Winterbrook performs a variety of land use and environmental planning tasks to support Multnomah County Drainage Districts (MCDD) and affiliated drainage districts.

The drainage districts face a myriad of issues surrounding FEMA accreditation for the 28 miles of levees and ditches that protect 12,000 acres from periodic flooding. Winterbrook provides on-call land use and environmental planning services. These services range from preparing district-wide programmatic permits, securing local, state and federal environmental compliance for District facilities, to developing strategies to improve and streamline local policy and regulations.

The following is a selection of recent projects:

Environmental Compliance Projects

• Winterbrook prepared environmental studies including impact assessments, wetland delineations, mitigation and landscape plans, and procured local, state and federal permits for a series of waterway and levee access projects.
• Winterbrook obtained local land use approvals for each project, including Environmental Review permits.
• Other tasks include on-call compliance inspections, mitigation monitoring, and review of archeological documentation.

Programmatic Permit – Urban Forestry

• Winterbrook led the development of a Programmatic Permit (PP) to manage tree removal, pruning and replacement throughout the District plan area.
• Through extensive negotiation with staff from multiple City bureaus, Winterbrook secured favorable tree removal and mitigation terms, and a full fee waiver for the PP.
• Winterbrook helped the District secure renewal of the PP for an expanded 4-year period.
• Winterbrook currently provides on-call tree management assistance for the PP.

City of Portland Policy & Code Review

• Winterbrook leads a multi-phase evaluation of Portland environmental regulations with the goal of developing new standards and exemptions for certain low-impact District improvements.
• Winterbrook engaged with District engineering consultants to review projects that could be covered by code and policy amendments.
• Short-term fixes target OSHA required safety improvements; longer-term strategies focus on facility improvements throughout the District areas.