Sunday, October 23, 2005
Growth has to wait for planners
The Portland area has been growing at the rate of about 30,000 people per year, and the planners can't keep up. Metro, Portland's regional planning agency, expanded the urban-growth boundary to accommodate some of those new people. But, says Metro's president, "Just because we’ve voted to expand the boundary to include more land doesn’t mean that it’s ready to be built on." Construction must wait "until the land is planned and zoned and the services are ready." But they don't have any money to hire planners to do the work.
What is this crap? The San Jose urban area grew by 40,000 people a year during the 1950s and 1960s. They didn't have any planners, very little zoning, and the taxes generated by new growth paid for the necessary infrastructure. (That stopped with California's passage of proposition 13, but that's another story.)
The fastest growing county in the Portland area is not in Oregon, where the planners dominate, but is Clark County, Washington. From 2000 to 2004, Clark County grew by more than 11,000 people per year, compared with fewer than 10,000 in Washington County, Oregon, and only 6,000 for Clackamas County and less than 300 for Multnomah County (which is where the city of Portland is located). The main reason for Clark County's rapid growth is that its relative lack of planners mean that people can afford homes there that would be much more expensive on the Oregon side of the Columbia River.
So the suburbs are growing faster than the city, but the relatively unplanned Clark County is growing faster than suburban Oregon counties. Clark County has more planners than San Jose had in the 1960s, but somehow it manages that growth without having as many planners as Oregon seems to need. Maybe if we just got rid of the planners, Oregon could grow and people could afford to buy homes.
What is this crap? The San Jose urban area grew by 40,000 people a year during the 1950s and 1960s. They didn't have any planners, very little zoning, and the taxes generated by new growth paid for the necessary infrastructure. (That stopped with California's passage of proposition 13, but that's another story.)
The fastest growing county in the Portland area is not in Oregon, where the planners dominate, but is Clark County, Washington. From 2000 to 2004, Clark County grew by more than 11,000 people per year, compared with fewer than 10,000 in Washington County, Oregon, and only 6,000 for Clackamas County and less than 300 for Multnomah County (which is where the city of Portland is located). The main reason for Clark County's rapid growth is that its relative lack of planners mean that people can afford homes there that would be much more expensive on the Oregon side of the Columbia River.
So the suburbs are growing faster than the city, but the relatively unplanned Clark County is growing faster than suburban Oregon counties. Clark County has more planners than San Jose had in the 1960s, but somehow it manages that growth without having as many planners as Oregon seems to need. Maybe if we just got rid of the planners, Oregon could grow and people could afford to buy homes.
Comments:
From the article:
Prep work takes years
The intervening 2 1/2 years were consumed with legally dividing and recording the tax lots, acquiring the required permits, wrangling with neighbors over access to the property, and arranging for the water and sewer lines and countless other details.<<<<<<
Building construction in the 1960's and 1970's ended a long time ago and careful planning is the way it's done in 2005. Gone are the days when you could build homes without regard to fire or sewer regulations. Today's building must follow building codes for safty reasons.
>>>>>Regional planners hope it will become a model community of the future, a pedestrian-friendly urban center with housing built close to employment and retail centers.<<<<<<
The regional planners have it spot on in their intention of making a pedestrian-friendly urban center providing nearby employment and retail centers. This type of Smart Growth requires time to complete and haphazard single family home construction would provide only a fraction of the necessary living quarters required for a growing community.
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Prep work takes years
The intervening 2 1/2 years were consumed with legally dividing and recording the tax lots, acquiring the required permits, wrangling with neighbors over access to the property, and arranging for the water and sewer lines and countless other details.<<<<<<
Building construction in the 1960's and 1970's ended a long time ago and careful planning is the way it's done in 2005. Gone are the days when you could build homes without regard to fire or sewer regulations. Today's building must follow building codes for safty reasons.
>>>>>Regional planners hope it will become a model community of the future, a pedestrian-friendly urban center with housing built close to employment and retail centers.<<<<<<
The regional planners have it spot on in their intention of making a pedestrian-friendly urban center providing nearby employment and retail centers. This type of Smart Growth requires time to complete and haphazard single family home construction would provide only a fraction of the necessary living quarters required for a growing community.
