South Hillsboro Annexation and Funding Strategy

Hillsboro, OR

As the fifth largest city in Oregon, the City of Hillsboro (pop. 107K), is a rapidly growing community within the greater Portland metropolitan area. Our team has assisted the city for over two decades on financial, economic and planning projects including preparing the funding element of the citywide transportation system plan, calculating development impact fees and evaluating utility rates.

Our team also developed the funding and annexation strategy for the 500-acre South Hillsboro community plan area, the largest master planned development in Oregon. Work included a detailed financial sustainability analysis of potential general fund impacts attributed to 8,000 dwelling units and nearly 1M sq. ft. of office and commercial buildings, three new schools, major regional recreational center and parks facilities. To address South Hillsboro impacts, we created local ordinances that included development of a new local transportation system development charge (impact fees), local improvement district for early action transportation connections, and a new community service utility fee for parks and pathways. Given the success of our work on South Hillsboro, we were subsequently asked to develop a similar funding and annexation strategy for the adjacent 150-acre Witch Hazel Village community plan area.