Page 355 - Environment: The Science Behind the Stories

CENTRAL CASE STUDYCENTRAL CASE STUDY

Managing Growth

in Portland, Oregon

Vancouver CANADA

Seattle “Sagebrush subdivisions, coastal condomania, and
the ravenous rampage of suburbia in the Willamette
Portland Valley all threaten to mock Oregon’s status as the
OREGON environmental model for the nation.”

—Oregon Governor Tom McCall, 1973

Salt Lake City “We have planning boards. We have zoning regula-
Denver tions. We have urban growth boundaries and ‘smart

San Francisco growth’ and sprawl conferences. And we still have
UNITED STATES sprawl.”
Pacific
Ocean —Environmental scientist Donella Meadows, 1999

With the fighting words above, Oregon governor Tom McCall focus growth on existing urban centers and to build communi-
challenged his state’s legislature in 1973 to take action against ties where people can walk, bike, or take mass transit between
runaway sprawling development, which many Oregon resi- home, work, and shopping. These policies have largely worked
dents feared would ruin the communities and landscapes they as intended. Portland’s downtown and older neighborhoods
loved. McCall was echoing the growing concerns of state resi- have thrived, regional urban centers are becoming denser and
dents that farms, forests, and open space were being gobbled more community oriented, mass transit has expanded, and
up and paved over. development has been limited on land beyond the UGB. Port-
Foreseeing a future of subdivisions, strip malls, and traffic land began attracting international attention for its “livability.”
jams engulfing the pastoral Willamette Valley, Oregon acted. To many Portlanders today, the UGB remains the key to
The state legislature passed Senate Bill 100, a sweeping land maintaining quality of life in city and countryside alike. In the
use law that would become the focus of acclaim, criticism, and view of its critics, however, the “Great Wall of Portland” is an
careful study for years afterward by other states and communi- elitist and intrusive government regulatory tool. In 2004, Oregon
ties trying to manage their own urban and suburban growth. voters approved a ballot measure that threatened to eviscer-
Oregon’s law required every city and county to draw up ate the land use rules that most citizens had backed for three
a comprehensive land use plan in line with statewide guide- decades. Ballot Measure 37 required the state to compensate
lines that had gained popular support from the state’s elec- certain landowners if government regulation had decreased
torate. As part of each land use plan, each metropolitan area the value of their land. For example, regulations prevent land-
had to establish an urban growth boundary (UGB), a line on owners outside UGBs from subdividing their lots and selling
a map intended to separate areas desired to be urban from them for housing development. Under Measure 37, the state
areas desired to remain rural. Development for housing, com- had to pay these landowners to make up for theoretically lost
merce, and industry would be encouraged within these urban income or else allow them to ignore the regulations. Because
growth boundaries but severely restricted beyond them. The state and local governments did not have enough money to
intent was to revitalize city centers, prevent suburban sprawl, pay such claims, the measure was on track to gut Oregon’s
and protect farmland, forests, and open landscapes around zoning, planning, and land use rules.
the edges of urbanized areas. Landowners filed over 7500 claims for payments or waivers
Residents of the area around Portland, the state’s largest affecting 295,000 ha (730,000 acres). Although the measure had
city, established a new regional planning entity to apportion land been promoted to voters as a way to protect the rights of small
in their region. The Metropolitan Service District, or Metro, rep- family landowners, most claims were filed by large developers.
resents 25 municipalities and three counties. Metro adopted the Neighbors suddenly found themselves confronting the prospect
354 Portland-area urban growth boundary in 1979 and has tried to of massive housing subdivisions, gravel mines, strip malls, or

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