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Public Facilities Techniques

See Tools of the Trade for a more detailed discussion of public facilities techniques.

Regional Urban Service Standards

Regional urban service standards address several growth-management objectives:

• Ensure that facilities are consistent with comprehensive plans.
• Balance service levels between communities.
• Provide adequate funding for needed services.
• Encourage cooperation between service providers.

Implementing regional urban services standards requires:

• Establishing a forum.
• Setting facility standards
• Creating funding sources.

An Example of Local and Regional Urban Service Standards
LOS Standard	City 1	City 2	County, Inside UGB	Regional
Major Roads	LOS "D"	LOS "E"	LOS "C"	LOS "D"
Sidewalks	both sides of arterials and collectors	both sides of arterials and collectors	within one mile of schools	both sides of  arterials and collectors
Drainage Facilities (capacity)	50 year event	25 year event	10 year event	25 year event
Parks (acres per 1,000 pop.)	4.0	2.5	1.5	3.0
Fire Protection (Response Time)	5 minutes	3 minutes	8 minutes	5 minutes

Source: Tools of the Trade.

 

What are the potential effects of Regional Urban Service Standards?

The effects depend on the standards adopted and the degree of intergovernmental coordination achieved. In general, regional urban service standards encourage:

• More consistent levels of service
• Sharing of financial resources.
• Enhanced ability to manage growth.
• Removing incentives to develop where standards are lower. .
• Potential for increased housing costs.

What are the issues to consider?

• The size of the region.
• Setting public facility requirements can be tricky.
• Deciding how to fund required improvements can be even more tricky.

Adequate Public Facilities Requirements

Adequate Public Facilities Requirements (APFRs) help local governments avoid the negative impacts of rapid growth, such as insufficient sewer capacity and traffic congestion. The main objective of APFRs is to ensure that new development has adequate urban services. They serve to give local governments more control over the timing and location of new development.

APFRs contain two essential components:

• Identification of the types and levels of service that are needed to permit new development
• A clear policy about when the public facilities have to be in place relative to the impact of development

APFRs are based on the concept of concurrency

Implementing APFRs requires:

• An ordinance (and possibly a map) that spells out the required existing or planned levels of urban services.
• Coordination among planning agencies and service providers.
• A system needs to be in place to measure and monitor the levels of public services.
• A permit process needs to be available to evaluate levels of public services for proposed projects.

What are their potential effects?

• Reduce the amount of development that lacks adequate urban services.
• Encourage infill development in areas well served by public facilities.
• Direct development to areas with some urban services.
• Shift development to other jurisdictions.

 What are the issues to consider?

• The impacts of a set of requirements can be difficult to predict.
• Requiring high service levels may discourage certain types of development.
• The development approval process will be more complicated.
• APFRs will place new demands on capital improvement budgets.
• APFRs can be combined with other policies to focus improvements in certain areas.
• APFRs encourage the creation of equitable system
• development charges to fund needed improvements.

 

Focused Public Improvement Plans

• FPIPs provide fully-served land for development.
• FPIPs reduce the cost of extending urban services to developing areas.
• FPIPs reduce the amount of dispersed development.

• FPIPs can direct development to specific areas.

Elements of a FPIP:

• Future development forecasts
• Buildable lands inventory
• Updated facility plans
• Capital improvement program
• Revised urban service agreements
• Public investment area map
• System development charges
  (Optional)

Implementing a FPIP requires:

• Identifying public investment areas.
• Changing capital improvements programs and public facility plans.
• Adopting policies and ordinances to implement the FPIP.

What are their potential effects?

The effects of FPIPs depend on the size of the PIA and the amount of capital improvement funding. In general, however, a FPIP can be expected to:

• Decrease the amount of dispersed development lacking adequate urban services.
• Increase the density of development in growing areas.
• Encourage infill and redevelopment.
• Improve local control over capital budgets.

What are the issues to consider?

Choosing the size of the PIAs requires good forecasts of future growth rates.

• The politics of locating PIAs can be complicated.
• A successful FPIP requires close cooperation among service providers.
• The system must respond to changes in the real estate market.
• Clear rules for development outside PIAs are needed.
• Modifying system development charges.

Annexation Plans

 Annexation plans allow a city or district to get approval in a single election for a series of annexations that can be put into effect individually. The annexation plan process is intended to identify and address critical issues. Implementing an annexation plan requires:

• Studying the proposed annexation areas. State law (ORS 195.220) requires that an annexation plan address the following issues:
• The timing and sequence of annexation
• Local standards of urban services required as a condition of annexation
• A schedule for providing urban services to annexed territory
• The effect on existing urban services providers, including the effects on the tax base and budget of each provider
• The long-term benefits of the annexation plan
• Negotiate intergovernmental agreements with affected jurisdictions.
• Public education and outreach.
• Public hearing.
• Public vote.

What are the potential effects of Annexation Plans?

 It is expected that annexation plans will be an effective growth management tool because they will:

• Address the economic viability of special districts.
• Encourage creation of long-term master plans.
• Clarify the costs and benefits of annexation.
• Encourage collaboration between service providers.

Issues to consider when thinking about adopting annexation plans:

• Information
• Process
• Credibility and plan adoption
• Tax differential
• Residents' concerns

Economic Development

A Typical Local Economic Development Approach:

• Formulate a strategy that targets compatible businesses and employment opportunities.
• Develop a marketing program that emphasizes community assets.
• Arrange financing tools to aid development, including tax abatement and waivers, grants, low-cost loans, and special taxing districts.
• Inventorying and assembling potential sites for development, including appropriate zoning, hazardous materials inventories and other environmental problems, and providing infrastructure improvements.
• Making public land available, offering lease commitments in developments and providing support facilities such as parking, port facilities, and job training.
• Expediting the development approval process and reducing the complexities of existing zoning and building codes.

The Economic Development Planning Process:

• Organizing for planning
• Establish steering committee
• Develop a work plan:

1. Identify the focus of effort (geographic scope)
2. List work plan elements (economic analysis, physical inventories, research of development tools, etc)
3. Assign initial responsibilities
4. Outline time frames for completion

• Identifying development opportunities
• Developing action plans
• Organizing for implementation