Each Oregon city is surrounded by an urban growth boundary (UGB); a line drawn on planning maps to designate where a city expects to grow over a 20-year period. This growth can occur with new houses, industrial facilities, businesses, or public facilities such as parks and utilities. Restrictions in areas outside of a UGB protect farm and forest resource land and prohibit urban development. Generally speaking, it’s where the city ends and resource lands begin.
Local governments may also choose to establish urban reserves and rural reserves outside the urban growth boundary. Urban reserves are intended to provide room for long-term city growth over a 30- to 50-year time period. Urban reserves provide guidance for a city’s long-term future and protect the urban reserve area from rural development which would make future city expansion more difficult. Rural reserves are intended to provide long-term protection for large blocks of agricultural land, forest land, and other important natural landscape features to be preserved for farming and other rural activities, for at least the next 40 years. Only Metro and the three Portland area counties are allowed by state law to establish rural reserves.
Urban Growth Boundaries
An urban growth boundary is expanded through a joint effort involving the city and county, and in coordination with special districts that provide important services in the urban area. A city must first determine how much land is needed for urban development over the next 20 years and if the city can reasonably accommodate that need within the existing urban growth boundary. If there is not enough land, the city may expand its urban growth boundary while avoiding farm and forest land to the greatest extent reasonable. Once land is included in an urban growth boundary, it is eligible for annexation to a city. Adding land to an existing city limit through annexation is not regulated by the Land Conservation and Development Commission (LCDC).
Since 2016, when the Land Conservation and Development Commission adopted revised rules regarding urban growth boundary expansions, cities and counties in Oregon have successfully approved 46 expansions or adjustments to their urban growth boundaries.
Learn more about UGB amendments made between 2016 and 2025.
Urban Reserves Outside of Portland Metro
As of 2025, 13 cities in Oregon have adopted urban reserves: Central Point, Eagle Point, Eugene, Grants Pass, Madras, Medford, Newberg, Ontario, Phoenix, Redmond, Sandy, Talent, and Woodburn.
Urban and Rural Reserves in the Portland Metro Region
Under special rules for urban reserves in the Portland metropolitan area, Metro adopted an urban reserve for the region to assist in the long-term planning for urban development. Metro and the three local counties also adopted rural reserves to preserve land for farming, forestry, and other rural uses for the next 40 years. Details about designating urban and rural reserves in the Portland metropolitan area can be found in
Oregon Administrative Rule 660-027-0005.