Metro Staff Recommend Expansion of the Urban Growth Boundary in Four Cities

The expansion is projected to provide roughly 9,200 homes over the next 20 years.

Looking west into the Tualatin Valley from Hillsboro. (M. O. Stevens / Wikimedia Commons)

Metro staff have officially recommended expanding the urban-growth boundary in all four cities that have applied for an expansion: Beaverton, Hillsboro, King City and Wilsonville.

The recommended expansion nearly of 2,200 acres is largely aimed at increasing the available land for single family housing—with approximately 6,100 of the 9,200 new housing units projected to be single-family residences.

Metro is the regional government with authority over setting where the residential development for the Portland metro area can happen under Oregon's unique land use laws that are designed to protect forest and farm land from urban sprawl. (A vote by the Metro Council on UGB expansion is expected later this year.)

There's an ongoing debate about whether expanding the urban-growth boundary is necessary to address the rising cost of housing in the region.

After Metro chose not to expand the urban-growth boundary in 2015, Metro's chief operating officer Martha Bennett is recommending an expansion.

"The expansions would provide additional growth capacity for single-family housing (both attached and detached), a housing type that is not addressed through redevelopment," the recommendation report from Bennett states. "Though there is some evidence that housing markets are shifting, longstanding trends demonstrate demand for this housing type."

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