A rural tract of land north of Hillsboro that’s been at the center of a years-long conflict will remain untouched – for now.

Facing ardent opposition from residents, farmers and land policy watchdogs, Sen. Janeen Sollman, D-Hillsboro, said Tuesday she will not advance a bill that would have brought more land into Hillsboro’s urban growth boundary.

Senate Bill 1586 would have brought 373 acres of rural land directly south of U.S. 26 into Hillsboro’s urban growth boundary for advanced technology industries, and re-zoned some 1,400 acres to develop for industrial use in the future. It also proposed to expand government tax credits for semiconductor and biotech manufacturers.

Backers of the bill said Oregon lags behind other states in advanced manufacturing job growth. The bill was an attempt to make the state more attractive to high-tech industries.

But the bill faced major pushback from opponents skeptical over language in the bill that would have allowed tech developers to build data centers as an “accessory” or part of a logistics warehouse, manufacturing or technology and research facility.

“After careful consideration of the feedback received and the realities of a pathway to passage on a narrow timeline, I have decided not to advance the bill,” Sollman wrote on a Facebook post on Tuesday.

Sollman has repeatedly introduced similar legislation in the past.

“I think Senator Sollman heard loud and clear not only from her constituents but from people all over the state that we’re not interested in poorly planned economic development that doesn’t result in jobs and destroys farmland,” said Nellie McAdams, the executive director of Oregon Agricultural Trust. “That’s not a goal that the state should be working toward or spending out resources on.”

The bill received so much feedback, in fact, that legislators had to extend public testimony on the bill twice at a Senate committee.

Sollman’s announcement comes after Gov. Tina Kotek’s Data Center Advisory Committee met for the first time Friday to begin creating policies on addressing the expansion and potential impacts of data centers across Oregon.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/03/03/hillsboro-will-not-get-more-industrial-land-for-high-tech-data-centers/