It’s foolish, certainly, to read today’s final article in the Dallas Morning News‘ three-part series on the growth and development of North Texas and come to the conclusion that Dallas-Fort Worth should absolutely adopt the same approach as Portland, Oregon. (The Portland area collectively sets a boundary beyond which urban development is forbidden.)
But, man, it sure makes sense that the many municipalities and the counties that comprise a region should, you know, work together:
Planners expect the population of the entire Portland area to double in the next few decades, just like North Texas. But Portland’s growth will accompany only an 11 percent increase in land.
Here, space is prized more as a tool for redevelopment than a vehicle for expansion. The high-tech giant Intel houses its Hillsboro campus in a former industrial field. AÂ Chevron gas station in nearby Beaverton also functions as an electrical power plant. And permanently stationed food trucks fill vacant Portland parking lots with everything from poached Thai chicken to pork schnitzel.
The urban growth boundary prevents cities from spreading outward, so they’re forced to look inward. “It has led to a realization that everything is related to everything else,” said Ethan Seltzer, a professor of urban studies and planning at Portland State University. “This notion that you’re all in it together, it leads to a willingness to cooperate.”
Maybe, if you’re a certain sort of person, the bit about the food trucks makes you roll your eyes. And perhaps setting a strict regional growth boundary would be a terrible mistake, causing housing prices to skyrocket to the point that it would prevent affordable pricing for decent housing in the core of the city. Â I’m not sure of the net effect. I’ve heard smart people argue differing sides.
It’s just that the DMN series (part one is here, part two here) is a reminder that the expansion of the suburbs outward comes at a price – infrastructure, demand on water supplies, air pollution – and that much of the newest growth has sprouted up without any planning by anyone other than the developer responsible for putting up cookie-cutter houses in an empty field. It’s a haphazard approach.
No, we don’t necessarily need to have Portland’s knitting clubs meeting at the locally-owned sustainable grocery store (not that there’s anything wrong with that). Â What we might be able to use is something like their Metro, an elected regional planning council with the authority to force us to address these things.
Our North Central Texas Council of Governments, a “voluntary association,” may not cut it.  I mean, would we ever hear this from one of our local officials?
Genentech comes to mind. The Portland region found itself in competition with Dallas six years ago for one of the biotechnology company’s manufacturing hubs. North Texas offered more. It came to Hillsboro.
“We don’t have tax abatements,” Hughes said. “But we do offer a quality of life and a lifestyle, and it has allowed us to attract a large number of educated young people.”
