Committee for Community Involvement - Nov. 18, 2025

Agenda

Date: Tuesday, November 18, 2025

Time: 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.

Minutes

CCI Attendees: Karen Bjorklund (Chair), Pat Erdenberger, Marrion Kaufman, Bill Merchant, Amy Nichols, Brent Parries (Vice-Chair), Danielle Weber

Absent: Stephanie Carkin, Gordon Slatford

Attending PGA Staff: Tonia Holowetzki, Maria Magallon, Ed Nieto 

Guest Panelists from the Planning and Zoning Division of the Clackamas County Department of Transportation and Development: Long Range Planning Manager Karen Buehrig, Planning Director Jennifer Hughes

Public Attendees: Marti Bowne (Hoodland CPO), Mark Hillyard (Hamlet of Beavercreek), Donna Hockey (PGA), Patricia Reinert (Jennings Lodge CPO), Leah Silber, Ric Sward (Firwood CPO), Tammy Stevens (Hamlet of Beavercreek), Lance Ward (Redland-Viola-Fischers Mill CPO)

MEETING MINUTES

1. Welcome, Introductions 

Chair Bjorklund welcomed CCI members, PGA staff, guests, and all attendees. 

2. Approval of Meeting Minutes

   Bill Merchant motioned to approve the October 2025 meeting minutes, and Vice-Chair Parries seconded the motion. The committee unanimously approved the minutes. 

3. Public Comment

   Two public comments were submitted via email, read by the CCI, and shared with Planning staff before the November 18 CCI Meeting:

• Kelly Bartholomew of “Save Stafford Road” suggested the County take steps to:
  • Ensure consistent interpretation of ZDO language aimed at protecting livability
  • Update its hearing procedures to ensure equal participation rights and avoid perceived bias in land-use proceedings, and increase transparency

She added that her goal is not to criticize staff actions, but to strengthen procedures so that all participants have confidence in the fairness of the process.

• Randall Yamada, of the Stafford-Tualatin Valley CPO, submitted a list of suggested zoning changes that he feels would help conserve open space, natural and scenic resources, protect adjacent properties, and establish a scale of development compatible with rural settings. Additionally, he suggested that the County take steps to improve early community engagement, transparency, and confidentiality rules, and to ensure fair and understandable hearings.

4. CCI 2025 Action Plan: Discussion with Planning staff about possible ways to protect/address elements of neighborhood/community livability in the Zoning Ordinance

   Chair Bjorklund asked Vice-Chair Parries to give a quick refresher for the audience on the CCI’s ongoing discussion of possible ways to protect elements of neighborhood or community livability and how that connects to the County Zoning Ordinance.

   Vice-Chair Parries stated that “livability” is often mentioned in county regulating documents but is neither clearly defined nor enforceable in the Zoning Ordinance. As a result, current land-use processes fail to protect residents' “livability.” 

   Chair Bjorklund emphasized that the issue the CCI is hearing about from CPOs specifically has to do with protecting the livability of people who already live in a community and the impact of land use applications on them.

   Jennifer Hughes said that state mandates and limitations significantly constrain the County’s ability to incorporate discretionary livability criteria directly into the zoning code. Karen Buehrig agreed, and the two discussed other obstacles that include:

• Clear and Objective Standard Requirements for all housing-related regulations
• State prohibitions on adding additional procedural steps for certain applications
• Prohibition of public notice for certain types of applications
• Limitations on public notice and appeals set by state law
• Elimination of the ability to appeal some decisions to the Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA)
• Lack of authority in rural areas due to the Forest Practices Act

Karen Buehrig also stated for the audience examples of elements that unincorporated communities want to protect that the CCI had provided them with prior to this meeting for their comments: 

RURAL unincorporated communities

• Trees - zoning ordinance to require homeowners to remove diseased and dying/dead trees
• Maintaining rivers
• Density - (homes and traffic) having the necessary infrastructure to build wisely
• Notification - informing neighbors of construction projects that may affect them

URBAN unincorporated communities

• Ensuring safety for people walking or biking along narrow neighborhood roads
• Ensuring realistic plans for parking on residential lots
• Preserving mature trees and tree canopy
• Preventing an increase in local flooding or water runoff
• Having developers who care about community concerns
• Ensuring that development is consistent with the existing character of the neighborhood

Jennifer Hughes and Karen Buehrig said the County is sympathetic to livability goals, but must operate within strict legal boundaries, cannot impose subjective standards, and must streamline processes under state housing mandates. 

