ABSTRACT
The Oregon planning program has devised several strategies dealing with land scarcity over the Twenty first century. This chapter examines one aspect of statutory regime in one area of the state – growth management in the Portland Metropolitan Area, the state's most populous region. Under that regime, each city must have an urban growth boundary (UGB) separating urban from rural lands. In lieu of establishing a UGB for each city, Oregon statutory law delegates to an elected regional body, Metro, the power to set a regional UGB for the 23 cities and the urban portions of three counties within that region. Understanding the evolution of the Metropolitan Service District (Metro) as a policymaking entity is important in order to understand growth management in the Portland metropolitan area. Metro thus derives its land use planning power from statutes, the Oregon Constitution, and a charter approved by regional voters in 1992.
