Cliff top is urban or non-urban area

Under Oregon’s land use planning system, Metro maintains the urban growth boundary for the Portland metropolitan region. The boundary is a line that separates urban communities from rural lands. Prior to the existing urban and rural reserve designation process, Metro would determine every five years whether additional acreage was needed to maintain a 20-year supply of land to accommodate projected population and employment growth.

In the former system, when considering a boundary expansion, Metro was required by state land use laws to consider soil quality above everything else. The system provided a way to decide where not to develop. While protecting high quality farm soils is important, the system didn’t provide a method for determining ideal locations and conditions for developing urban communities.

It also stymied development: every five years residents wrestled with identifying areas for urban expansion. Landowners at the edge of the boundary were in perpetual limbo, unsure whether or when their lands might targeted for urbanization. It also made it difficult to invest in communities.

After the last UGB decision in 2005, the region’s leaders proposed a solution.

2006

Before determining the right approach to long term land use and protection, Metro joined Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties, the Department of Land Conservation and Development, and the Department of Agriculture in conducting a study of lands surrounding the existing Portland metropolitan area UGB. They asked:

• What factors affect the ability of an area to successfully conduct commercial agricultural operations over an extended period? Which lands surrounding the existing boundary meet these criteria?
• Which natural landscape features surrounding the existing urban growth boundary are most important in terms of ecological function or most influence our sense of place and should define our urban form?
• What are attributes of great communities and the most important considerations for effective urbanization?

The results of these studies formed the basis for Senate Bill 1011.

2007

Senate Bill 1011, enacted by the 2007 Oregon Legislature, allows the Portland region to consider where to urbanize based on a broad set of factors. It created a process for designating lands as rural or urban reserves.

The designation of rural reserves provides a means of protecting from urban development:

• the most valuable and financially viable farms and commercial forests
• significant natural features like wetlands, rivers and their floodplains, buttes and savannas.

Soil quality, unlike the previous system, is not the only determinant of whether a land is developable.

With the rural reserves designation, the bill also provides a legal mechanism to protect farms, forests and natural landscape features from encroachment of urbanization for the long term.

SB 1011 created a process for designating reserves simultaneously through agreements between Metro and counties. In this process, representatives of diverse interests—developers, farmers, foresters, social and environmental advocates and local governments—make recommendations to Metro and the three counties.

The counties and Metro must coordinate their reserves designation process with the region’s cities, special districts, school districts and state agencies, and they must also engage the public in a coordinated process reviewed by the State of Oregon.

Metro still considers the residential and employment needs of the region’s residents every five years to ensure a 20-year supply of buildable land, but the focus is on lands that have already been designated as urban reserves.

2008

The reserves process was launched early in the year. The Reserves Steering Committee and county advisory committees were established to represent regional and local interests.

Seven open houses were sponsored by the counties and Metro to share information about the new land designation process and to ask residents to help define the area to study. More than 300 people attended.

2009

In April, Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties proposed lands suitable for urban or rural reserves. The counties and Metro hosted eight public open houses where people viewed candidate area maps, heard presentations and shared their views.

On Sept. 1, Metro's chief operating officer Michael Jordan released his recommendation to the Metro Council on how the region should manage growth and achieve long term sustainability and prosperity over the next decades.

Metro hosted open houses and hearings and online surveys providing residents of the region the opportunity to comment on his recommendation and advise the Metro Council regarding key decisions coming this fall on land use as well as transportation.

After nearly two years of meetings and community input, on Oct. 14 the regional Reserves Steering Committee made its formal recommendations to the Core 4 (Metro and the three counties), based upon recommendations from regional interests:

On Dec. 16 the Core 4 approved a map of proposed urban reserves, proposed rural reserves and options areas.

2010

During an 11-day period in January, six public open houses were held; 850 residents attended, and more than 400 completed all or part of a questionnaire either at the open houses or online. Also during that period, the Metro Council held four public hearings around the region; 237 people signed up to speak at them.