However, they said that improvements regarding livability protections are still possible. They identified areas where CPOs and public input could still influence livability-related outcomes:

• Zoning Ordinance Rewrite/Code Modernization - The County is beginning work to make the Zoning Ordinance clearer, more usable, and more consistent. While this won’t allow subjective “livability” criteria, it may allow tightening objective standards.
• Transportation Planning - The Transportation System Plan update and Shared Streets program offer avenues to improve walkability and safety—factors strongly tied to livability.
• Stormwater Plans - The Stormwater plan approval process could possibly be changed to require the stormwater plan to be submitted earlier, with the application.
   
• Possible Future Work on Trees - The County must decide whether to repeal or replace existing tree-preservation rules, which creates a potential policy discussion opportunity.
   
• Developer Sensitivity to Community Concerns - Encouraging, but not mandating, community-developer engagement.

Karen Buehrig said she welcomed recommendations from the CCI on ways to strengthen her department’s engagement with community members. Jennifer Hughes said she is hopeful that the ZDO Diagnostic Report project will play a key role in significantly cleaning up code amendments over the next 18 months. 

Chair Bjorklund said CCI members will explore more specific ways they can help in the future to make the zoning ordinance more protective of livability.

5. Beginning the Biennial Process for CPOs to Select the CPO Rep to C4 (Clackamas County Coordinating Committee)

CCI facilitation of the candidate recruitment process (outreach to CPOs)

Chair Bjorklund reminded members that it is the CCI’s bylaw-assigned responsibility to facilitate the process by which CPOs choose one CPO Representative to C4 (two-year term), and one Alternate, with the deadline set for the first week of February 2026, when the C4 meeting is scheduled. She also mentioned the significance of C4 because of its role in transportation funding and housing recommendations.

Public attendee and Hamlet of Beavercreek Chair Tammy Stevens provided more context on the importance of involvement with C4, noting that one CPO representative and one Hamlet representative represent the unincorporated areas of the County.

Pat Erdenberger suggested that two weeks is sufficient time for prospective candidates to respond to the recruitment message.

The group agreed that:

• Two recruitment emails for candidates will be sent out by PGA beginning on December 1 in the inaugural CPO Quick Notes Monthly bulletin, with a second separate email to follow
• The deadline for prospective candidates to respond is December 17
• Language for the recruitment email will be culled from the 2023 solicitation

CCI facilitation of the January selection/voting process

Danielle Weber suggested using a fully electronic process with SurveyMonkey, describing it as quick and easy for voters and straightforward for PGA to tally results that are automatically sent to PGA. Danielle noted that this approach was successful for Stafford Hamlet’s last election.

Bill Merchant suggested a combined approach using SurveyMonkey and email for voting, as many CPO and Hamlet members are not technically savvy.  Tonia warned that a multi-system voting process could get complicated but was open to using both email and SurveyMonkey if voting was limited to the Chairs or Presidents of CPOS and Hamlets.

The group agreed that:

• The voting will be limited to SurveyMonkey and email
• Voting will begin in the first week of January
• SurveyMonkey will require the identification of CPO name and voting representative
• Email votes must also state the CPO and voting authority
• CCI, which also has one collective vote of its own, will take that vote at its January meeting, and the result of the CPO/CCI votes will be announced at the end of the CCI meeting.

The meeting adjourned at 8:17 p.m.

Next Meeting: Tuesday, December 16, 2025, 6 – 8 p.m. via Zoom.