Lifestyles Clash At Urban Growth Boundary

"What's playing out at the Sherwood subdivision off Southwest Roy Rogers Road is the latest fray at the fringes of the Portland area's urban growth boundary. Newcomers and old-timers clash. Land uses don't mesh. And rules and regulations often aren't that helpful in sorting things out."

"'They move to the rural area and then they want to change things around them,' Conzelmann said. 'It happens everywhere.'"

"In Washington County, which grows by 1,000 people a month, perhaps it's most surprising that it doesn't happen more often. About 94 percent of the county's 500,000 residents live in urban areas. And about 83 percent of the landscape is outside the urban growth boundary -- in other words, rural."

"Still, the pressure is at the edges."

"Washington County Commissioner Andy Duyck, who represents the county's rural areas, says callers complain to him all the time about common farm practices, such as propane cannons firing to keep birds away."