Councilor DeForge's $3 Million Double Standard

Councilor Mark DeForge sold his Hillsboro-area property for more than $3 million. Then he told North Plains officials that Hillsboro “kicked me out” for data centers. That raises basic questions about credibility, truthfulness, and character.

Before Mark DeForge became a North Plains city councilor, he gave city officials a story about farmland, developers, and displacement.

In an April 2025 email obtained through public records, DeForge wrote that he had owned a farm outside North Plains for 25 years, but that “Hillsboro kicked me out last year for their data centers.” In the same email, he praised the current council faction for opposing Oregon’s development plan and said he appreciated that North Plains had not simply let developers “bulldoze wherever they wanted.”

That was a politically useful story.

It also appears to have left out the most important fact.

On April 22, 2024, DeForge and his wife sold their Hillsboro-area property at 5755 NE Sewell Avenue to the Hillsboro Economic Development Council.

The sale price was $3,062,268.

Public real-estate records also identify the property as an approximately 8.19-acre parcel and show the 2024 sale price at $3,062,268. Redfin’s property record lists the lot at 8.19 acres and the May 2024 sale price at $3,062,268. Zillow’s property record also lists the home as last sold for $3,062,268 in 2024.

DeForge had every right to sell his property. Most people would seriously consider a multimillion-dollar offer for their land.

But residents also have every right to expect public officials to be honest about their own story.

And there is a major difference between being “kicked out” and selling land for more than $3 million in one of Oregon’s most valuable industrial-development corridors.

Unless DeForge can point to condemnation, a forced taking, or some other legal action that required him to leave, the public record appears to show a negotiated sale — not someone being forced out.

That distinction matters.

Because DeForge is now helping govern North Plains, a city facing major decisions about farmland, housing, infrastructure, industrial land, tax base, and the urban growth boundary.

Residents deserve to know whether one of their councilors was forthright with them.

They deserve to know whether he presented himself honestly during his candidacy for appointment to public office.

And they deserve to know whether the standards he applies to other property owners are the same standards he applied to himself.

The Hillsboro area where DeForge sold has seen intense industrial and data-center pressure. The City of Hillsboro now reports 21 data center sites that are constructed, in permitting, or under construction, totaling 470 acres. The City’s own data-center page confirms the scale of that development pressure.

The Hillsboro Economic Development Council has also been actively acquiring land in the Jackson East/North area. A May 2026 HEDC agenda item states that HEDC acquired several parcels there in May 2024 and describes the area in connection with the North Hillsboro Industrial Renewal Area and semiconductor-related industrial land requirements. See the HEDC agenda materials here.

That context makes DeForge’s story even more important.

When regional industrial growth made DeForge’s own land valuable, he sold. Afterward, he moved to North Plains and aligned himself with a political faction that regularly warns residents about developers, farmland loss, data centers, and growth.

That is a double standard. One set of rules for him, and another for you.

If DeForge was entitled to benefit from development pressure near Hillsboro, why are North Plains property owners treated with suspicion for supporting responsible local planning?

If DeForge was free to sell his land into Hillsboro’s economic-development future, why should North Plains residents be told that growth planning is automatically corrupt, dangerous, or illegitimate?

And if the sale was voluntary, why did he tell city officials that Hillsboro “kicked me out”?

These are not personal attacks.

They are basic questions of credibility, truthfulness, and character — and those things matter when someone holds public office.

North Plains residents are being asked to trust this City Council with the future of the community. They are being asked to trust councilors with decisions involving land use, public money, infrastructure, taxes, fees, staffing, and long-term planning.

That trust cannot be built on selective storytelling.

It cannot be built on a victim narrative that omits a $3 million land sale.

And it cannot be built by public officials who criticize others for seeking opportunity while benefiting from the same forces themselves.

Mark DeForge had every right to sell his land.

But he did not have a right to rewrite the meaning of that sale when asking North Plains officials and residents to trust him.

The public record now raises serious questions:

• Did DeForge voluntarily sell the Sewell Avenue property?

• Was there any condemnation, forced sale, or legal compulsion?

• Why did he tell North Plains officials that Hillsboro “kicked me out”?

• Did he disclose the $3,062,268 sale when presenting himself as a victim of data-center development?

• Does he believe other property owners deserve the same right to benefit from land-use decisions that he exercised himself?

• And most importantly: was he forthright with residents and councilors during his appointment process?

North Plains deserves public officials who are honest about their own interests, their own history, and their own financial experience with development.

Councilor DeForge’s $3 million land sale raises serious questions about all three.

North Plains deserves the full story.