Help please...Any Del Webb-type communities in Oregon?

[Harpaint]

King City, by Tigard, has a 55+ community with houses under 300K, a golf course, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, clubhouse, meeting rooms, clubs and activities. There are many former Californians and others there as well as Oregonians. It is not new, but nice.

[theoaks]

Originally Posted by PNW-type-gal

That may be your interpretation, but it is absolutely not correct - the point of the Urban Growth Boundaries was to protect prime farmland from being plowed under for subdivisions and keep the Willamette Valley from being one huge urban housing development. The boundaries require a city to have a certain percentage of available land and to plan future expansions, rather than just putting all land up for sale to the developer willing to pay the most.

It means we don't have the massive developments that feature hundreds on hundreds of houses sprawling across the hills (the good) but it also keeps land values relatively high (the bad).

Southern Oregon has the same Urban Growth Boundaries as the rest of the state, which, again, have nothing to do with outsiders and much more to do with protecting farm land.

To get that Oregon GMA (Growth Management Act) passed in 1973, you'd have to get all the Southern Oregon and Eastern Oregon reps on board with enough of them voting YES. I haven't checked the numbers, but I bet a lot of them voted YES in order to protect their small towns from being "invaded" by outside business interests.

These outside businesses would compete with the Family Owned establishments, like Shari's Restaurants, or Black Bear Diner, which at one time, would have been family owned (maybe they still are, I have no idea).

If Chilis or Applebys comes in, they're going to be vastly more popular than Shari's (based in NE Oregon), or, Black Bear Diner (based in Mt. Shasta, CA). In Bullhead City, AZ, the Black Bear Diner can afford to shut down during remodelling. They're a very popular yet successful business in several states.

Imagine if they had other competitors and they might have to stay open during remodeling?

Most cities in Oregon are run by a good ol' boys network that restricts outside interests. Corvallis, for example, has a Ban on Big Box Stores, so they're over in Albany like the Kohls and Costco.

Bend, will never be another Boulder, since they are so strongly anti-growth.

[PNW-type-gal]

You are still looking at the UGB through a narrow lens and one that has a big=better bias. The point of UGB wasn't exclusion or some kind of business protectionism, it was to keep the entire Willamette Valley from being one huge subdivision of houses and big box stores. Other areas of Oregon went along with the legislation (this was never put up to a public vote, it was back when legislators knew they were elected to achieve things rather than throw anything even slightly controversial on the ballot so they could hold up their hands and say "hey, I didn't vote for this" if it proves to be unpopular).

Most Oregon cities have big boxes and chain restaurants, but where they are has been planned (lol, not always well, cf: the Hwy 62 big boxes in Medford). What most Oregon cities don't have is the huge housing developments ringing the city, expanding ever-outward. My son lives near LA in a housing development slapped together over about 8 years in the late 80s - 2,500 acres of ticky-tacky boxes, about 4,000 houses. I'd hate to see the local farm lands around the cities here go under for that or a bunch of lousy national chain restaurants.

[theoaks]

Originally Posted by PNW-type-gal

You are still looking at the UGB through a narrow lens and one that has a big=better bias. The point of UGB wasn't exclusion or some kind of business protectionism, it was to keep the entire Willamette Valley from being one huge subdivision of houses and big box stores. Other areas of Oregon went along with the legislation (this was never put up to a public vote, it was back when legislators knew they were elected to achieve things rather than throw anything even slightly controversial on the ballot so they could hold up their hands and say "hey, I didn't vote for this" if it proves to be unpopular).

Most Oregon cities have big boxes and chain restaurants, but where they are has been planned (lol, not always well, cf: the Hwy 62 big boxes in Medford). What most Oregon cities don't have is the huge housing developments ringing the city, expanding ever-outward. My son lives near LA in a housing development slapped together over about 8 years in the late 80s - 2,500 acres of ticky-tacky boxes, about 4,000 houses. I'd hate to see the local farm lands around the cities here go under for that or a bunch of lousy national chain restaurants.

It was for exclusion, look how Bend, Oregon doesn't even to this day have a mall, so that local can operate their storefronts at various locations such as the Old Mill.

It's the same politics here in northern Arizona.

And also in Chico, CA.

Only Scottsdale and Portland have fully embraced the big box approach.

Hwy 62 meets the 132 foot wide standard. So it may seem loud, noisy, and poorly planned, but you don't find that sort of thing except in eastern and southern Oregon, and hwy 99W in Lane County.

[oregonwoodsmoke]

Originally Posted by theoaks

It was for exclusion, look how Bend, Oregon doesn't even to this day have a mall, so that local can operate their storefronts at various locations such as the Old Mill. .........

Bend Oregon is full of shopping malls. If you mean fully enclosed malls, there were three of them and two of them have been torn down and replaced with even more stores, but open to the sky walk ways. The third one is still there.

The Old Mill District certainly meets most persons definition of a mall, but if you are only going to count fully enclosed malls, then The Old Mill District is certainly a large shopping center, full of lots of stores, restaurants, and a movie theater.

Bend has all sorts of huge national chains. No one is being excluded by the UGB.

[karlsch]

Originally Posted by theoaks

It was for exclusion, look how Bend, Oregon doesn't even to this day have a mall, .........

During the mall building craze period in the United States Bend wasn't large enough to warrant one.

Today, malls everywhere are being closed and almost none, if any, of the size suitable for Bend are being built.

Google it, there is plenty to read.

[PNW-type-gal]

Originally Posted by theoaks

Hwy 62 meets the 132 foot wide standard. So it may seem loud, noisy, and poorly planned, but you don't find that sort of thing except in eastern and southern Oregon, and hwy 99W in Lane County.

Hwy 62 by the big boxes and mall IS a noisy, poorly-planned, frequently grid-locked stretch. So bad, in fact, that the state/feds are building a bypass (work starts later this year) to route all non-local traffic around it.

[theoaks]

Originally Posted by PNW-type-gal

Hwy 62 by the big boxes and mall IS a noisy, poorly-planned, frequently grid-locked stretch. So bad, in fact, that the state/feds are building a bypass (work starts later this year) to route all non-local traffic around it.

I've only driven it about 10 times, you're more of an expert than me given your knowledge of this bypass ! That is terrific to hear that ODOT and the feds are going to smooth the traffic flow.

My comment was meant to point out that at least they have all the stores in Medford / Eagle Point that are easily accessible, yet it is very noisy, as you point out.

Bend, OR could use an Eastern Bypass, a loop freeway, to take people out of the City who otherwise clog up its downtown areas / Business-97 / who don't use the existing Hwy-97. Similar, to Medford.

Do you know if Bend has entertained that idea ???

[oregonwoodsmoke]

Originally Posted by theoaks

.....Bend, OR could use an Eastern Bypass, ........Do you know if Bend has entertained that idea ???

I've not heard anything about it. If they are considering it, don't expect anything soon. They were discussing where to put the Parkway even back in early 1970's. If they want an Eastern bypass, and are discussing now, look for it about the turn of the century.

It took them 15 years to decide where to put the new overpass at the end of the parkway. Then they put in two and both of them only serve the same one direction. Winco purchased land in that location and wasn't allowed to build until the Murphy overpass route was decided on. Two possible routes, only a few feet apart and nobody could agree on which one, so nothing got done.

We are talking about the same people here who put in the Parkway with absolutely no way to get from the Parkway to Hwy 20 East.