The Portland area’s urban growth boundary has been more effective at restricting rural housing development than Clark County’s system, according to a new analysis by the Sightline Institute.

The Seattle-based sustainability think tank found there was far more housing built outside Clark County’s urban growth boundary than built outside Portland’s growth boundary from 2000 to 2010.

Clark County accounted for about 30 percent of all new housing in the Portland-Vancouver metro area during the decade, but more than 60 percent of all new homes built outside urban growth boundaries.

Not all rural housing development was restricted in Oregon. There was a 5 percent increase in housing units in Multnomah and Clackamas counties built outside the growth boundary from 2000 to 2010 and a 4 percent increase in Washington County.

In contrast, Clark County registered an 18 percent increase.

Sightline analysts concluded that “the contrasting records of the Oregon and Washington sides of the Portland metro area offer a clear lesson: rural sprawl results from policy choices.”

The report, “Rural Sprawl in Metropolitan Portland,” can be found at: sightline.org/research/rural-sprawl-in-metropolitan-portland.

Pilots forest

biomass projects

The U.S. Forest Service awarded Oregon a $168,000 grant for a pilot project to develop biomass energy from forest materials. The project will evaluate promising opportunities to develop local biomass business clusters that support forest restoration. Select projects will earn grants to pay for feasibility studies, design, and preparation for financing and construction. Gov. John Kitzhaber has targeted forest biomass projects as a priority to help restore unhealthy forests and return timber industry jobs to hard-pressed rural communities.

The grant is the first of its kind from the forest service.