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On August 22nd, HBA submitted its first letter of testimony on Metro’s 2024 Draft Urban Growth Report (UGR) outlining our vision for a strong-growth forecast and speedy approval of the City of Sherwood’s UGB expansion request. The UGR is a foundational planning document that provides important data and analysis predicting our region’s housing and employment land supply needs. Required by state law every six years to forecast local population growth and measure regional land capacity, this report is used to guide Metro Council’s policymaking on a host of issues, chiefly for Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) decisions. For nearly a year, HBA has had a seat at Metro’s UGR Stakeholder Roundtable, where roughly 20 advocates from a variety of sectors explored and debated the ongoing technical aspects around our region’s growth trends for housing and employment land needs. Following this, and with input from stakeholder testimony, Metro’s Chief Operating Officer released her recommendation to council on how they should proceed with their growth management decision. Her recommendation, provided with a great detail of context, outlined a justification for just enough land to support the approval of Sherwood’s UGB request, but stated that no more land was needed to accommodate growth. HBA’s testimony asks Metro Council to go beyond the COO recommendation, and encourages a high-growth modeling to encourage more inclusive view of our regional land needs. Over the next month, HBA will be working closely with our partners in the business community to ensure that the region’s economic vitality is considered by council as they deliberate how to proceed. If you would like you get involved or to provide testimony at upcoming council hearings, please reach out to Preston Korst at prestonk@hbapdx.org.