The City of Eugene has until June 30th to finalize its housing code changes to comply with House Bill 2001, passed in 2019 to increase the amount and affordability of housing in Oregon’s cities.
Register-Guard reporter Megan Banta has been covering this process and she joins us now. Megan, can you catch us up on the City of Eugene’s Middle Housing process?
Banta: The city spent 18 months definitely more than a year, you know developing these recommendations. By using a panel, and you know a couple of task forces and the Planning Commission has passed the recommendations as developed by staff, and the panel and now it is up to the Council to decide whether or not they'll pass the recommendations or make some tweaks or just decide to let the state model code apply.
McDonald: The City Council held a public hearing this week on their Middle Housing code changes and it sounds like they got an earful. Roughly how many people spoke and what were their sentiments?
Banta: So, there were originally around 250+ people on the meeting at one point. That was when there was another issue up for discussion as well. And, around 125 people had their hands raised apparently there were some power outage issues so about 90 people actually ended up speaking. The sentiments ranged pretty widely. There were about 49 people who spoke in opposition, and around 39 who spoke in favor. And, there were a few that they got cut off after two minutes and you couldn't quite tell where they were heading.
McDonald: For those that oppose the changes, what are some of the concerns they expressed?
Banta: So, their biggest concern is really that the city's recommendations for changes go far beyond the scope of the state requirements in many cases. You know, allowing for smaller lot sizes, more coverage on property, so there can buildings can cover up to 75% of a lot, instead of 50%. And, they also have some concerns about some incentives that if something is located close enough to transit they don't have to allow for off street parking. And, with the lot coverage, they have some concerns about not allowing for enough trees, since our urban forestry is kind of trying to grow up right now and that it would block some ability for solar.
McDonald: And supporters, what did they say?
Banta: So, they really talked about how, obviously we're in the middle of a housing. crisis, and you know, the goal of this is to increase the supply and you know offer some more diverse housing types and maybe make it so that people my age who are currently renters can maybe afford to own a house one day.
McDonald: The city is on a deadline, so they’ve got to make some provisions to comply with the state legislation in the next couple of months. What is your sense of the council’s response to the comments from the public?
Banta: So far, I don't really have a sense, and I think part of that is that the meeting ended a little bit after midnight. I think they were all kind of tired and didn't really want to talk about the comments, a whole lot. But, they made a few comments. Counselor Mike Clark said it's pretty clear that we need to make sure that we're involving everybody and getting all the public comment that we need. Counselor Matt Keating said something about how he might up an amendment to make some tweaks to the no parking incentives. But, you know at this point it's kind of too early to say so I’ll definitely be looking for that in the May 11th meeting.
McDonald: Thanks Megan.
Megan Banta is a reporter with the Eugene Register-Guard newspaper.
The Eugene City Council will discuss the Middle Housing code amendments again at its May 11th meeting.
