No Light Rail in Vancouver!

Just Let People Do What They Want With Their Own Land

Jan 19

2009

Back in 2002, Metro — Portland’s regional planning czar — made several additions to the region’s urban-growth boundary. The biggest addition was 18,600 acres — supposedly enough to house 50,000 people — on the east side known as Damascus. Portland’s housing market was booming, and some people predicted a huge land-rush that would lead to windfall gains for Damascus property owners.

Now, more than six years later, nothing has happened and it looks like nothing will happen. Metro blames it on the high cost of infrastructure. The reality is that Metro planners so gummed up the process that no one could develop their property.

The claim that infrastructure is a barrier is a red herring. As the Antiplanner has shown here, developers in the Houston area manage to install sewer, water, and roads themselves and provide land for schools, parks, and other facilities. Developers pass the cost onto home and other property buyers, who pay it off over a 30-year period. Property owners also pay for their own schools, park improvements, and so forth. The financial tools used are interesting but hardly complicated. Under Oregon law, developers or the county could create special service districts to take care of the finances.

But before anything could happen in Damascus, Metro planners insisted on having a plan. “Planning for the new city began with a series of neighborhood meetings and informal presentations. Aided by planning money provided by Metro, a concept plan finally was unveiled — to decidedly mixed results. Some property owners who lived on the hillsides and other areas proposed as housing-free greenways heatedly objected, saying their development rights were being impinged.”

In other words, Metro added people’s land to the urban-growth boundary, then wrote a plan taking many of their properties out again. Planners also put so many restrictions on the remaining land that it just wasn’t worth the effort. This is a pattern that has been repeated in other additions to the growth boundary, notably an area called North Bethany.

On top of this, instead of designing a system that would make sure that future homebuyers paid for the infrastructure they used, Metro planners created fears among existing residents that their property taxes would go up to subsidize newcomers. The residents revolted and passed an initiative restricting future tax rates. This leaves local officials feeling that their hands are tied.

Metro leaders shake their heads and conclude that Portland will just have to live with the land that was already in the urban-growth boundary. Naturally, they don’t want to admit that they themselves are the problem.

As Henry David Thoreau said, “government never of itself furthered any enterprise, but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way.” It is time for planners to get out of the way of Oregon’s future.

Reprinted from The Antiplanner