Here, the wall comes right down 209th avenue. Anything to the right, toward the city, is inside the boundary and can be developed. But anything to the left is off limits. It's part of a statewide approach to controlling urban sprawl, and protecting farm and forest land. All across Oregon, boundary lines are drawn around populated areas.
Builders have to fill vacant lots inside the boundaries, before boundaries are pushed outwards.
The interests of Oregon for today and in the future must be protected from grasping wastrels of the land. A quarter-century later, Oregon proudly touts the approach in videos like this as a model for other states. Oregon farmers, especially, seem to have benefited. For three generations, the Vanderzandaen family has grown grass, peas, and corn on these 1,250 acres 15 miles from Portland, just outside the growth boundary. Land they used to farm for people inside the boundary has been chewed up by suburbs.