The region’s outlying suburbs are underserved by its radial transit system. This is one reason why the number of cost-burdened households in the region (renters who spend more than 50% of household income on housing and transport) is predicted to increase significantly over the next 20 years (Metro, 2010a). Oregon initiated a dramatic shift in its growth management policy in 1969, before the challenges described above were appreciated. Oregon policy makers were responding instead to the spread of exurban development and the consequent loss of agricultural and forest land. The governor at the time, Tom McCall, worried that Oregon would become the centre of a megalopolis ranging from Seattle to San Francisco, “committing some of the richest farmland in America to supermarkets and suburbs”. However, no state agency was charged with managing the programme, there was no significant source of funding to assist cities and counties with the development of comprehensive plans, and the enforcement mechanism- assumption of planning by the state if a local government refused to comply - was politically unpalatable.