How smart is region's growth plan?

Portland Tribune, October 2, 2014  By Jim Redden

How Smart?  

Land-use meetings question direction of future development

"Portland says they are going to absorb a lot of growth through infill, to the point where we wonder if that's valid."  -- Craig Dirksen, Metro councilor

Important questions were raised about regional efforts to manage growth at two recent land-use related meetings.

The questions include whether Portland can really absorb more than two-thirds of the additional people expected over the next 20 years, whether city government can successfully encourage the construction of more apartments and condominiums to house them, and what that increase will do to the city's livability.

For example, James Peterson, chairman of the Multnomah County Neighborhood Land Use Committee, said the committee members cannot evaluate the Comp Plan because many important details have yet to be finalized.  He is particularly concerned about zoning changes intended to encourage mixed-use development in designated areas, such as Multnomah Village, the quaint retail and restaurant district in Southwest Portland.

Additional questions were raised about the emphasis on multifamily housing in early September, however.  That was when Metro released a Housing Preference Study it conducted to help determine where and how residents want to live.  Although the draft Urban Growth Report predicts a significant shift to multifamily housing over the next 20 years, the study found that an overwhelming 80 percent of residents want to live in a single family detached house.  A plurality, 34 percent, said they want to live in the suburbs.

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People want to live in detached, single-family homes in the suburbs.  Think about that for a minute.  Now think about how the push for mixed-use development and increased density will change Lake Oswego from a suburb to a hybrid city - not as big as Portland, but as big as we allow it to become with dense housing lining Boones Ferry Rd., Kruse Way, and in Downtown, and even in Neighborhood Villages.  The balance of houses to multifamily dwellings will change the character of the town and physically divide neighborhoods.  We are currently living in a town that other people say they want to live in.  But not if it changes and the relaxed, suburban character changes with it.   Now answer the question asked in the title of the article, " How smart is region's growth plan?"

Why did you move to Lake Oswego?