Twenty Oregon lawmakers, unhappy with new legislation that give Gov. Tina Kotek temporary authority to designate farmland for industrial development, suggested Thursday that she look to high-profile golf courses instead.
Their suggestion probably isn’t realistic – the golf courses are in private hands and the owners have given no indication they would consider selling, regardless of whether or not the land is available to industry.
And both courses, Pumpkin Ridge near North Plains and the Reserve Vineyards and Golf Club in Aloha, are outside the dense cluster of semiconductor manufacturers and suppliers in Hillsboro. (Neither club’s management responded to calls seeking comment.)
With their proposal, though, the lawmakers – equally split between Democrats and Republicans — are calling attention to their concerns about what the new legislation says about the future of Oregon agriculture.
“Farmland has inadequate protections in the bill,” they wrote. “Large, open fields in the Willamette Valley are not purposeless. These fields are feeding our families, Oregonians, and the world. A member-only golf course does not.”
Kotek signed Senate Bill 4 on Thursday after it passed the House and Senate by wide, bipartisan margins. The legislation provides $190 million in grants and loans for chipmakers and their suppliers, $10 million for academic research and $10 million for industrial site development.
More controversially, the bill gives Kotek the authority to designate hundreds of acres of rural land for industrial development through the end of 2024.
The nationally known Pumpkin Ridge course is 350 acres, according to the lawmakers, and the Reserve is 319 acres. Each would be big enough for a modest-sized chip factory or a large industry supplier, but there’s no evidence that any developer has ever considered building on them.
Pumpkin Ridge is outside the North Plains urban growth boundary. It’s among the most prestigious golf courses on the West Coast and doesn’t appear to be a candidate for redevelopment.
— Mike Rogoway | mrogoway@oregonian.com |
Our journalism needs your support. Please become a subscriber today at OregonLive.com/subscribe
