Members of a governor-appointed council say Oregon needs to temporarily loosen its land-use laws to meet Gov. Tina Kotek鈥檚 goal of building 36,000 homes per year 鈥� an idea that鈥檚 proved to be one of the more divisive proposals to address the state鈥檚 housing crisis.
Over the past few months, Kotek鈥檚 Housing Production Advisory Council identified many barriers that would lead to Oregon building fewer homes than needed to keep pace with growth, leading to higher rent and mortgage costs and more homelessness. There aren鈥檛 enough construction workers to build the needed homes, cumbersome permit requirements make projects take longer and cost more and the state doesn鈥檛 have enough land ready for homebuilding.
To address the last barrier, council members recommended that the Legislature allow all cities to expand their urban growth boundary one time in the next 10 years without going through the usual expansion process that can take years to complete. The boundary is the invisible, state-approved line around a city that dictates where and how it can grow.
That was a key component of a that failed on the Senate floor in the last few hours of the legislative session. The council hasn鈥檛 formally endorsed the proposal, and public testimony during its Friday meeting demonstrated what a tough sell the idea would be in a state dominated by Democrats supported by environmental interests.
鈥淭his opportunity, if every city in the state takes advantage of it, could produce 150,000 units,鈥� said Deborah Flagan, a council member and vice president of community engagement at Hayden Homes.
That would get the state 30% of the way to building the 500,000 homes economists say are necessary over the next two decades to keep pace with demand.
The proposal would allow cities with populations below 25,000 to add up to 75 acres and cities with larger populations to add up to 150 acres. The Portland metro area would be capped at 900 total acres. At least 30% of the homes added would need to remain affordable for at least 6o years.
The League of Oregon Cities supports the concept, said Ariel Nelson, the league鈥檚 lobbyist on housing and land use, but it wants more attention to details.
鈥淭he current UGB expansion or adjustment process at the state is too cumbersome, too time-consuming and expensive to be responsive to our current housing crisis,鈥� she said.
Cities in the Portland region are skeptical about the proposal, said Anneliese Koehler, state and regional affairs adviser for Metro. Instead of adding land on the outskirts of city boundaries, cities in the region need more support to redevelop and fill in vacant lots, she said.
鈥淢etro continues to struggle to understand why this concept is needed in our region,鈥� Koehler said. 鈥淪pecifically, our understanding of the intent of this bill is to offer opportunities to increase land supply for housing production. While I cannot speak for other areas of the state, raw land supply is not the crux of the Metro region鈥檚 housing supply crisis. We have thousands of acres of buildable land inside our UGB.鈥�
Corie Harlan, the cities and towns manager for Central Oregon LandWatch, said the Bend-based environmental organization had deep concerns about expediting the urban growth boundary expansion process. Central Oregon LandWatch was the main opponent to Bend鈥檚 attempt to grow by about 8,000 acres in 2008. It took almost another decade for the city to win state approval for a more modest 2,000-acre addition.
鈥淔irst and foremost, UGB expansions must be based on a demonstrated need,鈥� Harlan said. 鈥淎nd this recommendation undermines this reasonable, necessary and core tenet of our land use system that is at the heart of Oregon鈥檚 livability.鈥�
Expansion in Bend
Since the state approved its urban growth boundary expansion in 2016, Bend has added another 35 acres for affordable housing and 260 acres southeast of town for housing and commercial development. Both additions happened because of state laws that made it easier for the city to expand its urban growth boundary.
Bend Mayor Melanie Kebler said the recent 260-acre expansion is proceeding much faster than typical expansions and recommended that the council use the that allowed Bend to take in that land as a model for statewide policies.
鈥淚t really doesn鈥檛 make sense to hold to old ways when we鈥檙e working to get a jump on the future and really accelerate housing production,鈥� she said.
Many of the people who spoke to the council defended Oregon鈥檚 land-use system, saying it should be hard to expand city limits. Marion County resident Aileen Kaye said voters are concerned about homelessness, not affordable housing.
鈥淚 feel that the current push for massive homebuilding is a bait and switch by Governor Kotek,鈥� Kaye said. 鈥淰oters thought the governor was going to focus on, and I take this wording from today鈥檚 meeting notice, 鈥楬ow to provide immediate relief to unsheltered Oregonians and prevent thousands of families from becoming homeless.鈥欌��
Casey Clapp, a tree scientist from Portland, said maintaining urban growth boundary limits as they are is necessary to keep Oregon special.
鈥淚t鈥檚 what鈥檚 keeping Oregon Oregon as opposed to creating a Denver or some other sprawled city that you鈥檇 see in the Midwest out of Portland and Salem and Eugene and Bend and all these other places,鈥� Clapp said. 鈥淧eople are moving to this place because of the gorgeous beauty that we have, and these really innovative land-use rules as opposed to getting rid of all that and shooting ourselves in one foot while we鈥檙e thinking we鈥檙e making ourselves a better place with the other foot.鈥�
The council is expected to send its final recommendations to Kotek by the end of the year.
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