PSU Magazine Winter 1992

which could take pres ure off the major population centers-remains untouched. Toulan uses O regon' pa t a a ba i fo r his prediction . Pi neer came to Oregon in the 1840 and found the fer– tile oil of the Willamette Valley. Once commerce began to develop, they built citie on the river for which the valley was named. Portland, the biggest and bu iest city, was established at the con– flu ence of the tate' two major river , providing transportation through th agricultural heartland and acces to the Pacific Ocean. A century later, the transportation corrid r of Interstate 5 provided an even bigger rea on for growth to occur not just in the Willamette Valley, but as fa r south as Ashland . Throughout history and in eve ry part of the globe, where there is commerce, there is gr wth. With o much go ing for this western region of the state, it comes as no surpri e that Portland and the Willamette Va lley are where the vast majority of O regonian -81 percent of them- have made their home. As the rate continues to grow (and it is grow– ing: 50,000 people flocked to Oregon between 1990 and 199 1) , thi is where mo t f them will be coming. "If things continue a they are, by the year 2190, our population will be more than 6 million pe pie," says Toulan's report. "And if 80 to 85 per– cent are still concentrated in the va lley, we will have 5 million peopie living between here and A hland. And if you take the ex isting d nsitie , it will result in the pav ing of the entire Willamette Valley between here and Eugene." In other word , another Southern Cali fo rnia. It i the very thing that O regonians sough t to avoid in 1973 when the Legislature pas ed enate Bill 100 establishing a land -use planning system that gained the admirati on of the rest of the country and reinforced the notion of Oregon a being ah ad of its time. The new land-use laws established a eries of goals and guideline , and required each county to draw a com– prehensive land-use plan that, in es– sence, concentrated the areas where 12 p u growth c uld occur, and pre erved the farm and fo rest lands that defined the state's agricultural heritage. The problem, according to Toulan, is that Oregon's planning process does not plan. lt regulate . "Planning mean you are talking about spec ific courses of action. You are more pro-acti ve in a planning process. When you go out regulat ing, you are not pro-acting on anything. You are ju t preventing." Toulan peaks from a li fet ime of impress ive experi ence. He began his career during the 1950s as a planner and architect in Egypt. ln 1972, he came to Portland rate and helped estab lish the School of Urban and Public Affairs, becoming its first and only dean . Throughout hi career Toulan ha taken on planning projects around the world. O ne of his more formidable chal– lenges came in 1984 when he succes - fully coordinated an international team of speciali t to deve lop a plan fo r the holy city of Mecca at the request of the United Nations. Toulan has also put his experience to work on many local projects, uch a the O regon 2100 paper. What the state needs, Toulan say , is a blueprint, a clear idea of where to channel growth when growth occurs. Urban growth boundarie , which encircle cities and metropolitan areas, contain res id ntial growth within their perimeters, but a those areas become filled, politica l pres ure increases to push the boundaries outward. As the years go on, nearly all urban growth boundarie will come under pressure to expand , increa ing the chances that the rate will be conquered by sprawl. Evidence of prawl- regardle of the current planning proce s-i already here. Kev in Ka ow ki, director of publication fo r 1000 Fri nds of Oregon, a land-use watchdog organiza– tion, says counties throughout the state are doing a po r job of enforcing land– use law and are permitting five-acre and two-acre single-family lot on lands de ignated for farm and fore t use. Toulan himse lf say the rate of h u - ing den ity in Oregon- the number of dwellings per acre-is lower than that of Los Angeles. In other word , more land is being used to hou e fewer people and creating more sprawl than the cap ital of prawl itself. Toulan suggests a higher rate of density-smaller lots, m re apartment , condominiums, and row hou es-and a look at establishing cities and towns where none ex ist right now, such as in ea tern O regon . The result would be a state where people live in c ncentrated areas that are easy to service with public transportation and where a mini– mum of harm is levied on the natural environment. lt is a European style of development. In fact , Toulan points to the fo rmer West Germany, which has th ame land area as Oregon, but con– tain 65 million people. "If the 65 million people were scat– tered around the country in the same way our population is scattered in the Vall ey, you can be sure that there would be not a single acre of wooded or agricultu ral land," Toulan say . The fac t that West Germany is not one ma of <leve l pment shows Toulan what could be accomplished in Oregon-and mu t b accomplished if the Willamette Valley is to contain ome ense of rural beauty three or four generations from now. But Toulan' ca ll fo r a blueprint is a departure from the current land-use . planning y tem.