The Portland City Council moved Thursday to reject a Portland General Electric (PGE) transmission upgrade project in Forest Park that would require the utility to clearcut more than 370 trees on about 5 acres in the park.
The decision Thursday night – described as “tentative” until a final vote on May 7 – came after councilors considered appeals by the Forest Park Conservancy and Forest Park Neighborhood Association to overturn a city of Portland hearings officer approval in March of PGE’s proposal.
The vote followed five hours of presentations and public testimony and directs city attorneys to write an ordinance to grant the appeals and overturn the hearings officer’s decision. PGE can appeal to the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals.
PGE wants to rewire a 1970s transmission line and add a second line in the utility’s existing right-of-way and said the upgrade will address an increase in the region’s energy demand and prevent rolling blackouts in North and Northwest Portland.
A report from Portland’s Permitting and Development Office in January recommended that the hearings officer turn down PGE’s project due to non-compliance with environmental standards and the city’s Forest Park management plan.
But hearings officer Marisha Childs last month went against those recommendations, agreeing with PGE about the need for the project and finding that routing through Forest Park “is the least environmentally detrimental option” of all the alternatives PGE analyzed.
The two groups that filed the appeals said PGE failed to meet city approval criteria and that the project would set a precedent for further development in the park.
PGE’s proposal had touched off a months-long clash between the utility and opponents who seek to protect the trees in the 5,200-acre park because they provide valuable habitat for countless wildlife species and climate benefits to all city residents.
More than 3,000 people filed testimony about the project, including over 1,000 who sent in comments ahead of the appeals hearing, with the vast majority against the upgrade.
Several hundred protesters gathered at City Hall before the hearing. They held cardboard cutouts of trees, animals, and insects and signs that read “Save Forest Park,” “No more ecocide,” and “You have to be nuts to destroy Forest Park.”
“It’s important to have more energy transmission infrastructure, power lines, and responsive grids, yet this is one of the situations where it is very clear there is no ambiguity. PGE can build this project elsewhere in order to keep the lights on,” Damon Motz-Storey, the Sierra Club Oregon chapter’s director, told the crowd. “These trees have been standing since before we even had electricity in homes.”
Motz-Storey then led the rally in a chant: “Listen to the people and the trees, not PGE.”
Protesters and park advocates filled the council chambers and two overflow rooms, testifying one after another that the PGE project runs counter to the city’s plan to sustain an old-growth forest in Forest Park and asking for the council to save the trees and protect the park.
“This project is unacceptable to us and the community and the critters and plants that depend on us to say no to cutting trees, building roads, bulldozing, filling in wetlands and streams and saying this is good for climate resilience,” said Scott Fogarty, executive director with Forest Park Conservancy, the group that filed one of the appeals. The conservancy formed to maintain trails and restore native habitat in the park.
Fogarty said PGE’s proposed plan to offset losses from the upgrade does not address cutting down 100-year-old trees and the benefits they bring. The mitigation proposal includes planting Oregon white oak seedlings near the project area, seeding the transmission corridor and access road edges with a pollinator-friendly native seed mix, and paying a fee to the city to remove invasive species in the park.
He also said the upgrade would pave the way for city approval of future phases of the project in Forest Park and lead to more tree removal. PGE has said those future phases could affect another 15 acres of the park.
“Is 5 acres acceptable? Is 20 acres acceptable? Where do we draw the line?” Fogarty asked the council members. “One could argue losing just one 100-year-old tree is unacceptable, let alone 5 acres. In the age of climate resilience, this project flies in the face of retaining carbon suckers in a region that is seeing increased impacts from climate change, including potential fire danger.”
PGE argued before the council that the project area is neither old nor ancient forest and that the maintenance of existing transmission lines is key to preserving blackout-free electricity.
“Alleviating this choke point is important because our experts predict that as early as 2028 there is the risk of outages during times of peak demand,” said Randy Franks, a senior project manager for PGE. “Think about the hottest part of the day, during an ongoing heat wave, with no fans and no air conditioning.”
Franks said the more than 20 alternatives PGE examined were not practical, would require the utility to take property through eminent domain, would take too much time or cost too much – and could lead to similar or even greater negative impacts to trees and wildlife outside the park. He said the city’s Forest Park management plan acknowledges the existence of utility corridors and the need to maintain and upgrade them over time, and that doing so will help reduce global warming.
“If we are serious about combating climate change, we simply have to improve the grid, keep it reliable, and increase transmission capacity,” Franks said.
Only a handful of people testified in favor of PGE’s plans.
“Utilities around the country, including ours, are facing the most rapid load increases in a generation and concomitant reliability challenges. At the same time, our state is laboring to remove from the grid the coal and gas plants that are fueling climate change locally,” said Angus Duncan, the former chair of the Northwest Conservation and Power Planning Council, a group tasked with developing and maintaining a regional power plan. “We need to rebuild the power system to exclude fossil generation.”
Council member Angelita Morillo questioned the assertion that PGE’s proposal would help combat climate change, and Steve Novick said the utility did not provide enough evidence that the grid will become unreliable by 2028.
Other councilors said they did not feel PGE had proved an alternative outside the park was unfeasible and did not present a compelling mitigation plan. And most of the 12 council members said they disagreed with PGE and the hearings officer that the proposal meets the parameters of the park’s management plan.
“Ultimately, I think what has been proposed is probably the best option in the park,” said Councilor Eric Zimmerman. But, he said, nothing in PGE’s proposal showed that the council should overrule the Forest Park management plan.
“I don’t think the standard has been met to not follow that plan,” Zimmerman said.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney agreed.
“If an alternative (to the project) exists, we should not be granting an exception,” she said.
Councilor Dan Ryan said the decision will likely be one of many to pit the needs for clean electricity against those of protecting the environment.
“Portland will be having more and more tough decisions that include extremely difficult trade-offs. This is just where we are in managing the climate crisis,” Ryan said. “I think PGE worked really hard to find the best option, and yet we all want a different option.”
That’s because, he added, he – like other Portlanders – loves the park and its trees.
“Forest Park is a cathedral,” Ryan said. “And maybe it’s Holy Week, and I’m just treating this in a very spiritual way, but it’s just really difficult for me to think I could take a vote that would on the appearance be about deforesting Forest Park during this sacred week.”
Kristen Sheeran, vice president of policy and resource planning at PGE, said the utility is disappointed by the Portland City Council’s tentative vote.
“The need for this project remains urgent. We will review the findings when released to determine the next step necessary – including a potential appeal to the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals – in order to continue delivering reliable, safe service that this project would have achieved,” Sheeran said in a statement.
image source from：https://www.oregonlive.com/environment/2025/04/portland-city-council-tentatively-rejects-controversial-pge-forest-park-transmission-project.html
