What the Maps Tell Us: Initial Findings

The Residential Density (per acre) map shows pockets of densely-settled areas scattered throughout the urbanized part of the region, reflecting both historic settlement patterns and the influence of more recent land use policies to concentrate development in centers and along transit and transportation corridors. The two largest areas of high density are a cluster of neighborhoods comprised of downtown Portland, the Pearl District, Old Town/Chinatown, the Northwest District and Goose Hollow and a second area in Hillsboro just southeast of East Main Street and SE 10th Avenue.  Other high density pockets occur along the MAX line in Rockwood (Gresham), along transportation corridors in Clark County and near Scholls Ferry Road in Beaverton and Tigard.  

In contrast to the region’s residential density pattern, the Employment Density (per acre) map indicates that employment density is more concentrated, with high density areas located in and around greater downtown Portland and the Lloyd District, along the Interstate corridor and US-26, in nodes along many of the region’s MAX lines, and in a few isolated areas along transportation corridors in all four metro area counties. Because retail and office uses tend to have a higher density of employees per acre than industrial uses, these maps tend to draw attention to retail and office centers, such as the Lloyd District and malls.

While interesting in their own right, these maps can also be used for a variety of other analyses.  For example, we could look at the air quality maps in conjunction with these maps to see if people in the region tend to live and/or work in areas of good air quality.  Similarly, the maps can be used in conjunction with various Atlas maps showing disparities in access to essential resources and opportunities to identify the areas where targeted investments would have the greatest impact.