| Land Use and Growth Management |
| Managing the Land Use Impacts of the Sunrise
Freeway |
| By Katherine Gray Still, Portland, Oregon 1-503-274-7219,
still@pbworld.com |
| Many of us know that the
actual results of a project can differ from the intended results.
The Oregon Department of Transportation sees a need for a new freeway,
but wants to ensure that while solving one set of problems, they also
deal with the possible negative land use impacts. |
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The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) hired PB to study
the potential impacts of the proposed Sunrise Freeway. Dave Williams,
Oregon Department of Transportation's (ODOT's) Planning and Development
Manager for Region 1, put the need for this "Managed Impacts"
study this way:
"The Portland freeway paradox is that to achieve the
compact, pedestrian- bicycle- and transit-supportive model of
urban growth we have embraced in the Metro 2040 Growth Concept,
we may need a few new freeways. Some of the areas where the region
plans to concentrate its new development will need better freeway
access, just like they will need collector and arterial streets,
transit, and the full array of other urban services facilities.
A major challenge this poses is that freeways at the fringe can
contribute to the very growth patterns the region wants to avoid:
sprawl, strip commercial development, and accelerated rural residential
and commercial development."
Our job was to tease out solutions to the "Portland
freeway paradox" in the study, which was principally designed
to:
- Identify and define the undesirable land use impacts of a proposed
new freeway-the Sunrise Freeway-and evaluate a set of methods
that could be used to prevent them
- Clarify the role of Sunrise Freeway in supporting
development that was in accordance with the Metro 2040 Growth
Concept1. [Ed. note: See "From
Clouds to Reality: Light Rail and Smart Growth in Oregon"
by G. B Arrington for additional information on the Metro 2040
Growth Concept.]
If constructed, Sunrise Freeway would serve the largest cluster of
urban reserves in the Portland metropolitan area, including lands
currently proposed for the urban growth boundary (UGB) expansion.
The freeway (proposed to be a 4-lane, limited-access link between
I-205 and US Highway 26 in rural north Clackamas County), has been
identified as a necessary component of the plan to achieve land use
goals under the Metro 2040 Growth Concept because the area's current
road system will not be able to handle the levels of traffic that
are likely to come with the growth identified for the corridor, even
with substantial increases in transit service.
As Dave Williams' statement implied, however, there is also significant
concern regarding the land use impacts of the facility:
- Will improved access to rural areas east
of the metropolitan area increase the number of rural home sites?
- Will development of a compact, livable Damascus
Town Center- a small community identified for a large amount of
urban-style development-be undercut by strip development near
the freeway?
- Will the vision of thriving employment centers
be achieved or will the interchanges be overtaken by commercial,
"big box" development?
Our analysis of land use impacts sought to answer these questions
and identify a set of mitigation techniques that ODOT, Metro and local
governments could use. The project, carried out over the first six
months of 1999, included interviews with staff of concerned agencies
and organizations (including local, regional and state agencies, environmental
groups, and prominent developers) and a scan of best practices from
inside and outside the U.S.
Land
Use Impacts
Our analysis was predicated on several assumptions, two of which are
worth noting for this article:
- The urban reserves (an area identified for
future urban development) would be provided with a complete street
system, including arterial, collector, and local streets.
- The concept and master planning for the
urban reserves would precede urban-level land development.
Without these assumptions in place, the land use outcomes would be
substantially altered. For example, a complete street system will
be required for the development of residential densities in the urban
reserves, as envisioned in Metro's 2040 Growth Concept, regardless
of whether or not Sunrise Freeway is constructed. Conversely, in the
absence of an adequate arterial and collector system, planned urban
densities would not occur. If the freeway is constructed without this
system, it is likely that what development does occur will be more
freeway-oriented and substantially less dense.
Our analysis led us to conclude that Sunrise Freeway could support
many of the goals of the 2040 Growth Concept and that several of its
goals were not likely to be achieved in the absence of the freeway,
such as the development of envisioned employment centers in the area
and higher density multiple family development. Significant concerns
about the possible undesirable impacts of the freeway remained, however.
These concerns became the focus of our study of mitigation techniques.
Mitigation Techniques
We identified 29 potential techniques to mitigate the undesirable
land use impacts of Sunrise Freeway and, by extension, facilities
elsewhere in the Portland metro area and across the state. Of these,
the following six techniques were evaluated in detail. These six were
selected as offering the greatest potential effectiveness.
Phasing Freeway Construction with the Provision of an Arterial
and Collector System. This technique would be a rule to specify
that the construction of the freeway would not occur until all or
a portion of the planned arterial and collector network serving the
area was in place. Its purpose is to enable the arterial and collector
system to establish the framework for land development. This framework
would encourage development patterns that are higher in density and
more transit- and pedestrian-oriented than would be the case otherwise.
Interchange Location and Timing. This technique involves
careful planning of locating interchanges and strategic thinking about
the timing of interchange construction. Interchanges are magnets for
development (both desired and undesired), so their placement can have
a tremendous effect on land use impacts.
Interchange
Development Design and Regulation. This set of techniques includes
interchange zoning, site design and access management, each of which
can be used to prevent land uses such as strip development, incoherent
interchange development and other impacts associated with the development
of a freeway. An interchange overlay zone can include specific design
standards for the range of land uses permitted, including special
guidelines for pedestrian access, orientation of buildings on transit
streets, landscaping minimums, and connectivity guidelines.
Land Acquisition, Conservation Easements and Transfer of Development
Rights (TDRs). Land acquisition refers to the purchase of land
along corridors and around interchanges to preserve landscape, habitat
and historic vistas, and to control development. Conservation easements
are legal agreements between a landowner and another party (a land
trust or public agency) to permanently limit a property's uses to
protect its conservation values. TDRs control or prevent development
by separating development rights from one piece of property, where
development is not desired, and transferring them to another parcel,
where development is desired. The landowner retains ownership of the
now non-developable land and the right to use it for open space purposes
such as farming or forestry. The landowner who received the development
rights is now able to develop at higher densities than were allowed
previously.
Focused Public Investment Plans (FPIPs). An
FPIP delineates areas for urban development in order to focus construction
of new public infrastructure within those areas. The purpose is to
provide the full array of urban service facilities including water,
sewer, stormwater, transportation facilities and parks within limited
areas, rather than dispersing limited public infrastructure dollars
over a large area.
Maintain the Current State Land Use
Laws. While not a "technique" in the traditional sense,
this measure addresses concerns that the current planning and zoning
restrictions, particularly those that govern rural and natural resource
lands, could be changed. Oregon is viewed as having the state-of-the-practice
for land use planning, and it is important to remember that the state
and the Portland metropolitan region currently have the tools at hand
to protect rural and resource lands from development.
Results
The results of our analysis are being used in ongoing agency discussions
of project implementation and regional planning, and are influencing
the development of urban reserves plans and policies. |
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| Katherine Gray Still has been with PB for just
over 2-1/2 years. Working in the Portland office, her experience includes
research and analysis of the impacts of transportation projects on
land use and economic development, including the full cost of transportation
and congestion pricing. She has a Master of Planning degree from the
Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota
and a B.A. in economics, magna cum laude, from the University of Colorado
at Boulder. |
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