As the Portland metro area kicks off a long debate over growth and land use, several farming and conservation groups are joining forces on a single vision for how we should grow over the next several decades.
The members freely admit that in the past, they often didn’t agree on big issues. What brings them together now are the common goals of wanting to contain urban growth and make it more dense, while protecting what remains of the metro area’s best farmland and natural places.
It comes as the Metro regional government begins a two week period of public meetings and hearings on the matter.
With more than a million new people expected in the metro area over the next 20-years, politicians are trying to figure out where to put all of them. Do we allow the area’s Urban Growth Boundary to expand to accommodate the growth? Or do we hold tight, and pack more people into the same amount of space?
Two very different men, with very different visions of the future, debated the issue Monday night in Hillsboro. On one side, Washington County Chair Tom Brian who supports expanding the boundary. County leaders are looking at plans to open another 34,000 acres as urban reserves, areas where farmland could be replaced by development.
Then there’s Portland Mayor Sam Adams, who believes in more dense development as a way to control sprawl, transportation costs and pollution, and create livable neighborhoods where people don’t have to travel far to find basic needs.
The debate was sponsored by OPB’s Think Out Loud program and the Forest Grove News-Times. It will be aired on Think Out Loud at 9:00am Tuesday morning.
Meawnhile, a short excerpt from the hour long event. The two men discuss infill, with Brian saying it costs more than people realize and could lead to more expensive housing. Adams says infill reduces costs.
