This legislative session, Senator Sollman is trying for the fifth time to bring 1700 acres of some of the best farmland in the world into the city's urban growth boundary. Each time it's for a different reason, but this time much of the land would likely go to data centers. Senate Bill 1586 also doubles Oregon's already-generous Enterprise Zone tax break to 10 years, for businesses, including data centers, so taxpayers would continue to foot the bill for corporate profits. Who would profit? Data center owners who are already wealthy, and landowners and their lobbyists who stand to gain hundreds of millions of dollars from increased property values after their land is brought into the UGB.
On this episode of Locus Focus we talk with Aaron Nichols of Friends of Smart Growth and Nellie McAdams of Oregon Agricultural Trust, about the purpose and design of Oregon's visionary land use program and how Senate Bill 1586 perverts its spirit and purpose.