Goals and Policies

Comprehensive Plan Goals and Policies is the current adopted land use plan for the City of Portland. This plan guides the future growth and development of the city. The state definition of a "comprehensive plan" is: a generalized, coordinated land use map and policy statement of the governing body of a local government that interrelates all functional and natural systems and activities relating to the use of lands, including but not limited to sewer and water systems, transportation systems, educational facilities, recreational facilities, and natural resources and air and water quality management programs.

• Comprehensive means all-inclusive, both in terms of the geographic area covered and functional and natural activities and systems occurring in the area covered by the plan.
• General nature means a summary of policies and proposals in broad categories and does not necessarily indicate specific locations of any area, activity or use.
• A plan is "coordinated" when the needs of all levels of governments, semipublic and private agencies and the citizens of Oregon have been considered and accommodated as much as possible.
• Land includes water, both surface and subsurface, and the air.

Portland's Comprehensive Plan includes a set of goals, policies, and objectives that apply to the entire city. Similar goals, policies, and objectives in neighborhood and community plans that apply only parts of the city are also part of the Comprehensive Plan. The plan also includes a list of significant public works projects; and a set of mapped features. These features include land use designations, street classifications, the city limits, and the urban service boundary. The documents and maps comprising Portland's Comprehensive Plan have never been printed together in a single volume.

• Goals are the broadest expressions of a community's desires. Goals give direction to the plan as a whole. Goals are concerned with the long term, and often describe ideal situations that would result if all plan purposes were fully realized. Since goals are value-based, their attainment is difficult to measure.
• Policies are broad statements that set preferred courses of action. Policies are choices made to carry out the goals in the foreseeable future. Policies need to be specific enough to help determine whether a proposed project or program would advance community values expressed in the goals.
• Objectives are specific statements that carry out a plan in the short term. Objectives are measurable benchmarks that can be used to assess incremental progress in achieving the broader purposes expressed in policies and goals.

Revisions for the November 2011 publication include the Transportation System Plan (TSP) update, the Hayden Island Plan (addressing the east side of the island), readoption of the Northwest District Plan, and the Airport Future project. A complete list of amendments through November 2011 may be found in Appendix A. There have been no further ordinances that have amended the comprehensive plan policies since November 2011.