Home › News ›

The Road to Damascus, OR

Posted by: Tim Halbur
Thanks to: AYap
11 August 2009 - 9:00am

The Portland, Oregon area is well known for preserving agricultural land separate from urban areas. In the new town of Damascus on the border of the growth boundary, landowners are seeking a way to mix the two.

Land use is a contentious issue along the urban growth boundary in the Portland Metro area, as landowners on one side are allowed a much more valuable use of their land than those on the other.

"High-density apartments on one side, and the other side is combines," as Clackamas County Commissioner Charlotte Lehan puts it.

"Oregon land use is very dichotomous," she says. "You're either urban or rural -- urban with 10 houses per acre or rural with one house per 80 acres. I'm coming to the opinion that maybe we need to recognize another kind of animal which is neither fish nor fowl."

Full Story: Blurring the urban-rural line in Damascus
Source: The Oregonian, August 9, 2009
»
Bookmark and Share
“
There are limits to the amount of pollution the environment can absorb without reducing ecosystem services and impairing both human health and the sustainability of our economy.
”