They're the hubs of economic activity in the region.
Characterized by concentrations of mixed-use, compact development, they offer employment space and housing options along with the public and private amenities that support urban living.
Restaurants, coffee shops, bookstores and brewpubs mix with post offices, community centers, schools and libraries to provide a balance of services that attract businesses, visitors, residents and potentially, new investment.
Urban parks, multi-use trails and waterways provide opportunities to step into nature near an office, across from an apartment building or just down the block from a popular restaurant.
And they're accessible – by bike, transit, car and on foot.
The 38 regional and town centers in the Portland metropolitan area serve as mileposts on the path to achieving the region's goals for vibrant, livable and prosperous communities, as envisioned in the region's 50-year plan for managing growth – the 2040 Growth Concept.
Measuring success, targeting investments
As appropriate for a regional plan stretching out over half a century, Metro is measuring its progress.
The 2011 State of the Centers report, released in May as a follow-up to the 2009 report, provides local governments, community leaders and businesses new tools and data to determine the progress of their centers against their own local aspirations and existing conditions in other centers.
"Metro has established policies that give priority to regional investments for those communities that have taken steps to promote development in downtowns and along main streets," says Tom Hughes, Metro Council president. "The State of the Centers report is an invaluable tool for local jurisdictions with aspirations for high capacity transit or other investments that will stimulate economic growth in their centers."
The data displayed in the profiles of regional and town centers – including people per acre, public and private amenities, market value per square foot, total businesses per acre and median household income – can help local governments target investments in their centers and better leverage them with other public and private funding.
By comparing the measures in the report to local aspirations and conditions in other centers, communities can identify where investments are most needed.
Seven measures of a successful center
New to the 2011 report is the visual representation of seven characteristics of a successful center. Transit access, block size, private amenities, sidewalk density, people per acre, bike route density and access to parks are scored relative to the region as a whole. A composite of the seven scores is represented visually for each center for an at-a-glance indication of progress toward becoming livable, pedestrian-friendly and vibrant centers that support economic prosperity.
Demand shifts for more compact development
According to findings of an expert advisory group convened by the Institute for Portland Metropolitan Studies at the request of Metro in 2009, compact mixed-use development supports the need to provide housing near transit and services for a diverse population. The advisory group concluded, in part, that given the scarcity of resources in the public sector, there is a need to both prioritize investments and find ways to sustain collaboration between public, private, nonprofit and institutional sectors to support robust development in centers. The 2011 State of the Centers report supports targeting investments.
Future editions of the State of the Centers report will be more web-based, allowing the data to be regularly updated to better monitor center performance. Metro welcomes suggestions for improving the presentation of data or in defining new measures for evaluating performance.