer to family and she is excited about the opportunity.
Brandi graduated from Crook County High School in 2001 and attended Linn Benton Community College in Albany, before graduating from Oregon State University with a Bachelor's Degree in General Agriculture. She also has minors in Agriculture Business Management and Animal Technology. Before moving back to Prineville after college, Brandi worked as an event coordinator for the Benton County Fairgrounds in Corvallis, Oregon and as an account executive for Ingalls & Associates, a marketing and event-planning firm out of Albany. Brandi has worked extensively with the Oregon Festivals & Events Association, Oregon Fair Association, and various other leadership programs. Her event planning specialties include conferences, banquets, trade shows, rodeos, and festivals.
Brandi brings a great deal of energy and ideas to the Wilsonville Chamber and we are excited to welcome her.
SIDE LINE
Sadly, her hiring comes in the wake of our long-time employee Debbie Hallander’s retirement. Debbie is a dedicated and hard-working person and she will be missed a great deal. On behalf of the staff and Board of Directors at the Wilsonville Chamber and Visitors Center, we want to wish Debbie a fun and RELAXING retirement. You deserve it!
Brandi comes with a very relevant work history and knows the ropes of Chamber work, events, and membership-based non-profits. She comes to our Chamber from the Prineville Chamber of Commerce where she has served as the Executive Director there for almost two years. She was hired over 25 other applicants in Prineville because their board felt she had the skills, knowledge and enthusiasm to take their Chamber to the next level. She had previously served as the administrative assistant to the former Executive. In the last two years she has proven them right and they are sad to lose her. Her move to Wilsonville brings her closer to family and she is excited about the opportunity.
Brandi graduated from Crook County High School in 2001 and attended Linn Benton Community College in Albany, before graduating from Oregon State University with a Bachelor's Degree in General Agriculture. She also has minors in Agriculture Business Management and Animal Technology. Before moving back to Prineville after college, Brandi worked as an event coordinator for the Benton County Fairgrounds in Corvallis, Oregon and as an account executive for Ingalls & Associates, a marketing and event-planning firm out of Albany. Brandi has worked extensively with the Oregon Festivals & Events Association, Oregon Fair Association, and various other leadership programs. Her event planning specialties include conferences, banquets, trade shows, rodeos, and festivals.
Brandi brings a great deal of energy and ideas to the Wilsonville Chamber and we are excited to welcome her.
SIDE LINE
Sadly, her hiring comes in the wake of our long-time employee Debbie Hallander’s retirement. Debbie is a dedicated and hard-working person and she will be missed a great deal. On behalf of the staff and Board of Directors at the Wilsonville Chamber and Visitors Center, we want to wish Debbie a fun and RELAXING retirement. You deserve it!
Economic Development Plan Adopted by Clackamas County
Over the past year, Business and Economic Development staff and the Economic Development Commission (EDC) have developed an updated Economic Development Plan. This plan will guide economic development policy for Clackamas County for the next five to 10 years. It contains a longer-term vision for the County, its cities, unincorporated areas, and business, community and political leaders. The plan helps decision-makers to chart a steady successful course, to weather changing economic conditions and continuously improve, diversify and grow our economy. Strategies will remain constant but the emphasis may shift based on the economic climate and opportunities to come.
Highlights of the plan include an overview of the County’s economic landscape, vision, guiding principles and specific strategies with action steps and indicators of success. The proposed vision is: “Clackamas County thrives as a great place to operate a business, raise a family and visit sites and attractions. Our County’s vision is to create a unique niche in the Portland Metro area as the “Pioneers of Innovation” - a business friendly place that fosters innovation, sustainable practices, attracts the creative class and embraces its diversity”.
The plan focuses on a five-pronged strategy to maximize success:
• Business Retention and Growth: Helping our existing businesses to thrive is a top priority whether they are small or large, or located in urban or rural communities.
• Business Recruitment: Attracting strategic industry clusters and firms that have the strongest potential to thrive here, invest and create well paying jobs.
• Infrastructure: Advocating for funding for additional infrastructure capacity and maintenance, while developing short- and long-term supply and improving quality.
• Critical infrastructure includes transportation, water and sewer, among others.
• Workforce and Education: Ensuring that there are available, skilled workers to meet the growing and changing needs of Clackamas County employers.
