Support land use patterns that reduce transportation needs, promote walkability, and provide easy access to services and transportation options.

When people decide to reduce the number and length of their auto trips and turn to walking, biking and transit, they need development patterns that put stores, services and employment opportunities within easy reach. The City has already committed to a walkable development pattern by designating the “Central City” and a series of “Regional Centers” and “Town Centers” as places linked by high-capacity transit and offering a full range of retail and civic services. To complement this pattern and bring retail services within walking distance of people who live outside these Centers, the City should designate and encourage smaller-scale “Neighborhood Centers,” many of which remain from pre-WWII streetcar days.  Neighborhood Centers should put every Portlander within walking or easy biking distance of a full-service grocery store and other essential stores and services.

Action steps:

a)  Designate a series of Neighborhood Centers throughout the city and apply flexible mixed-use zoning designations to allow neighborhood-scale retail, professional and civic services in those neighborhoods that do not have these services within walking distance.

b)  Change zoning and other regulations to encourage the types and number of housing units that would make neighborhood-scale retail, professional and civic services more feasible financially.  

c)  Develop a rating system to evaluate each Portland neighborhood on its degree of accessibility to transportation options and services. Use this rating system to encourage the development of more walkable neighborhoods. 

d)  Ensure zoning allows the types and amount of housing near transit stops that will support the use of transit and generate fares to make transit more sustainable.

e)  Resist expansion of the urban growth boundary in order to allow all types of Centers to thrive and to relieve pressure on agricultural land (see also the discussion of food production in Recommendation 8).

f)   Fund programs to ensure a mixture of income levels, affordable housing, mixed-income housing and workforce housing.

g)  Build and maintain a street network that supports pedestrian and bicycle trips. Achieve a high degree of street connectivity.

h)  Provide pedestrian-friendly public spaces and other amenities near Centers and other areas of compact development.

i)   Commit to urban growth patterns that follow sustainable development guidelines and green building strategies.