Portland Plan News

The Portland Plan, adopted four years ago and reflecting the contributions of 17,000 people including 20 local agency partners, has become the foundation for numerous plans, programs and investments. As a broad strategic plan for the city, with equity as the foundation supporting three integrated strategies: (1)  Educated Youth, (2) Prosperity and Affordability, and (3) Healthy Connected City — BPS tracks progress with 12 specific measures of success. Of the 142 action items in the plan, 90 percent are in progress, on track or completed. 

Director Anderson’s presentation of our city’s “report card” highlights progress on education, jobs, complete neighborhoods and the environment, while emphasizing serious concerns with affordability for many families, with rising housing and childcare costs. And even in areas where we’ve seen improvements across the board, like rising graduation rates and salaries, many households of color are not faring as well as the average overall, and in some cases, are significantly worse off. 

Comprehensive Plan Update Working Draft Part 2 | The Map App | Upcoming Mapping Conversations | Policy Expert Group wrap-ups | Opportunities to volunteer on a committee, and more!

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The Bureau of Planning and Sustainability just launched a new online tool that allows users to make comments on a series of maps for the Comprehensive Plan Update. From centers, corridors and urban habitat corridors to employment, stormwater, transportation and more, the new Map App offers a dynamic map-based environment for Portlanders to dive deeply into the inner workings of their city.

Roughly 30 map layers are included in the Map App, including 11 "discussion layers" that represent areas of potential change or investment. A collection of "background layers" provides visual information about Portland's median age and income, population density, park access, employment areas, watershed health and other data sets. Users can combine layers together to see connections between different map layers. They can also comment directly in the Map App or with the online comment form. Public feedback is welcome until December 31.

The Map App is part of the Working Draft Part 2: Maps and Infrastructure, which complements the Working Draft Part 1: Goals and Policies. Together they make up what will become Portland's new Comprehensive Plan. For more information about the Comprehensive Plan Update, please visit www.portlandoregon.gov/bps/pdxcompplan.   

Following the examples of national public health agencies, the Portland Plan includes “healthy weight” as an indicator — or sign — of healthy people in the city. People who are overweight or obese have a higher risk of experiencing chronic diseases, from Type 2 diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, heart disease, stroke and certain types of cancer.

Although healthy weight data is not available at the city scale, we can use data at the county scale as an approximation. In Multnomah County, the percentage of adults at a healthy weight is on the decline. In 1993, 55 percent of county residents were classified as being at a healthy weight. The latest data (from 2006-09) shows that about 44 percent of adults in the county are at a healthy weight, down 11 percent. Of those not at a healthy weight, about 34 percent are considered overweight and another 22 percent are obese. And only about 55 percent of adults in the county meet the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommended daily level of physical activity — 30 minutes of moderate physical activity on most days.

It’s no secret that eating healthier foods and exercising more is the way to reverse this trend. But what actions can public agencies take to encourage this?

The Portland Plan features the Healthy Connected City strategy, which aims to increase access to grocery stores and healthy foods while promoting physical activity for residents.

Living in walkable neighborhoods with easy access to amenities and transit is a growing priority for Portland families. Through the actions in the Portland Plan and the Comprehensive Plan Update, the City and its partners hope to create more places where it’s easy to get around by foot, bike or public transportation, giving people more opportunities to be active.

In the long run, a more connected urban environment may be one of the most practical solutions to preventing obesity and reducing related diseases. How walkable is your neighborhood? 

Recently, Portland residents have been asking Bureau of Planning and Sustainability (BPS) staff what it means to say the Comprehensive Plan is a Portland Plan implementation project. Others wonder why we need the Comprehensive Plan if we have the Portland Plan.

The Portland Plan, which was adopted by the City Council in 2012, is a strategic plan that provides the public and decision-makers a way to evaluate budget requests and proposed projects against citywide goals.

It highlights four focus areas: equity, education, prosperity and health. Each focus area has a strategy, which includes policies to guide how the City approaches work in that area, and a list of potential actions to take over the next five years.

The Portland Plan was adopted by a resolution. Plans adopted by resolutions serve as a guide for future government action and are not legally binding.

The Comprehensive Plan, however, must be adopted by an ordinance; plans adopted by ordinance are binding.

The Comprehensive Plan is a state-mandated plan to prepare for expected population and job growth as well as infrastructure investments. It will also guide the City’s community engagement practices to ensure inclusion, transparency and equity in the decision-making process around key priorities.

Staff used an open-ended and flexible process during the creation of the Portland Plan to gather feedback from thousands of residents to help shape the future direction of our city. The Comprehensive Plan builds on that input, as well as lessons learned about community involvement.

In addition to new, more detailed policies, the draft Comprehensive Plan includes many of the policies from the Portland Plan Guiding Policies. Once adopted, these will all become binding and guide land use, transportation and investment decisions for the next 20 years.

Key concepts from the Portland Plan are incorporated throughout the draft Comprehensive Plan:

• The Healthy Connected City strategy is a core component of the Urban Design Framework, as well as the Urban Design and Development and Watershed Health and Environment goals and policies.
• Issues related to freight movement and providing land for traded sector development are addressed in the Economic Development and Transportation goals and policies.
• Policies that support youth success can be found in the Housing, Economic Development, Urban Design and Development, Public Facilities and Transportation chapters.

As a legally binding policy document, the Comprehensive Plan is an important implementation tool of the Portland Plan. 

A “complete neighborhood” is an area where residents have safe and convenient access to goods and services they need on a daily or regular basis. This includes a range of housing options, grocery stores and other neighborhood-serving commercial services; quality public schools; public open spaces and recreational facilities; and access to frequent transit. In a complete neighborhood, the network of streets and sidewalks is interconnected, which makes walking and bicycling to these places safe and relatively easy for people of all ages and abilities.

Why measure complete neighborhoods? Having safe, convenient and walkable access to schools, parks, grocery stores and transit can help Portlanders save money and stay healthy. For example, lower transportation costs help reduce overall household costs and increase housing affordability. And incorporating daily exercise is a lot easier with a safe network of sidewalks outside your door.

Today, fewer than half of Portlanders live in complete neighborhoods. By 2035, the City aims for 80 percent of Portlanders to be living in complete neighborhoods. The “heat map” below shows Portland’s neighborhoods in varying stages of “completeness”; the cooler colors in purple and blue (note outer East Portland, Southwest and the West Hills) have fewer amenities and safe streets, whereas the inner eastside neighborhoods in warm reds, oranges and yellows offer greater access to both. 

The “20-minute neighborhood” index measures access to everyday goods, services and amenities. The “heat map” shows the range of accessibility.