Gov. Tina Kotek wants to see thousands more duplexes, triplexes, quadplexes, cottage clusters and townhomes built throughout the state.
The governor is urging lawmakers to approve a measure that greatly expands where what’s known as “middle housing” can be built.
The latest measure, House Bill 2138, builds on a bill from 2019 that the governor pushed for when she was speaker of the statehouse. That measure, House Bill 2001, which drew national headlines at the time, legalized duplexes on single-family lots in cities with a population of 10,000 people and got rid of single-family zoning restrictions in cities with a population greater than 25,000 people.
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek examines a mass timber affordable housing prototype at the Port of Portland in Portland, Ore., on Jan. 27, 2023.
Claire Rush / AP
Years later, the governor said her initial bill didn’t go far enough. Now, she wants to remove any single-family housing zoning requirements across Oregon, as long as the land is inside an existing urban growth boundary.
“Even though these types of homes tend to be more affordable, they are still illegal to build in many areas across the state,” Kotek said in a press conference on Monday.
In addition to allowing for a vast expansion of her earlier “middle housing” efforts, the latest measure would loosen restrictions put on developers and would incentivize developers to build more affordable housing.
The governor’s latest effort is one of her signature housing bills this legislative session. Oregon has spent millions of dollars in recent years toward creating more housing and yet, it still hasn’t been enough. In her first year of office, Kotek set a goal of adding 36,000 new housing units a year. She hasn’t met that goal. Kotek is also hoping to create a statewide homeless shelter system and calling on lawmakers to funnel more than $200 million toward the effort.
“So this bill is about choice, it’s about affordability,” the governor said. “When we can build more kinds of homes, people have more options. Seniors who are ready to move to a smaller home in a community where they have built their lives will have more options. Young families who will be able to buy their first starter home closer to the schools, stores, parks, and their jobs and middle-income jobs, middle-income folks here in Oregon, like our teachers, our firefighters, our hospital workers, can afford to live in the community that they serve.”
Mike Riddle, the president of the Oregon Home Builders Association, said the solution to the housing crisis was clear: The state needs more units. He spoke in favor of the governor’s bill at her press conference and at a legislative hearing on Monday afternoon in the House Committee on Housing and Homelessness.
“Builders are ready, communities are ready. Yet government red tape continues to strangle progress, endless delays, outdated zoning laws, and excessive permitting requirements add years to projects that should take months,” Riddle said.
Some of the requirements the governor’s bill suggests loosening for developers include eliminating the notice and appeal requirements for middle housing developments and eliminating traffic impact analyses for infill projects.
Hillary Gray, who lives in a multi-family housing community called Cully Green in Northeast Portland, said the housing situation she moved into changed her life.
“There are opportunities to meet with children, adults, and seniors,” said Gray, a 67-year-old retired nurse.
“I’m never bored or lonely and every day there are children coming over,” she said during the governor’s press conference. “Opportunities to visit as we all come and go through our shared spaces in our building.”
Those representing cities, however, did voice concerns over all the sweeping changes in the past couple of years.
Alexandra Ring, a lobbyist with the League of Oregon Cities, said in the past several years cities have had to deal with a lot of statutory changes, many of which they haven’t had time to fully understand the impact of yet. She said “ever changing land-use laws and housing laws” can be detrimental to city staff who have to spend their time trying to implement frequent changes.
Several people who submitted written opposition to the bill were concerned the measure made it easier to demolish historic homes and other structures. The governor said she has supported a change to the measure that would take out the part dealing with bulldozing historic homes.
