Portland’s Approach to Managing Urban Growth and Sprawl
Mark Bellini
Columbia Southern University

Introduction
The case study in chapter 13 of Environment: The science behind the stories, “Managing Growth in Portland, Oregon”, discusses how cities in the state of Oregon, and especially Portland, have managed to deal with strong economic and population growth for decades without losing their rural communities and natural landscapes to suburban sprawl, as has been the case with many regions of the United States.
Oregon has served as a model for many cities throughout the U.S., with its urban growth boundary regulations, and its flexible, collaborative approach to planning land use, and dealing with issues such as landowner rights, conservation, and sustainability.
Despite Portland’s success as a highly livable city, despite its continued growth, there are inevitable problems that have arisen, such as overcrowding in cities and rising home prices, but, overall, the strategies and techniques used by urban planners in Oregon’s communities have made the Portland area one of the most attractive places to live in the United States.

Large cities have responded to the problems associated with urban growth and suburban sprawl by examining their land use policies, zoning restrictions, and overall approach to urban planning, as traditional planning and zoning notions are now seen as misguided, and in many experts’ opinion, are highly correlated with obesity issues, environmental degradation, and a loss of sense of community.

Science
The issues discussed in the case study about Portland’s success in managing its urban growth, all center around the science of sustainability, and how it can be applied to ensure a balance is maintained between economic growth and environmental health in cities facing with rapid growth and urbanization.

One of the best-known definitions of sustainability comes from the World Commission on Environment and Development, also known as the Brundtland Commission, which defined sustainable development as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.

Although notions of sustainability existed as far back as the ancient Greek civilization, it was in the early 20th century that society came to understand the need for sustainable development practices.

Many environmental crises were impacting society during that time, including deforestation, pollution, deterioration of urban areas, and overgrazing. People such as Gifford Pinchot supported the application of sustainable development practices to maintain the standard of living that Americans were accustomed to for generations to come.

As scientists gained a clearer understanding of how environmental degradation affects the Earth, it became clear that natural resources were not inexhaustible, and that pollution and waste don’t just magically disappear. This increased awareness of the environment’s vulnerability led to a political climate that was favorable to the passing of laws protecting the welfare of the environment, and encouraging the application of sustainable practices by society. Laws such as The Clean Air Act of 1963, and The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969 made society aware of how essential resources such as clean air and water were to its survival, and how vulnerable those resources were due to human misuse and neglect.

In the past few decades, the notion of sustainability has become more widely understood and accepted by society and, more importantly, has gained strong support from influential politicians and powerful corporations. This will encourage society to adopt more sustainable ways of living and doing business.

Issues
The Portland case study touches on many challenging policy issues that have to be dealt with as cities try to balance the needs of residents, homeowners, and business owners. These issues include landowners’ rights, development vs conservation., and managing urbanization and sprawl.

Whenever local governments try to restrict land use by private landowners, conflicts will arise as landowners feel that their right to develop and profit from their properties are being violated due to restrictive land use and zoning rules.

In Portland, Oregon, the establishment of urban growth boundary lines has managed to maintain a balance between urban areas open for development, and rural areas, where development is strictly controlled.

Despite Portland’s success with its urban growth boundary rules, government officials have confronted landowners, especially large real estate developers, that have demanded less restrictions on their land, or financial compensation for decreased property values due to government regulations. After struggling for a few years with such conflicts, the state legislature of Oregon passed a measure allowing small landowners to engage in small real estate development projects, while limiting large development projects. This has allowed Oregon to continue implementing its urban growth boundary approach to managing urban growth.

Another major issue facing cities such as Portland is whether to encourage development or to conserve natural landscapes by prohibiting development.

Cities with growing populations need to welcome new development projects in order to provide its residents with quality housing and conveniences such as market, pharmacies, etc. The difficulty lies in accommodating new development without eroding the quality of life that residents currently enjoy. This requires careful planning by city officials to determine which areas within a city should remain free from development, and which areas should be open to commercial development.

Portland, Oregon, which has carried out city planning since 1912, has applied its experience in this area to establish a regional planning body (Metro) that requires the collaboration of various cities and counties in determining how undeveloped land will be separated into urban zones and rural zones. This allows residents to have an idea of what the future of their neighborhoods will be like, since the land allotments encompass a period of 50 years.

Oregon’s urban growth boundary regulations aim to encourage development within existing urban areas, thereby limiting problems associated with sprawl, which, according to Withgott & Brennan (2011), is the spread of urban and suburban low-density development outward from an urban center.

Analysis
Managing urbanization and sprawl is one of the biggest challenges facing local governments as they try to make changes to traditional urban planning and zoning practices which encourage typical suburban neighborhood developments of low population density, centered around automobiles.

Although there is much greater awareness of the problems associated with suburban sprawl, such as pollution, traffic, obesity, poor land use, and reduced quality of life, there is still a considerable segment of the population that prefers suburban lifestyles, and most cities and towns still follow traditional planning and zoning practices which encourage sprawl.
According to Roegele (2011), “Designed for the automobile, American zoning laws create mere symbolic public spaces where association is inconvenient and sometimes dangerous, and where true freedom of expression and design is severely restricted” (para. 3).

Despite this reality, an increasing percentage of families are in search of traditional urban lifestyles, where businesses, schools, and leisure are within walking distances of people’s homes.

Cities such as Portland have responded to this trend by encouraging development within existing urban areas through their urban growth boundaries rules, which aim to protect rural areas from excessive development.

