Proposed urban and rural reserves
Click on the map or follow the links below to learn about proposed urban and rural reserves in nine areas of the region. View detailed maps and descriptions and read about the considerations.
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Urban and rural reserves
Read about the unique collaborative process the region used to choose the best places for future growth, identifying lands that won't be urbanized for the next 50 years as well as areas best suited to accommodate future urban development.
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glossary
Defining the terms
Urban reserves are lands designated by Metro that lie outside the current urban growth boundary and are suitable for urban development for the next 40 to 50 years.
Rural reserves are lands designated by each county that lie outside the current urban growth boundary and are valuable agricultural and/or forestlands, or have important natural features like rivers, wetlands, buttes and floodplains. These areas will be off limits to urbanization for the next 40 to 50 years.
Foundation agricultural lands anchor the larger agricultural industry and are considered vital to its long-term viability.
Important agricultural lands are well suited to agricultural production and have the capacity to contribute to the commercial agricultural economy. Although they have potential to be foundation agricultural lands, they often are not used to their full potential.
Conflicted agricultural lands have excellent capability (soils and water) but their suitability for commercial agriculture is jeopardized by circumstances that disrupt the agricultural integrity of their surroundings and challenge their operations.
The Oregon Department of Agriculture in 2007 completed an assessment of the long term commercial viability of agricultural lands in the Portland metropolitan area. The hierarchy above was developed to describe levels of agricultural viability.