Columbia River Crossing Officials Call State Land Use Ruling a Victory

The One-State Solution

Officials running the project to build a new Interstate 5 bridge over the Columbia River say they see this week's ruling by a state land use review board as a victory for the project. 

The Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA) turned back 11 out of 12 challenges brought by opponents of the project, but sent the project back to Metro, the area's regional government. The reason: Metro granted land use approval for the project when a big piece of it -- the bridge portion itself -- was outside the area's urban growth boundary. Opponents had said Metro was shoehorning the project through land use reviews using a little-used 1996 law intended to speed siting of light rail lines, not freeway projects.

The Columbia River Crossing project does include a light rail line between Portland and Vancouver, but the line represents about 35 percent of the overall project's construction costs.

Here's what the Columbia River Crossing said in its announcement regarding the LUBA decision:

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