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he savs propeny nghts zawaties, ana Colo
<br />rado*s more conservative pouucal iraaiuon.
<br />would keep anvuune nke tne Oregon pian
<br />from passing me Legislature.
<br />‘Tm a former aeveioocr. * Mr. Romer
<br />said "I know how me free mancet wortcs. It’s
<br />very difficult to convince people of growm
<br />management when you have a political emic
<br />that says. 'Stay away from my pnvate prop
<br />erty.* •*
<br />When asked about Wallace Stegners hope
<br />that ciues would match the setting. Mr.
<br />Romer was a bit pessimisuc. ** We're likely to
<br />have that one big sprawling city from Fort
<br />Collins to Colorado Springs, with bits of open
<br />space m between." he said "But 1 haven't
<br />given up hope. This is the fight to fight"
<br />Prof. Ray Studer. sitting in a University of
<br />Colorado office in Boulder on a day when
<br />winds had blown the smog away and me
<br />mountains seemed newly polished, believes
<br />that me urban West may yet live up to its
<br />promise, mough It faces ingrained political
<br />opposition.
<br />"There is a spirit of Innovation and new
<br />ness here, still a sense of the possible." said
<br />Professor Studer. who is dmector of me
<br />Urban and Regional Planning Program at
<br />the University.
<br />"Nobody in Colorado is willingly tryuig to
<br />screw up me land or dirty me air." he said
<br />"This kind of stuff happens because we West
<br />erners are noL by nature, a planning cul
<br />ture."
<br />Salt Lake City
<br />A Vision of Place
<br />Fades Over Time
<br />Westerners have, m fact tned to plan for
<br />orderly growth, starting in IS47 in me Salt
<br />Lake Valley, where Mormon pioneers set out
<br />the region's first planned urban develop
<br />ment acting on Brigham Young's directive.
<br />"This IS me place,**
<br />By careful design, me streets of Salt Lake
<br />were to be 88 feet wide, me sidewalks 20 feet
<br />wim houses set 20 feet back from me street
<br />A large part of me city was set aside as me
<br />common area.
<br />The problem has been mamtaming a cen
<br />tral vision over ume. This is evident ui tiie
<br />Salt Lake of today, where me fastest-growmg
<br />areas around me city are a hodgepodge of
<br />new suburbs and developments creepuig up
<br />the sides of me Wasatch Range.
<br />**ls this still me nght place?*' said Roben
<br />Libeny. of 1000 Friends of Oregon, in a
<br />recent speech before cnnc leaders in Utah.
<br />His group studies urban growm issues. "Or
<br />will you become just another place to be
<br />abandoned? will me bnsize pioneers stare
<br />sadly out m me smog into a murky future
<br />where me dream of community has been
<br />lost?**
<br />Seattle at me turn of me .century had a
<br />master plan for boulevards, parks and wa
<br />terways In me 1960's. it cleaned up Lake
<br />Washington before mere was a Federal man
<br />date to do so. But It turned down mass
<br />transit opting for more highwavs instead.
<br />AS a result traffic grew four times as fast
<br />as me population. Last month, people in me
<br />Seattle metro area fmallv approved a plan to
<br />build a $4 billion rail and bus svstem. costing
<br />residents four times what it would have cost
<br />in inflauon-adiusted dollars, to do me same
<br />mrng 20 years earlier.
<br />In me early years alter World War II.
<br />Phoenix mougnt it had a plan for oraerlv
<br />growm: it decided to annex neighbonng sub
<br />urbs before mey could even take shape. The
<br />city grew tenfold, m physical size and popula-
<br />CA
<br />But Its annexation policv led to publicly
<br />financed sprawi of the worst Kind, many
<br />Phoenix officials now sav. The Phoenix of
<br />1996 has temble air. gndlocked traffic, and
<br />tpreaos out in so many directions that it
<br />seems to lack anv sense of order.
<br />In the face of these proolems. Phoenix has
<br />done a near<omplete reversal; as of this
<br />veer, it is using tne leverage of lower devel
<br />opment fees to try and lure nomebuildets
<br />back to tne city center.
<br />Phoenix lias set a goal of trying to keep
<br />developmem withm about a 500-square-imie
<br />area. But mere is no leverage to eniorce me
<br />goal — only me camn of lower building
<br />permit fees wimtn me central ciiv. So. mas
<br />sive new developments. 10.000 homes apiece,
<br />are under way well norm of me area mat me
<br />city would to see remain wild.
<br />"Developers will go wherever mey can
<br />make a buck." said Rob Melnick. head of the
<br />Momson Institute for Public Policy at An-
<br />zona State University. "If you charge mem
<br />more to build on the far suburban edge,
<br />they'll pay it and just pas^that on the
<br />homebuyer."
<br />Portland. Ore.
<br />The Next Challenge:
<br />A Population Tide
<br />Oregonians dellgnt at being contranan.
<br />The force behind meir plan was Tom McC^
<br />the Republican Governor in me earlv I970’s.
<br />who once said lie loved Oregon more man life
<br />Itself. Governor McCaU told Oregomans that
<br />they faced a choice between "sageb^
<br />subdivisions and coastal condonuniuins." or
<br />towns that blended gently into the state's
<br />stunning natural environment
<br />In 1973, Mr. McCall signed a law that
<br />required every one of Oregon's cities and
<br />counties to write land-use plans that limited
<br />sprawi and protected farms, forests and
<br />open space. They were to draw boundaries
<br />around the aties or face legal sancuons.