• Regional Collaboration: Leveraging efforts and resources in marketing, recruitment, and in addressing economic development challenges together. Collaboration will occur at the local level with cities and communities as well as with regional, state and federal partners. This flexible and multi-faceted approach will help ensure long-term prosperity for Clackamas County.
The plan was developed with input from the EDC, business community, cities and regional stakeholders.
View the Economic Development Plan
Highlights of the plan include an overview of the County’s economic landscape, vision, guiding principles and specific strategies with action steps and indicators of success. The proposed vision is: “Clackamas County thrives as a great place to operate a business, raise a family and visit sites and attractions. Our County’s vision is to create a unique niche in the Portland Metro area as the “Pioneers of Innovation” - a business friendly place that fosters innovation, sustainable practices, attracts the creative class and embraces its diversity”.
The plan focuses on a five-pronged strategy to maximize success:
• Business Retention and Growth: Helping our existing businesses to thrive is a top priority whether they are small or large, or located in urban or rural communities.
• Business Recruitment: Attracting strategic industry clusters and firms that have the strongest potential to thrive here, invest and create well paying jobs.
• Infrastructure: Advocating for funding for additional infrastructure capacity and maintenance, while developing short- and long-term supply and improving quality.
• Critical infrastructure includes transportation, water and sewer, among others.
• Workforce and Education: Ensuring that there are available, skilled workers to meet the growing and changing needs of Clackamas County employers.
• Regional Collaboration: Leveraging efforts and resources in marketing, recruitment, and in addressing economic development challenges together. Collaboration will occur at the local level with cities and communities as well as with regional, state and federal partners. This flexible and multi-faceted approach will help ensure long-term prosperity for Clackamas County.
The plan was developed with input from the EDC, business community, cities and regional stakeholders.
View the Economic Development Plan
Thursday, August 27, 2009
2009 Legislative Session Was Bad for Business
By Rep. Matt Wingard (R-Wilsonville)
With a poor economy and record-high unemployment, the Legislature should have improved Oregon’s business environment. After all, healthy businesses create jobs and generate the tax revenue we need to balance the state’s budget. Unfortunately, the 2009 Legislature defied common sense by raising taxes and passing mandates that will further slow our recovery.
You’ve likely heard about the permanent income and corporate tax increases that were approved. Salem used the current economic crisis as an excuse to not only raise the corporate minimum tax, but create a new tax structure that will hurt businesses regardless of their profitability. I encourage all chamber members to help put these tax measures on the ballot and give Oregonians a voice on this important issue. For more information, visit www.stopjobkilling taxes.com.
Corporate and income tax increases dominated the headlines, but you may have missed other new laws that could affect your bottom line. These include a new premium tax on health insurance that will further harm the ability of small businesses to provide coverage to their employees. The Legislature passed dozens of fee increases that will be passed to consumers who are already struggling to pay their bills. Businesses with high transportation costs will soon pay even higher gas taxes and registration fees. While this revenue will be directed to worthy transportation projects, Salem refused to utilize hundreds of millions in savings that could have been better spent on infrastructure.
In addition to tax and fee increases, the Legislature passed dozens of new regulations and mandates. For example, the Legislature passed a new employer “gag rule” that strips businesses of their right to require employee attendance at meetings that occur on company time. The Legislature passed a bill to give state agencies unprecedented power to regulate and punish businesses, such as allowing DEQ to enact fuel standards and excessive mandates on transportation equipment and parts. The Legislature also expanded Oregon’s product liability laws to enrich trial lawyers while exposing businesses to more expensive and frivolous lawsuits.
As your representative, I understand that Oregon needs a healthy business environment to create jobs. Some of my colleagues and I were successful in helping to stop bills that were even worse than those I’ve described, such as a statewide “cap and trade” program that would put our businesses at a competitive disadvantage. We helped stop a “product stewardship” bill that would give DEQ the ability to regulate, and ultimately ban, certain products. Democrats also failed to pass bills such as paid family leave and prevailing wage expansion, but they’ll likely attempt to pass these in future sessions.
Republicans introduced bills to reform Oregon’s minimum wage law by connecting automatic indexing to the unemployment rate. We sought to give employers the ability to keep medical marijuana away from the workplace, and boost our economy by providing tax credits to businesses and homeowners who invest in improvements to their properties. Unfortunately, all of these pro-growth proposals were killed by the Democratic majority. Overall, the 2009 Legislature was great for trial lawyers and unions. Precious little was done to encourage private sector job growth or to reform the regulatory environment for small businesses in Oregon.
