Introduction

Location: The Portland metropolitan region is comprised of four counties, three in Oregon, and one in neighboring Washington State. The Portland region can be seen below, the white circle roughly encompasses metropolitan Portland. This region is located in the northwestern part of the US, on the Washington border, just south of Seattle. The region is rich in natural resources including agricultural and forestry lands. However, these lands are threatened by growth from Oregon's financial center in Portland.

Portland Region (Google Earth)

Description: Despite these pressures, the resources at Portland 's edge have been largely protected from development. Often cited as an example of good American planning, the region is held up as a compact city, anchored by a strong central core of Downtown Portland (Abbott, 1997). See below for images of Portland regional characteristics. The regional anchor of the central city serves as the business and finance center, with half the jobs in the metro region. The centralized downtown anchors a multi-modal transportation system, which connects to walk-able suburbs and neighborhoods with increased density and connections to the business and finance center. The patterns of development in Portland center on transportation corridors and urban centers (Portland METRO, 2006). These development patterns centralize growth while preserving natural resources, creating an orderly transition from rural to urban land use.

Portland Characteristics: Images from Portland Ground

Scale/Extent: As a strategy for managing growth while protecting the natural resources of the Portland region, an Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) was established in 1979 by Portland METRO, a regional planning agency. See below, Portland 's UGB. METRO was established as a regional government with regulatory powers and a jurisdiction comprised of the urbanized areas of three counties, Multnomah, Washington, and Clackamas. Between the three counties, 24 cities, 60 special service districts, 400 square miles and 1.3 million people had to be accounted for when delineating Portland's UGB. ( Portland METRO, 2006)

Portland's UGB (Portland METRO)

Status/Policy: Encircling the Portland region is an Urban Growth Boundary, delineating where development can occur and where it is restricted. Land which is outside the UGB is limited to agriculture, forestry or other uses compatible with sustaining natural resources. Development that occurs outside the boundary is restricted to lands which are not suitable for agriculture, forestry or other resource/habitat uses. Inside the UGB, development is encouraged as a way to promote infill and the efficient use of the land. (Nelson and Moore, 1993) Portland 's UGB is often credited for facilitating the region's compact development pattern, which curbed sprawling habits and preserved the regions natural resources (Abbott, 1997).