In an interview of Damascus mayor Steve Spinnett by Metro, mayor Spinnett said, “When I say, Metro going even into your backyard, that’s really literal. They’re going into backyard telling you what kind of plants you can plant or not plant. If you look on, I think Page 97, you’ve got to get permission for maintenance of your home. This is getting very invasive. Talk about invasive species, this is invasive.”
During the February 7, 2011 Damascus City Council meeting, the leader of Ask Damascus said, “In the plan where it states we need to go to Metro for routine maintenance, if we live in the restricted areas, and if I paint my house without permission am I then a criminal?”
Of the two elements mentioned in the above two quotes this post will focus only on the claim of obtaining permission from Metro for maintenance of your home, including getting permission to paint one’s home. After all, painting one’s home is part of a home’s maintenance.
As for Metro telling you what plants one can or can not plant in their yard, that will be the subject for a future post.
It should be noted that I presume the claims made by mayor Spinnett and the Ask Damascus leader tie to the Damascus Concept Plan adopted by the City and sent to the DLCD and LCDC for review. The two statements are also not the only time I have heard claims being made about having to get permission from Metro. Because I have heard these claims several times I thought it would be good to analyze the claims.
So the question at hand for this post is, “Do we need to call Metro to get permission to paint our house?”
The answer to that question is “No.”.
In the interest of trying to outline such a procedure in this post I contacted Metro and they were surprised such claims were being made. So again, the answer to this claim is “No.”.
The claim about having to contact Metro to get permission to paint your own home got me thinking……
1). First of all, my interpretation of the claim that one must get permission before painting one’s home leads me to think that a specific style has been set across the entire Portland metropolitan area whereby only certain colors may be used for the painting of one’s home. Where I have seen such enforcement of home colors has been under a respective subdivision’s Home Owner Association (HOA) rules. I have never heard or read where Damascus intends to enforce a specific color palette to which all homes need to be painted. The humorous side of me then says if so I may wish to open up a paint shop and carry only the specific colors that can be used for the painting of homes. Hmmmmm….. Definite demand with a lower than typical inventory. Sounds like a winning deal! However, if you have questions over this, I suggest you contact Metro as well.
2). The claims made by the mayor as well as those from Ask Damascus claim that permission would need to come from Metro. If Metro is involved this means the same rules apply for all areas within the Portland metropolitan area that is included within the Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) . As a reminder the UGB includes large areas of Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington Counties. Cities within the UGB include Damascus, Happy Valley, Oregon City, West Lynn, Gresham, Lake Oswego, Portland, Tigard, Tualatin, Sherwood, Beaverton and Hillsboro to name a few. Every resident, condo complex, townhouse complex, apartment complex who wants to paint their home or complex needs to first get permission from Metro? Really?
3). When driving around cities within the UGB there are homes which standout for their “uniqueness” with regards to the color(s) with which the homes were painted. So if there is an established “Metro” color palette for what colors one’s home can/needs to be painted, it is certainly (in my opinion) a lax rule. The reason I say this is in one day I happened to run across the following homes which seemed to be painted in colors that were outside the norm of other homes in their neighborhood.
Unusually Blue House
Unusually Orange House
Unusually Red House
Unusually Purple- Light Blue House
Unusually Multi-Colored House
I have nothing against the colors chosen in the painting of the above respective premises.
Some I like, some I don’t like, but the colors used were not my choice; it was the choice of the home owner. I guess the old adage, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” applies here. Therefore, to say which colors “should” be used and which ones “should not” be used is certainly not up to me as it is an individual choice of the property owner. With the variety of colors involved I find it difficult to imagine the process one would need to go through to have Metro sign off on such color schemes. If an HOA is involved it is up to the members of the respective HOA to determine which colors they wish to have in their development covered by their respective HOA.
So is the claim of having to contact Metro to get their permission in order to do normal maintenance on your home or even paint your home accurate? In my opinion, based upon my research and what I have seen, the answer is “No“.
From what I have run into through my research and seen of “colorful” houses within the Portland metropolitan area, it leads me to believe that such claims are misleading.
Again, if you have reservations over my logic please feel free to do your own research and contact Metro.
