THE ROLE OF URBAN RESERVES IN PROMOTING SUSTAINABILITY IN THE PORTLAND, OREGON METROPOLITAN REGION
By Edward J. Sullivan, Adjunct Professor of Urban Studies and Planning
Portland State University
Oregon has developed a unique comprehensive urban growth strategy. Rural areas are separated from urban areas by an urban growth boundary (UGB) concentrating most urban uses within the boundary and fostering policies to provide urban levels of facilities and services, as wells as varying use intensities for residential, industrial, employment, recreational and commercial uses. The UGB encompasses existing and anticipated urban uses over a rolling 20-year period. Expansion of the UGB requires extensive study and public process and is frequently contested. Those expansions often center on whether adding urban land might be avoided by requiring more intensive use in the existing UGB.
Planning beyond the 20-year timeframe includes “urban reserves,” i.e., those lands to be given first priority for UGB inclusions beyond the initial 20-year UGB horizon. Designating urban reserves is controversial, because it allows for future inclusion of lands that are suitable for farm or forest use and would otherwise be assigned to a much lower priority for UGB additions. This is especially apparent in Washington County, a Portland suburb where intense demand for additional lands for the expanding electronics industry onto excellent adjacent farmland.
The criteria for urban reserves are intentionally loosely drawn to provide policy makers with flexibility in determining both need and the precise lands to be designated for long-range urban use. The end result, however, promotes sustainability by requiring public agencies to consider whether additional urban lands are needed and, if so, where those lands should be located. It is far easier to justify redevelopment and additional intensity of existing urban lands than to face a lengthy and complex challenge to UGB expansion. Similarly it is far easier to justify expansion when the public services and facilities are available, when full communities are planned and resource lands are protected. In either event, public agencies must justify both the need for, and extent of, UGB expansion as opposed to greater intensity of use in existing urban areas.
