Oregon is famous for its land use policies known as urban growth boundaries, or UGB’s. It is one of the few states in the country to require UGB’s by law. They are a regional boundary, set in an attempt to control urban sprawl by mandating that the area inside the boundary be used for higher density urban development and the area outside be used for lower density development. An urban growth boundary encompasses an entire urbanized area and is used by local governments as a guide to zoning and land use decisions.

Some of the benefits of having urban growth boundaries among others are:

Envision Eugene is a collaborative public planning process that will help shape the future of the Eugene, Oregon for the next 20 years. Envision Eugene is a 2030 plan for a Eugene-Only UGB. The discussion varies from regional transportation plans, 20 minute neighborhoods, mixed use centers, and small scale infill projects.

Mayor Kitty Piercy of Eugene, is a voice at the table who believes in the Envision Eugene process and has kindly answered our questions below:

Envision Eugene is in planning process right now so I cannot yet answer your question specifically but in our discussions there is general recognition of transportation corridors with transit oriented development around them and mass transit through them. Our current Transplan already commits to a build out of EmX and we are on the third leg discussion.

From my perspective, it is important for us to tie all the needed tranportation elements together. We are not yet a big city but we still need real choices for people to move about including bike, ped,car, bus, mass transit, and street car is being discussed. Each has a different functionality within the city.

We had news this week that we will received grants of 4.3 million for the environmental studies for the section between Portland and Eugene, 80,000 for the state rail plan, and another 3+ m for the Portland area. In addition there are much larger sums for continuing to build a real high speed segment from Portland on up to BC. We certainly have higher speed rail in our vision that offers on time, reliable, more frequent, and faster rides up the corridor. That would be a great start for us.

I was just saying to staff this week that we need some transit oriented planning around our depot. It is not going to be one of those huge high speed stations but we ought to really think about how our depot area should grow with a better rail system that will accommodate many more riders. As you know our depot area really connects to our downtown and offers real opportunity.

Certainly the EmX and HSR offer the ability to plan for higher density urban centers that can allow us to stay within our UGB.

We have long had battles over the UGB. There are those who believe expansion is necessary for economic development and those who believe we have plenty of room within our UGB to meet needs of the next 20 years. We have a group of community leaders who represent both of these points of view working together on Envision Eugene. We are trying to have a more productive discussion about how we want our community to be in the future and how we best achieve that, rather than a simplistic argument which gives no one any space to be creative. All of these people seem to value the livability of our area and to understand the fundamentals of transit oriented development. They also worry about our economic viability and the future of our children. No its not easy but it is important.

I would not be participating in Envision Eugene and advocating for this process if I did not believe we were capable of finding a future for our community that preserves what we care about most and better prepares us for a more stable future with a more robust economic foundation. We need to be able to support our schools, human services, and to provide jobs and opportunities for our families.- and we need to do that while preserving this special place with its farm lands, forests, rivers, neighborhoods, and general health and beauty.