Fregonese Associates was the lead consultant for creation and implementation of a Growth Management strategy for Marion County and the 20 incorporated cities within its boundary. There were multiple objectives of this project, ranging from facilitation of governmental data sharing to compliance with state mandates.

FA coordinated Geographic Information Systems (GIS) data collection from all jurisdictions involved, including state and federal sources. The disparate data was organized, manipulated, and standardized into a county-wide GIS database for modeling and growth capacity analysis.

Oregon State law requires that cities and counties monitor and update their comprehensive land-use plans on a regular basis. Oregon law also requires that many cities analyze the capacity within their urban growth boundaries to ensure a land supply sufficient to accommodate a forecasted 20 years of growth. Beyond compliance with state mandates, this project created an involved public process to determine locally desired future development scenarios. The approved future scenarios will be implemented through adoption into land-use plans at the city and county levels.

This project developed a Growth Management Framework to coordinate the plans of Marion County and the 20 incorporated cities within its boundary. As part of the program, this study compared capacity under current plans with projected household and employment growth for the county and the 20 cities within its boundary.