Generally, respondents expressed their desire to maintain or increase rural reserve areas, not add urban areas, or do so only after developing land already inside the urban growth boundary, and protect farmland, forests and natural areas that cannot be replaced once they are gone.

In May and June the boards of commissioners for Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties and the Metro Council passed legislation to establish urban and rural reserves. The designation process required that each of the four governments pass an ordinance to modify existing plans and maps.

In October the ordinances, plan changes and maps were reviewed by the Oregon Land Conservation and Development Commission. The commission accepted the urban and rural reserves designated for Clackamas and Multnomah counties but asked officials from Metro and Washington County to reconsider the urban and rural reserves designated in that county.

2011

The Metro Council and Washington County Board of Commissioners adopted new ordinances, plan changes and maps in April and submitted them to the Oregon Land Conservation and Development Commission for review and acknowledgement. In August, the commission acknowledged the revised designations of urban and rural reserves in Washington County and formally acknowledged the urban and rural reserves in Clackamas and Multnomah counties that it had accepted earlier.

On Feb. 20, 2014, a ruling from the Oregon Court of Appeals changed some of the urban and rural reserves designated by Metro and the three counties in 2010 and 2011. This ruling also affected the urban growth boundary adjustment made by the Metro Council in 2011.

On April 1, 2014, Governor Kitzhaber signed House Bill 4078 which established new urban and rural reserves and adjusted the urban growth boundary in Washington County. The bill did not resolve concerns raised by the Court of Appeals about a proposed rural reserve in western Multnomah County and a proposed urban reserve in the Stafford area of Clackamas County.

The maps on this page include the new urban and rural reserves and urban growth boundary adjustments in Washington County and identify the unresolved areas in Multnomah and Clackamas counties. These maps will be updated again once those areas in Multnomah and Clackamas counties are resolved and acknowledged by the Oregon Land Conservation and Development Commission.

What does clifftop mean?

A clifftop is the area of land around the top of a cliff. ...a house on the clifftop. ...25 acres of spectacular clifftop scenery. Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers Collins English Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers

Why should you stay on a cliff top?

Up on the cliff top, you can admire rather than cower at the power of the broiling sea below. And you can have any treatment you want on any part of the island - on a cliff top, in your villa, on your favourite beach. A cliff is a high area of land with a very steep side, especially one next to the sea. [...]

How many cliff

Here list of 10 spectacular Cliff-side towns in the world. The Piodao is a breathtakingly beautiful village located in the mountains of Serro do Accor in Portugal. This beautiful mountainous area has a great abundance of schist stone. It is the main material used for the construction of Piodao village.

How many clifftop houses are there?

Adorable Home Magazine has come up with an amazing selection of 10 spectacular clifftop houses that anybody would fall in love with. This architectural gem created by Patkau Architects stands on the high rocky shore of a remote island in the Pacific Ocean , 44 ft . above sea level.

What is considered non urban?

The Census does not define “rural.” They consider “rural” to include all people, housing, and territory that are not within an urban area. Any area that is not urban is rural. The Census defines urban as: Urbanized Areas (UAs) of 50,000 or more people. Urban Clusters (UCs) of 2,500 - 49,999 people.

What areas are considered urban?

An urban area is the region surrounding a city. Most inhabitants of urban areas have non-agricultural jobs. Urban areas are very developed, meaning there is a density of human structures, such as houses, commercial buildings, roads, bridges, and railways.

What is an example of an urban area?

Urban areas originate through urbanization, and researchers categorize them as cities, towns, conurbations or suburbs. In urbanism, the term "urban area" contrasts to rural areas such as villages and hamlets; in urban sociology or urban anthropology it contrasts with natural environment.

What types of area are urban?

Depending on the size and the services available and functions rendered, urban centres are designated as town, city, million city, conurbation, megalopolis. Town: The concept of 'town' can best be understood with reference to 'village'.