By Randal O’Toole
Metro will soon be revising its 1995 Regional Framework Plan, also known as the 2040 plan. The vision of 2040 advocates was for the Portland region to “build up, not out”, by maintaining a tight urban growth boundary, mandating the construction of apartments rather than single family homes, stopping any more highway building, and spending billions of tax dollars on transit. They assumed that this would lead to a better quality of life, but they were wrong.
Housing is now unaffordable due to land scarcity and the high construction cost of building high rises. High priced housing has doubled the homeless population and Metro’s reliance on bond measures for homeless services and other programs has made Portland one of America’s most heavily taxed cities.
Traffic congestion now has Portland commuters wasting 75 percent more time in traffic, while billions spent on light rail failed to increase ridership.
Although it’s hard to believe, the Metro 2040 plan was based on emulating the traffic congestion and high housing density of Los Angeles. Unfortunately, they succeeded.
Instead of creating yet another long-range vision, Metro should help build the communities people actually want by reducing congestion, lowering taxes, and increasing the supply of land for single family homes.
Randal O’Toole is an Oregon-based transportation and land-use policy analyst. He is an adjunct scholar at Cascade Policy Institute, for which he authored the 2024 report The Affordable Housing Scam. He is the author of several books, including American Nightmare: How Government Undermines the Dream of Homeownership.
