A Portland hearings officer has approved a utility company’s plans to cut through almost 5 acres of Forest Park, the city’s highly protected and locally beloved urban forest.
Portland General Electric plans to log about 400 trees within a section of intact, mature forest to relocate an existing power pole, install two new power poles and wire 1,400 feet of transmission lines.
Forest Park is one of the largest urban parks in the nation, spanning 5,200 acres in Northwest Portland. It provides important habitat for vulnerable species, particularly Northern red-legged frogs — as well as more than 80 miles of trails for Portlanders seeking easy nearby access to the wilderness.
PGE’s proposal has drawn fierce opposition from environmental groups and many residents, as well as the city of Portland itself. Earlier this year, the Portland Permitting & Development office recommended a hearings officer deny the project.
At that time, Portland permitting staff said PGE failed to fully assess alternatives to cutting through Forest Park. They also highlighted PGE’s plans to pursue additional grid projects that could impact another 15 acres within the park.
An undated photo of Forest Park in Portland, Ore. A Portland hearings officer has approved a utility company’s plans to cut through almost 5 acres of Forest Park.
Vince Patton / OPB
PGE says this project is needed to meet future energy demands, particularly as the company moves away from fossil fuels and prepares the grid to carry more renewably generated power. After the poles and transmission lines are installed, PGE says it will plant Oregon white oaks and other native shrubs, and it will leave some cut trees behind as habitat for insects and animals.
In her decision issued Friday, Portland hearings officer Marisha Childs called this case a “legal quagmire.”
“It is both true that as a society our energy needs have increased and it is also true that Forest Park is a highly valued environmental resource,” Childs wrote. “This land use case however, is about facts, not feelings.”
Childs found the city’s analysis “confounding and inconsistent” with local environmental and land use rules. PGE demonstrated that energy demands make this project necessary, Childs argued, and cutting into Forest Park is “the best practicable” and “least environmentally detrimental” option.
Childs' decision means PGE can move forward with its transmission project in Forest Park.
In a statement, Kristen Sheeren, PGE vice president of policy and resource planning, celebrated the decision, calling it “the most significant finding of facts about this project coming out of an extraordinarily detailed application process that included extensive public involvement.”
Some environmental groups disagreed with Childs' assessment.
“We do not think this project should move forward through Forest Park because you cannot mitigate the destruction of an ecosystem that has been growing since before we even had electricity in homes,” Damon Motz-Storey, Sierra Club Oregon Chapter director, said in a statement.
Motz-Storey did not say if the Sierra Club would appeal the hearings officer’s decision. Appeals cost upwards of $5,700, though they may be free for some neighborhood associations.
As outlined in Childs' decision, PGE will need to monitor its white oak and native shrub plantings for two years. It will need to submit maintenance reports to the city that include a count of the number of plants that have died and photographs of the restoration area. PGE is then responsible for the ongoing survival of the trees and plants after this two-year period.
