Wilsonville Mayor Charlotte Lehan appears to be a breath-taking idiot:

"We could become a lot bigger," she said. "We're not effectively using our land. The idea that the population is going to double, so we have to double the UGB (urban growth boundary) is just absurd. We can become more dense."

Sprawling suburbs such as Wilsonville, with a population of 17,000, could pack in more people by developing taller buildings -- even five or six stories would do, Lehan said.

"Wilsonville could be 30,000 easily, or 40,000 or 50,000, probably, and hardly notice itself," she said.

Such a reckless statement ignores a part of the Oregonian article that seems not to matter to the mayor:

A Metro analysis estimated the Portland area alone will require $27 billion to $41 billion in infrastructure improvements to accommodate population growth. That means new or improved sewage treatment and water distribution systems, roads, schools, public buildings, energy plants and parks.

Yes, there is plenty of room for growth in Oregon, and we can do a lot of it vertically. We do have plenty of water — as the article notes, the Columbia and Willamette are largely untapped sources — but when the full range of needs are examined, doubling of the Portland Metro area, as is predicted to happen by at least 2060, will have severe affects we will not be ready for.

No one is ever ready for the world changing.

Measure 37 made planning for the future much more difficult, giving rights to individuals — and mostly to greedhead developers — over the communities and the future. Measure 49 repaired some of that damage, but the state and local governments are still facing tremendous difficulties because of the change in priorities. Not to mention the fact that we already have far less money than we need for roads, schools and all the rest of the infrastructure massive population growth will require.

And I haven’t even mentioned quality of life. We can pack more people into 5-, 6- or 7-story Wilsonville storage sheds, but where will they play? Where will they work? Do we stack the schools as well? Where do you park that many cars, and how many more roads would be needed? Mayor Lehan may be blithely optimistic about how many more bodies she can bring within her local taxing district — ok, it was rude to call her an idiot, but there do appear to be a few issues she has not considered — but I’m not.

Oregon is a beautiful state with what I think may be one of the most civil societies in the nation. With the climate changes that are coming, we may also have a responsibility to help those driven from their homes by floods, weather and other human-caused conditions. But to do so with no consideration for what makes Oregon such a wonderful place to live would be hugely irresponsible. We owe our future another responsibility: What do we have to do to maintain our state’s best qualities?

Saying your community can double in size with no acknowledgement of what that entails is tremendously irresponsible. Unless Mayor Lehan expects the state, Metro or Feds to pick up the tab, or unless she expects the new tax dollars to magically fix all the problems. In that case, I wasn’t rude and she is an idiot. I hope others are not.