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Finding a Middle Ground Between Rural and Urban

Posted by: Nate Berg

11 August 2009 - 5:00am

A new city being planned on 77 acres of agricultural land in Oregon has prompted some to question the hard difference between urban and rural as compartmentalized by the Portland area's urban growth boundary.

Landowner Larry Thompson is seeking to revise the way land use regulators divide up land along the urban growth boundary in the Portland region by mixing agricultural land and community development.

"If it's done nothing else, Oregon has drawn a bright line between urban and rural. Development occurs within tight growth boundaries; farming and forestry happen out in the country. Period.

Thompson says it's time to blur those lines.

'Instead of saying, 'Here's the boundary for growth,' maybe we should start with the farm first and create the community around farms,' he says. 'That's my intent.'"

Full Story: Blurring the urban-rural line in Damascus
Source: The Oregonian, August 8, 2009
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What the Census will not include is the long-form questions that have, since 1940, asked one-sixth of American households to reveal fine details about their lives. The long form was scrapped following the 2000 Census, so planners who are accustomed to relying on detailed, nuanced Census data to analyze and plan their communities may not get the detail that they expect.
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