Title: Portlands Urban Growth Boundary Explained | Living in Portland
Headings: Portlands Urban Growth Boundary Explained
Portlands Urban Growth Boundary Explained
Portlands Urban Growth Boundary Explained
The Metro Council by law has to keep 20 years of developable land within the urban growth boundary. Three years ago, the Metro Council took a look around greater Portland and saw two things: Thousands of acres of vacant, developable land, and thousands of units of apartments under construction in Portland.
What’s the urban growth boundary?
Why does Portland have one?
How does it work?
Portland’s shared UGB
How can we handle our growth and limit our sprawl?
Doesn’t the UGB cause density?
Does the UGB cause rents and house prices to go up?
I heard that Metro has expanded the UGB dozens of times. What’s the point of having a boundary if it can be expanded indefinitely?
Is there a limit to how far the UGB can expand?
Can the UGB expand because one of the region’s 24 cities is growing particularly quickly?
The Metro process
What’s the urban growth report?
How does Metro pick where to expand the UGB?
The 2018 analysis
What’s new in this year’s UGB review?
Where might the UGB expand this year?
How does the council choose?
UPDATE: January 2019 the following expansion was approved by Metro.
Beaverton / Cooper Mountain
1,242 acres, 3,760 homes
Hillsboro / Witch Hazel South
150 acres, 850 homes
King City / Beef Bend South
528 acres, 3,300 homes
Wilsonville / Frog Pond
271 acres, 1,325 homes
For more information on these developments:

Content: How does it work? Metro is responsible for ensuring that there’s enough land in the UGB for 20 years of growth – even if the UGB wasn’t expanded, we wouldn’t run out of room for two decades. Inside of an urban growth boundary, cities around Oregon can plan what they want their communities to look like. They can then expand their UGB if they can show state regulators that they need more developable land. State regulators then look to see that cities followed the state’s rules and goals in managing their growth, ranging from addressing people’s housing needs to using existing land efficiently, to adequate citizen engagement, to choosing land with minimal impacts to farms and forests. There’s one exception to the every-city-has-a-UGB rule: In greater Portland, Metro manages the shared urban growth boundary for the 24 cities in the area, from Troutdale in the east to Wilsonville in the south, to Forest Grove in the west. Metro is responsible for ensuring that there’s enough land in the UGB for 20 years of growth – even if the UGB wasn’t expanded, we wouldn’t run out of room for two decades. That’s where demographers, developers, economists, and land conservation advocates discuss what we can expect growth to look like, where future residents will want to live, and how efficient greater Portland is with the growth already in its UGB. Portland’s shared UGB
How can we handle our growth and limit our sprawl?