Slides from ROBERT LIBERTY's presentation on March 6th, 2006

PUBLIC FORUMS
Ease at the Edge: Urban/Rural Interface
MONDAY, MARCH 6th, 2006
7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
SFU Surrey Centre Campus

SPEAKER:
ROBERT LIBERTY,
Portland Metro Council, former Executive Director of 1000 Friends of Oregon

BIO / TALK SUMMARY:
Robert Liberty has a quarter-century of experience with green zones and urbanization. While at 1000 Friends of Oregon as a staff attorney he reviewed local land use plans around Oregon and won precedent setting appellate cases clarifying what development was allowed and prohibited in farm and forest zones.

As Executive Director of 1000 Friends of Oregon he initiated the first large-scale attempt to provide a design and policy framework for expanding the UGB: The Damascus Area Design Workshop which considered the urban design for a 6,000 hectare urban growth boundary expansion.

In 2004 he won election to the Metro council, the first elected regional council in the US. As one of seven councillors for the Oregon part of the Portland-Vancouver metro area, he shares responsibility for metropolitan scale planning including amending the regional urban growth boundary. Councillor Liberty will provide the policy and political context which makes the Portland region such an important parallel to our own, and discuss the criteria and mechanisms for urbanization, as well as the politics, taxation and design strategies that can help ease the friction at the edge while capitalizing on its inherent advantages.