<br />Three times, in 1976.1978 and 1982, devel
<br />opers and other commercial Interests
<br />brought ballot measures before the voters to
<br />repeal the act, and three times. Oregomans
<br />voted to keep the tough anu-sprawl meas
<br />ures.
<br />Today, a clear line — with ciucs on one
<br />side, and open spi cc on the other — can be
<br />seen from the air. The difference is parucu-
<br />larly graphic along the Washington-Oregon
<br />border.' Just across the Columbia River, in
<br />Washington State, much of suburban Gark
<br />County spills out in myriad directions over
<br />what used to be (arm land.
<br />Oregon , which had been losing 30.000 acres
<br />of agncultural land a year, is now losing only
<br />2J)00 acres a year. Colorada by contrast, is
<br />loaing nearly 50J)00 acres a year.
<br />PorUand today has a ughL dense down
<br />town area that caters to pedestnans: where
<br />once there was a freeway along the nver,
<br />there is now the most-used city park, named
<br />for Mr. McCall. The citVs lighi-rail system.
<br />MAX. has exceeded cxpeciauons for use and
<br />populanty.
<br />This year, the Metro government of Port
<br />land adopted an even stricter plan for its
<br />ihree<ouniy metro area. It envisions adding
<br />500.000 people within the e.xisung urban
<br />boundanes
<br />Officials in the Metro governing bodv.
<br />which controls develoomeni of the ihree-
<br />countv area that contains 24 individual cities,
<br />are constantly fcmindink, T artland residents
<br />of a population ude that will engulf them if
<br />they don't act saying. "We'll be having 75
<br />nAooffk hv dinner lime than we had
<br />In an attempt to control the size of stores
<br />sprvigmg up m indusinal areas, ihe pian
<br />limits retail outlets to 80.000 square feet
<br />And while Portland has long limned pant
<br />ing spaces downtown, the new plan resincts
<br />the number of parkmg spaces at new stores.
<br />Angry retailers say the restncuon will hurt
<br />them: Poniand officials counter that it will
<br />merely encourage people to take public Iran- .
<br />sit,
<br />When Seattle followed Portland's lead in
<br />lU 1994 urban growth plan, it acniaiiy down-.
<br />zoned SO square miles of what used to be an .
<br />area designated for new homes into a rural
<br />and forest category. This set off howls of
<br />outrage But so far. the boundary has sur
<br />vived court and political challenges.
<br />There is something of a seif-congratuia-
<br />toiy — critics call it smug — tone about what
<br />Portland has done.
<br />"We have been careful stewards of the
<br />land and have fought to protect our natural
<br />resources against the urban sprawl that has
<br />plagued almost every other meiropoiltan
<br />area in this country," said Mike Burton,
<br />Metro's execuuve officer, m a menage sent
<br />to Poniand residents. "We have worked
<br />hard to mamtam our enviable quality of life."
<br />The real test for Portland will come after
<br />another million or so people have moved
<br />there. Then the ciucs will face a question of
<br />allowing more apartments and town houses
<br />into their chenshed single-family neighbor
<br />hoods or spilling into the rural areas they
<br />have just fought so hard to preseive,
<br />•*Ai some point with those aties you get
<br />into a quesuon of density: wiU people stUl
<br />move there if they can't live in a b^ home
<br />with a yard?*' said Phil Burgess, president of
<br />the Center for the New West a Denver
<br />research orgamzauon.
<br />Mr. Burgess said sprawl could stUl be
<br />comroUed by relying less on state govern
<br />ment and more on market forces, bui takuig
<br />into account the true costs of building instant
<br />cides on open land. If developers were forced
<br />to pay fully for roads, sewers, schools and
<br />other necessities, they would be more likely
<br />to rebuild within the existing urban area, he
<br />sakL
<br />"You make them pay the full costs and all
<br />of a sudden that S130.000 home in the far
<br />suburbs is S230.000." Mr. Burgess said.
<br />And Oregon's plan has not been entirely/
<br />successful in containing sprawl In the town
<br />of Bend, east of the Cascades, officials mere
<br />ly drew a broad urban boundary. While this
<br />complied with the letter of the law. it allowed
<br />strip development to spill out m two dlrec**^
<br />uons from the city.
<br />The other major complaint agamst Oregwr^
<br />is that civic planners, by drasucally result
<br />mg urban sprawl, would cause home pncei
<br />to shoot up. And indeed, mediin home prices
<br />for exisung homes in Was hington and Ore
<br />gon, the two states with urban growth re
<br />strictions. rose to S153.190 this year — the^
<br />thiid highest am^ng 10 regions of the coun^
<br />iry. -:-2
<br />Mr. Liberty of 1000 Fnends of Oregon said
<br />home pnccs rose, in Seattle and Portland,
<br />primarily because so many new jobs have
<br />been created.
<br />More important. Mr. Liberty says Oregon
<br />has shown that American cities do not have
<br />to follow the predictable pattern from boom
<br />to sprawl to abandonment
<br />"At least w'e have shown that vou can do
<br />someihmg." Mr Liberty said. "There is a
<br />tundamenial civic assumption that we can
<br />make the city work, and shape it the way we
<br />want It to be shaped. Ifs taken 20 years of
<br />DOhtlcal blood, sweat and tears lo come to
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