Page 363 - Environment: The Science Behind the Stories

Oregon voters sided with private property rights when in
2004 they passed Ballot Measure 37, which shackled govern-
ment’s ability to enforce zoning regulations with landowners
who bought their land before the regulations were enacted. Puget Lowlands
Subsequently, however, many Oregonians began witness- Olympic Range
ing new development they did not condone, so in 2007 they Seattle
passed Ballot Measure 49 in order to restore public over- Tacoma Washington
sight over development. The passage of Oregon’s Measure
37 spawned similar ballot measures in other U.S. states, but Portland
voters defeated most of these. For the most part, people have
supported zoning over the years because the common good Salem Oregon
it produces for communities is widely felt to outweigh the Cascade Range
restrictions on private use. Eugene

WEIGHING THE ISSUES Willamette
Valley
ZONING AND DEVELOPMENT Imagine you own a 10-acre par-
cel of land that you want to sell for housing development—but Coast Range
the local zoning board rezones the land so as to prohibit the
development. How would you respond? Portland
Now imagine that you live next to someone else’s unde- Columbia River
veloped 10-acre parcel. You enjoy the peace and privacy it
provides—but the local zoning board rezones the land so that
it can be developed into a dense housing subdivision. How
would you respond?
What factors do you think members of a zoning board
should take into consideration when deciding how to zone or
rezone land in a community? Urban
growth
boundary

Urban growth boundaries Willamette River
are now widely used
FIGURE 13.8 Oregon’s urban growth boundaries (UGBs) were
Planners intended Oregon’s urban growth boundaries (UGBs) to a response to fears that sprawl might one day stretch from
limit sprawl by containing growth largely within existing urban- Eugene to Seattle. The Portland region’s UGB encompasses
ized areas (FIGURE 13.8). The UGBs aimed to revitalize down- Portland (dark gray) and portions of 24 other communities (light
towns; protect working farms, orchards, ranches, and forests; gray). It separates areas earmarked for urban development from
and ensure urban dwellers some access to open space. Since areas protected from urban development.
Oregon began its experiment, a number of other states, regions,
and cities have adopted UGBs—from Boulder, Colorado, to
Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to many California communities. that relentless population growth may thwart even the best anti-
UGBs reduce the amounts that municipalities need to pay sprawl efforts and that livable cities may fall victim to their own
for infrastructure, compared with sprawl. The best estimate success if they are in high demand as places to live. Indeed,
nationally is that UGBs save taxpayers about 20% on infra- Metro has enlarged the Portland-area UGB three dozen times
structure costs. However, UGBs also tend to increase housing and plans to expand it more in the future.
prices within their boundaries. In the Portland area, housing has
become less affordable, but in most other ways its UGB (see “Smart growth” aims to counter sprawl
Figure 13.8) is working as intended. It has lowered prices for land
outside the UGB while raising prices within it. It has restricted As more people feel impacts of sprawl on their everyday lives,
development outside the UGB, preserving farms and forests. It efforts to manage growth are springing up throughout North
has increased the density of new housing inside the UGB by America. Oregon’s Senate Bill 100 was one of the first, and
over 50% as homes are built on smaller lots and as multistory since then dozens of states, regions, and cities have adopted
apartments fulfill a vision of “building up, not out.” Downtown similar land use policies. Urban growth boundaries and other
employment has grown as businesses and residents invest anew approaches from these policies have coalesced under the con-
in the central city. And Portland has been able to absorb consid- cept of smart growth (TABLE 13.2).
erable immigration while avoiding rampant sprawl. Proponents of smart growth want municipalities to manage
However, urbanized area still increased by 101 km (39 mi ) the rate, placement, and style of development so as to promote
2
2
in the decade after Portland’s UGB was established, because healthy neighborhoods and communities, jobs and economic
362 146,000 people were added to the population. This fact suggests development, transportation options, and environmental

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