Bike lovers, farmers are unlikely allies in land use fight

Farmer Juvencio Arqueta chats with Washington County Commissioner Dick Schouten during a tour of the area on Monday. Arqueta’s farm is on land that the County wants to designate for future development.
– Slideshow below –
(Photos © J. Maus)

A bureaucratic process related to Metro’s Urban Growth Boundary seems like an unlikely front for bike activists. Even more unlikely is that they’ve become allies with farmers.

But that’s what’s happening in rural Washington County, ever since county leaders submitted a proposal to put 34,000 acres of prime farming and bike riding country north of Highway 26 into Metro’s “urban reserves”. The County sees the land as prime territory for high-paying jobs, much like the ones at companies like Intel and Nike, local stalwarts on the other side of the highway that pump millions into the regional economy.

But a group of residents, bike enthusiasts, and farmers feel like this area is much more important than jobs and that developing it into parking lots and office buildings would be a big mistake.

Metro’s reserves process is a way for the agency to give counties a say in how the Urban Growth Boundary grows — or doesn’t — in the future. Land put into urban reserves gets put on track to be absorbed into the UGB, paving the way for commercial development. Land in rural reserves, on the other hand, is guaranteed to stay undeveloped for at least 40-50 years.

During a bike tour on Monday, regional policy makers learned that the land in this area is not just an amazing place to ride, it’s also home to numerous family farms growing a wide variety of crops.

L to R: Metro’s Rex Burkholder, Joe King,
and ride organizer Kris Schamp.

Joining the ride were Metro Councilor Rex Burkholder, Washington County Commissioner Dick Schouten, Metro land use planning manger John Williams, Ingrid Nylen with Cycle Oregon, BTA Board Member Susan Otcenas, and others.

The ride was organized by bike event promoter and communications director of the Northwest Trail Alliance, Kris Schamp. After he heard about Washington County’s proposal, Schamp — who lives in Beaverton and knows several farmers in the Helvetia area — swung into action. He organized a ride last month to create awareness of this issue. Schamp originally hails from the Belgian countryside, a place where both bikes and farms are a way of life.

Schamp is coordinating his efforts with a group called Save Helvetia, which is working to persuade Metro and leaders of Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington counties, that this land is too valuable to lose to development. Cherry Amabisca, who owns a home in the area and who has fought similar land-use battles against landfills and prisons since the 1980s, is the group’s leader.

“Once land is put into urban reserves, it’s starts a slippery slope.” Amabisca said speculative developers will quickly gobble up urban reserves land, with the expectation that it will turn a good investment when it can be sold for industrial use down the road.

Farmer Matt Furrow.

On Monday’s ride, we visited farmers like Matt Furrow. He and his family have been farming their land just off West Union Road for three generations. Besides the hazelnut and Christmas tree groves, Furrow’s land is home to an annual herd of migrating elk (about 40 head strong) and a “maze of trails”. He and Schamp are already discussing plans to use it as a possible bike race venue.

Around the corner on Jackson Quarry Road is Dos Sequoias, named after massive Sequoias trees that owners Brian and Sharon Beinlich say were markers for a path used by Native American tribes well over a century ago. Brian is frustrated that the reserves process has gotten this far. “SB 1011 [referring to a Senate Bill passed in 2007] was created to protect farmland.” As far as riding bikes in the area is concerned, Brian said that if the area gets developed, “What would be the point of riding out here?”

Spencer Gates operates Gates
Century Farm.

Juvencio Arqueta feeds 85 families from just 2.5 acres of land on his La Finquita del Buho farm on Dick Road just north of West Union. Arqueta’s property is inside the proposed urban reserves and he worries about the impact development could have on his business. “It’s impossible to do this in an urban environment.”

“The thing you guys are doing here [riding bikes]… I see it every day. That is the beauty of being so close to the city. We have friends who bike from Portland to buy things from us.”

All the farmers were very supportive of bike riding. They acknowledged its popularity and were even supportive of having even more riders in the area.

Stuart and Melinda Wilson, owners of Garden Vineyards want to open up their large property and make it a haven of bike trails, both on-road and off (we didn’t get to visit them on Monday due to time constraints, but I’ll bring you more on that story soon).

Schamp is excited about future opportunities to build bike trails in the area. “There are more private landowners than you might think who are interested in building trails on their property.”

While discussing the unlikely partnership that has formed between farmers and people that ride on the roads surrounding their land, Amabisca shared an interesting comparison. “We co-exist with the elk — even though their presence can be a hassle sometimes — because we appreciate them — just like we appreciate people that ride around here.”

Monday’s ride solidified in the minds of attendees that the land north of Highway 26 surrounding the Helvetia community is worth saving, but the ultimate decision will come down to just four elected officials. The “Core 4” are Metro Councilor Kathryn Harrington, Chair of the Washington County Commission Tom Brian, Multnomah County Commissioner Jeff Cogen and Clackamas County Commissioner Charlotte Lehan.

Those elected officials will have to come to consensus over what gets “urbanized” and what stays rural. A decision is expected to be reached by next spring.

For more images of the farms and riding in rural Helvetia, see the slideshow below: