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| ‘There is no business on a dead planet.’ |
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| Interview with Tom Derry Friends of the Molalla River |
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Q: If the vote passes, the city has said it will directly affect the UGB and it could impede business, and that it would slow the city down. Do you see that as the case?
A: “The one meeting that we went to where the Department of Transportation lady from Bend (Karen Swirsky of David, Evans and Associates), she urged for the city to utilize the property inside the city and to go to more mixed use. So you consolidate your city and you have this beautiful farmland just outside of the city limits, and it makes for a much nicer and a much more livable space.
“And it’s happening all over the state of Oregon. I mean look at Sisters, for instance, where they have Pine Meadow Village where they have mixed use housing. They have retail. They have housing above retail. They have condominiums. They have single family residence. They have got this whole mix of housing and they created like an old time neighborhood, and I think the same could be done in Molalla, and it would make the town more unique.
“It would help business a great deal because of the fact that you would have people living in town.”
Q: Are you saying not expanding the Urban Growth Boundary would be good for Molalla?
A: “Yeah, I think it would be much better for businesses because it you’re creating a walkable town, and any town you can walk to the store in is much better than one you have to get into the car.”
Q: If there is a yes vote, do you think businesses will not come to the area?
A: “Not at all. I think it will be much easier. You will have a recreational resource running right along the edge of town. I was just at McDonalds last night, and over the period of 10 minutes there were like seven cars that pulled up. Every one of the cars had been to the river, and these people were all in swimming suits, and they had kids and they all went in there and bought something. I don’t think we understand the value of that river from an economic stand point.
“Everybody seems to think that if wastewater goes in, then everything will still be OK, but personally, I think that we will get the kind of reputation that the Willamette River has, and people will go someplace else.”
Q: Do you see any problems with a yes vote for the city of Molalla in the short term?
A: “I don’t see anything changing in the short term.”
Q: You say that you don’t see anything changing, but the city is saying it could face fines from DEQ, they could face fines from the Oregon Division of Land Conservation and Development for not expanding the UGB, issues with a moratorium on growth, they could lose the $12 million in grants they’re up for — do you think those are valid concerns?
A: “If those things do happen, it will be worth it because it will have protected this river. And the city has had a moratorium on growth in the past. In the ‘70s, there was a moratorium on growth. I don’t know why that was, and a lot of cities have had this. The city of Santa Barbara, for example, has a moratorium put on growth, because if you have growth, it needs to be sustainable. And you don’t want to compromise your greatest resource in order to obtain growth, because in the long run that is what brings people here. In the short run that’s what brings people here. You go out west of Portland, and it’s like a strip mall all the way to Newberg right now, and you go south, it’s the same thing, and you go north, it’s the same thing. This (Molalla) is a treasure. Rural Clackamas County is an absolute treasure, and when we realize that, it’s going to become extremely valuable.”
Q: What do you see changing in the long term?
A: “Long term I see the fact that we have a community that is really unique in the valley, and I think that once our city officials realize how unique it is, and when the general public realizes how unique it is, where you have rural feel and you have this beautiful river, the city will thrive.”
Q: The city talks about the damage to the city; if effluent does go into the Molalla River what damage do you think will happen to the river?
A: “I think it will have irreversible damage.”
Q: How so?
A: “Through heavy rain events where there will be basically untreated sewage going into the river, that will be one. Discharging into the river without adequate dilution or flow to accommodate the dilution. I would say not planning ahead for future growth, and I know that is going to be an issue down the road. They’ve already done this once, and then what do they do? They can’t keep the water, they can’t store, so it’s just like right now. They keep putting it into Bear Creek when they don’t meet the dilution factor, and there is no reason to believe that it is going to be any different down the road. And there’s the fact that the river contributes to the Willamette, and the governor has promised that he will clean up the Willamette River, so what is going to be the impacts of these Total Suspended Solids (TSS) and ammonia on the Willamette River. How is the water quality of the Molalla, which is already challenged, going to impact the Willamette?”
“I’ve harped on this, but this river is the economic backbone of this community. If they cause irreversible harm to this river, this community will break economically, no matter how many people live here.”
Q: You talk about the raw sewage, but at meetings engineers have said that is very unlikely occurrence as it has to be pumped up hill — is there reason you don’t believe them?
A: “I don’t have confidence in them.”
Q: Anything else you would like to say?
A: “How do you build an economy strictly on growth? You know what makes business in a town good is if the town is unique and if it’s charming. And ones with consolidated growth boundaries are those very towns, like Ashland, Jackson Hole, Silverton in some respects, and places like that. If you go to Bakersfield, Calif., you don’t find anything charming about Bakersfield. It’s just a sea of houses.
“The way I see it, the reason that we’re losing $40 million in town is because that these people living within the urban growth boundary, once they get in their car, they leave to do their shopping. If we accommodate them with a consolidated urban growth boundary where they can walk to the store, they will and they will shop here. And in turn, those businesses will accommodate them. That’s what I think.
“us ‘outsiders’ really do care about Molalla. We do all of our business there. We spend a huge amount of money in that town. We do care. We were in Silverton the other night and this girl was like, ‘yeah, there’s these hick towns around here like Stayton and Molalla. They don’t even have a day spa,’ and I got really angry with her.
“You know, you take offense to stuff like that. You know, this is a pretty unique place. And what makes it unique is this river and the fact that is a small community. Once we make it like every other community — once it looks like Beaverton — what do we have?
“Here’s the last part. There is no business on a dead planet. If there isn’t any place for people to live and no clean water, then what do we have?” |
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