Oregon's Transportation Planning Rule Goes into the Shop for Repairs

Abstract

More than 10 years ago, Oregon approved a new and sweeping process for considering transportation planning for local agencies and land use development. This process, coined the Transportation Planning Rule (TPR), was adopted into administrative rules of the state and provided local agencies with a means of considering short-range land use actions, long-range transportation plans, and changes to zoning that have been implemented by local agencies throughout the state. Recently TPR has been challenged over its process for addressing the relationship between the adequacy of transportation facilities and rezoning of land uses. The Jaqua case, taken to the State Court of Appeals, raised key issues as to the level of evaluation and planning process necessary in determining the adequacy of transportation facilities: a property owner challenged a city's transportation analysis in support of a land use rezoning action and claimed that analysis was not adequate because it did not look incrementally over time (similar to concurrency) but at the end planning horizon year (20 years in the future). The state has convened a blue-ribbon panel to assess the issues associated with the implementation of TPR and how transportation policy may need to be refined to address both the long-term planning goals and development implementation interests best. At stake is the level of transportation analysis necessary to address changes in land use from approved plans. The issues associated with updating Oregon's Transportation Planning Rule, including the stakeholder process, blue-ribbon panel, study findings, and implementation of one of the country's most unusual statewide transportation policies, are outlined. The land use and transportation issues are explored from multiple perspectives such as land development, local agency, public needs, and transportation analyst.