A high-stakes push to add roughly 1,700 acres north of Hillsboro to the city’s industrial roster hit a wall on Wednesday, when a key Senate committee declined to move the plan forward. Supporters pitched it as a quick way to bank large, build-ready sites for semiconductor and biotech projects. Opponents saw something very different: a fast track to crack Oregon’s long-guarded urban growth boundary and pave over prime farmland.
Senate Bill 1586, the Oregon JOBS Act carried by Sen. Janeen Sollman, never came up for a vote and is effectively dead for the short session, as reported by OregonLive. The proposal drew weeks of hearings and hundreds of written comments as lawmakers weighed whether to let Salem redraw parts of the urban growth boundary. Backers argued the bill would lock in sites to keep advanced manufacturers from bolting to other states, while critics called it a legislative shortcut for developers.
What The Bill Would Have Done
SB 1586 was drafted to add roughly 1,700 acres to Hillsboro’s long-term industrial supply by immediately bringing about 373 acres into the city’s urban growth boundary and designating roughly 1,400 more acres as urban reserves for industrial use over several decades, according to committee materials. Staff analyses and maps spell out how the land would be phased in for development and include carve-outs aimed at limiting stand-alone data center projects on the newly rezoned acreage. Those documents and hundreds of witness registrations are posted on the Legislature’s site, according to OLIS.
Backers Say It Was About Jobs
Sen. Janeen Sollman told OPB the package was designed to keep advanced manufacturing and semiconductor investment in Oregon, arguing that without large, ready-to-build sites, the state would struggle to land marquee employers. “If we wanted to attract a large semiconductor or biotech company, it wouldn’t work for their business model,” she said. Hillsboro Mayor Beach Pace likewise told lawmakers the site is uniquely positioned and “build-ready” for the kinds of projects the state is aggressively courting. Supporters insisted the changes were about staying competitive with states that are rolling out the red carpet for chip and biotech plants.
Opponents See Farmland On The Line
On the other side, local farmers, conservation groups and smart-growth advocates lined up against SB 1586, warning it would unwind decades of land use planning and sacrifice high-value farmland for relatively low-employment industrial uses. Nellie McAdams and allied groups argued the bill favored fresh sprawl over reinvestment, pointing out that sizable blocks of industrial land already sit inside existing urban growth boundaries and could be developed with targeted public investment, per 1000 Friends of Oregon. Opponents also flagged the growing footprint of data centers in Hillsboro and the hefty tax incentives the city has used to lure them as reasons to hit pause, a trend covered by OregonLive.
What Happens Next For Hillsboro
With the committee choosing not to advance SB 1586, the proposal is unlikely to move during the current short session and would need substantial reworking or fresh political momentum to resurface. The legislative record is now thick with written testimony and coalition analyses from both sides, all preserved on the state’s information site, according to OLIS.
For Hillsboro residents, the stalled bill drives home a familiar tension: the push to land high-profile industrial projects versus the pressure to protect farmland, water and the local tax base. The measure may be shelved for now, but the fight over how and where the region grows is almost guaranteed to be back at the Capitol and City Hall.
