The Portland region had foresight 30 years ago to adopt the region’s first Future Vision and 2040 Growth Concept. These long-range plans helped guide how greater Portland has grown in a way that reflects shared community values.
Approved by voters in 1992, the Metro Charter calls for the adoption of a Future Vision that is “a long-term visionary outlook for at least a 50-year period.” The Future Vision is not regulatory document, but it can form the basis for adopting new regulations or policy. Metro adopted its Future Vision in 1995.
The adopted Future Vision states a number of core values essential to shaping the region’s future. Many these are still present in today’s planning and visioning from Metro and other regional governments and community organizations, including:
- Acting to meet today’s needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs
- Commitment to community, civic involvement and a healthy environment
- A healthy economy that provides stable family-wage jobs.
Some elements the Vision imagines also continue to resonate: government initiatives and services that help to empower communities to meet the needs of their residents, a dynamic and diverse regional economy, active engagement in civic life, healthy communities with distinct identities, and a commitment to the unique landscape of the region.
However, a lot has changed in the region since the last Future Vision in 1995. Developing a new Future Vision is an opportunity to come together and define what the future should look like for the 24 cities and three counties that make up the region. It is also an opportunity to incorporate themes and topics that are critical today that were not present in the 1995 Vision, such as climate change and a 21st-century conceptualization of equity.