With a poor economy and record-high unemployment, the Legislature should have improved Oregon’s business environment. After all, healthy businesses create jobs and generate the tax revenue we need to balance the state’s budget. Unfortunately, the 2009 Legislature defied common sense by raising taxes and passing mandates that will further slow our recovery.
You’ve likely heard about the permanent income and corporate tax increases that were approved. Salem used the current economic crisis as an excuse to not only raise the corporate minimum tax, but create a new tax structure that will hurt businesses regardless of their profitability. I encourage all chamber members to help put these tax measures on the ballot and give Oregonians a voice on this important issue. For more information, visit www.stopjobkilling taxes.com.
Corporate and income tax increases dominated the headlines, but you may have missed other new laws that could affect your bottom line. These include a new premium tax on health insurance that will further harm the ability of small businesses to provide coverage to their employees. The Legislature passed dozens of fee increases that will be passed to consumers who are already struggling to pay their bills. Businesses with high transportation costs will soon pay even higher gas taxes and registration fees. While this revenue will be directed to worthy transportation projects, Salem refused to utilize hundreds of millions in savings that could have been better spent on infrastructure.
In addition to tax and fee increases, the Legislature passed dozens of new regulations and mandates. For example, the Legislature passed a new employer “gag rule” that strips businesses of their right to require employee attendance at meetings that occur on company time. The Legislature passed a bill to give state agencies unprecedented power to regulate and punish businesses, such as allowing DEQ to enact fuel standards and excessive mandates on transportation equipment and parts. The Legislature also expanded Oregon’s product liability laws to enrich trial lawyers while exposing businesses to more expensive and frivolous lawsuits.
As your representative, I understand that Oregon needs a healthy business environment to create jobs. Some of my colleagues and I were successful in helping to stop bills that were even worse than those I’ve described, such as a statewide “cap and trade” program that would put our businesses at a competitive disadvantage. We helped stop a “product stewardship” bill that would give DEQ the ability to regulate, and ultimately ban, certain products. Democrats also failed to pass bills such as paid family leave and prevailing wage expansion, but they’ll likely attempt to pass these in future sessions.
Republicans introduced bills to reform Oregon’s minimum wage law by connecting automatic indexing to the unemployment rate. We sought to give employers the ability to keep medical marijuana away from the workplace, and boost our economy by providing tax credits to businesses and homeowners who invest in improvements to their properties. Unfortunately, all of these pro-growth proposals were killed by the Democratic majority. Overall, the 2009 Legislature was great for trial lawyers and unions. Precious little was done to encourage private sector job growth or to reform the regulatory environment for small businesses in Oregon.
September GAC Meeting
Catalyst
Government Affairs Committee
NEXT MEETING - Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Noon – 1:00 PM at Visitor Center
GAC members will have an opportunity to hear from Mark Clemons of Group Mackenzie, a northwest planning and engineering company, commissioned by the Oregon Business Development Department (The Oregonian, Aug. 9, 2009), to develop an economic model for predicting the economic value of new employment lands. Mark will explain how the model works and the result of work for the Wilsonville area.
Mr. Clemons presented to the Clackamas County Economic Development Commission at its meeting on July 22, 2009 a prototype study done for land in Washington County. The model analyzed the value of land bordering U.S. 26 west of the City of Hillsboro that the city wants earmarked industrial. As some of you are aware, I am a member of the Clackamas County Economic Development Commission. The Commission receives an update on the Urban and Rural Reserves process at nearly every meeting since I started serving on the Commission. County Commissioners Jim Bernard and Charlotte Lehan graciously gave up their time on the Commission’s Agenda for this presentation. I probably would be unaware of Group Mackenzie and its study had I not been a Commission member.
Group Mackenzie’s analysis quantified the economic output of existing employment lands and then used this data to project the economic output of an area immediately adjacent to the City of Hillsboro being considered for urban reserve designation. The economic output is measured in terms of payroll taxes, property taxes and market value. This model evaluates the financial productivity of employment lands and the importance of clustering employment lands to enhance economic outputs.
The Clackamas County Business Alliance (CCBA) has contracted with Group Mackenzie to apply the economic model to areas in Clackamas County. Data from existing industrial/employment areas will be applied to potential urban reserve areas to better gain an understanding of the possible economic impacts of clustering employment lands
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