Ordinance No. 18686 - Laserfiche WebLink

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!8686 B . 'Growth Management and the Urban Service Area To effectively control the potential for urban sprawl and scattered urbanization,, compact growth and the urban service area concept are, and will remain, the primary growth management techniques for directing geographic patterns of urbanization in the community. In general, this means the filling in of vacant and underutilized 1 ands , as well as redevelopment inside the urban growth boundary. Outward. expansion of the projected urban service area, as defined in the glossary, will occur only when it is proven necessary according to the recom- mended policies set forth in this Plan, particularly in this element. Find innc, 1. Many metropolitan areas within the United States that have not implemented geographic - growth management techniques suffer from scattered or 1 -frog urban growth that leaves vacant and under- utilized land in its path and encourages isolated residential develop- ments far from metropolitan centers. Until adoption of the 1990 Plan's urban service area concept, portions of this metropolitan area were characterized by these phenomena. 2. Beneficial results of compact urban growth include: a. Use of most vacant left-over parcels where uti 1 iti es assessed to abutting property owners are already in place. b. Protection of productive forest lands, agricultural lands, and open space from premature urban development. c. More efficient use of limited fuel energy resources and greater use of bicycle and pedestrian facilities due to less miles of streets and less auto dependence than otherwi would be required, d. Decreased acreage of leap-frogged vacant land, thus resulting ' in more efficient and less costly provision and use of ut i l - i ties, roads, and public services such as fire protection, e. Greater urban transit efficiency by providing ahigher level of service for a given investment in transit equipment and the like. 3. The disadvantages of a too compact urban growth boundary can be a disproportionately greater increase in the value of vacant land within the Eugene - Springfield area which would contribute to higher housing prices. 4�6 Periodic evaluation of land use needs compared to land supply provides a basis for orderly and non - excessive conversion of rural land to urbanizable land, II -B -1