Do Urban Growth Boundaries Work?

28 February 2002 - 7:00am

Portland's urban growth boundary is either the key to livability or the cause of high housing prices.

A new report by the Brookings Institution Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy concludes that "the Portland area's growth management policies are effective at both controlling growth and creating housing for people of all incomes in locations that can reduce transportation costs. And the academic researchers suggest that the Portland region's housing price spiral during the 1990s was triggered primarily by a rapid increase in jobs and wages, not by the urban growth boundary."

Source: The Oregonian, February 27, 2002
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Its very unsuitability for an urban center justifies its current usage as a suburban or ex-urban pattern.