Student housing projects will no longer be eligible for a property tax waiver in Eugene.
The City Council suspended MUPTE or the Multi-Unit Property Tax Exemption a couple of years ago after granting the waivers to two large student housing projects near downtown.
Amanda Noble Flannery is the Economic Prosperity Programs Manager for the City of Eugene. She says, besides excluding student housing, the ordinance now requires developers to increase energy efficiency and environmental building standards. Flannery says the council feels there are enough student apartments and the focus now is on market-rate housing.
Flannery: "Our downtown plan and the Envision Eugene pillars and our sustainable development goals and the climate and energy action plan actually all call for more market-rate housing in the downtown core."
Councilors voted 7 to 1 Monday to revise MUPTE. One of the first projects that will be eligible for the program is by developer Brian Obie who wants to build condos near 5th street Market. An affordable housing development would be adjacent to that project.