Urban growth boundaries (UGB) is related to a concept called smart growth, which encourages the formation of distinct communities characterized by compact buildings located close to businesses, schools, and other typical conveniences needed by urban residents. Smart growth basically aims to revive the urban lifestyles that existed before massive suburbanization became common in the 1950s.

City Planners in Portland have been applying smart growth principles for decades, by investing in public transportation, city parks and outdoor spaces, encouraging housing development within the city in the form of apartment buildings, and by providing the resources needed by businesses and residents in order to maintain Portland’s appeal as a place to live and work.

Many states throughout the United States, especially those in fast-growing regions of the country, are making use of innovative strategies to effectively manage issues related to urbanization, growth, land use, and sustainable development.

The West is among the fastest-growing regions in the United States and, as a result, has had to resort to regional collaboration and creativity to manage its growth effectively.

There are differences in states’ approach to growth management. States such as Oregon have been practicing land use planning for decades, while states such as Nevada have begun planning only recently. The strategies implemented in planning land use and growth also differ among states.

Utah, has created a private-public partnership (Envision Utah), that applies visualization and computer graphics techniques to analyze different scenarios in the future resulting from various growth management strategies. This makes it easier for planners to understand the implications of their plans, and allows them to choose the best growth strategy for their communities.

Oregon citizens actively participate in land use and growth planning through measures that are voted on to decide issues such as the compensation of land owners for restrictions placed on their land use.

Colorado has an Office of Smart Growth that provides technical and financial assistance to regional and local planners to encourage them to use best practices in their planning strategies.
In Portland, Oregon, a regional planning system (Metro) was established to coordinate land use planning within three counties, encompassing 25 cities and towns. Metro has applied urban growth boundary rules to contain growth within existing urban areas, while preserving rural areas for its residents’ enjoyment. States such as Colorado and California have adopted similar urban growth boundary schemes to balance their growth and quality of life.

Cities such as Miami, Florida, have replaced traditional zoning with form-based zoning.
Unlike in traditional zoning, where residential and business districts are kept separate from one another, form –based zoning allows businesses to operate next to residences. The emphasis is on the physical structure and appearance of buildings and houses and how they relate to one another.

Form-based zoning encourages growth within cities while discouraging suburban sprawl, and tends to support the formation of neighborhoods that have a sense of community, with a reasonable quality of life for its residents.

There are cities such as Houston, Texas, that actually have no zoning laws, but impose rules on landscaping and preservation, which can have similar effects to zoning rules. Critics of zoning believe that such restrictions technically are equivalent to zoning laws since they control what landowners can do with their properties. Despite having no zoning laws, Houston’s residents have begun to support more land use planning to better manage Houston’s future growth.

The strategies for managing urban growth and sprawl that were discussed above, have been highly successful in places such as Portland, but this success has come at a price to the residents of Portland, and other cities that have employed growth management strategies. The major disadvantages cited by critics of regulations such as urban growth boundaries include:
• Restricting development to urban areas leads to overcrowding as more and more people live in densely populated neighborhoods.
• Excessive urban development leads to the inflation of housing prices, which results in financial hardship for urban residents who have to pay higher rents and mortgages.
• Property owners in places like Portland face more restrictions on their properties than property owners in places where traditional zoning is still practiced.
• Many homeowners prefer to live in the suburbs than in urban areas.

These drawbacks to growth management show just how difficult it is to strike a balance between development, conservation, and quality of life.

Supporters of urban growth boundaries and other growth management strategies believe that their advantages outweigh any negatives, since the overall population benefits from smart growth, and such strategies lead to growth and development that are sustainable, instead of unrestrained development, which usually harms the environment and erodes quality of life. Growth management supporters also point out that planning entities such as Portland’s Metro allow communities to deal with most problems arising from zoning restrictions, since city planners are able to work cooperatively to devise the best solutions for their communities.

The disadvantages of growth management methods might lead some communities to stick to their traditional zoning methods instead of creating new regulations that may alienate residents, business owners, and even political leaders.

Conclusion
Urban growth planning, as practiced in places such as Portland, Oregon, is complex and requires the cooperation of residents, business leaders, political leaders, and city planners in order to be successful. The benefits of such efforts may be difficult to perceive by residents of communities accustomed to traditional suburban lifestyles where privacy and individualism are stressed, and who see urban living as filthy, congested, noisy, and dangerous.

Portland, which has been applying growth management strategies for decades, has a great advantage over cities that are considering smart growth strategies. Its experience in managing conflicts and complex issues involved in managing land use, allow Portland to be flexible when dealing with problems such as overcrowding and restrictions on landowners. This fact, combined with Oregon’s tradition of carefully planning its future growth, have placed Portland and other communities in Oregon in an advantageous position where they are ready to face the challenges of environmental degradation, higher fuel prices, and growing populations in the coming decades, without sacrificing the quality of life of their citizens.

States and cities that are currently resisting the implementation of smart growth management strategies may eventually have no choice but to do so as they find themselves unable to cope with expanding suburban sprawl and reduced standards of living, resulting from reduced government funding for the infrastructure to support sparsely populated communities. This reality may eventually result in a return to traditional urban lifestyles that existed before suburbanization became commonplace. This could be seen as a positive trend, since it would force society to address the problems associated with sprawl, including obesity and social isolation, that it has largely avoided until now.
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