A big pro-housing Bend development code update was passed last night. I’m expecting some confusion and misinformation to show up about it, so lets go over what it was at a high level. This code update did three things:

1. It implemented new rules and regulations recently passed by the Oregon State Legislature.
2. It implemented other changes to the development code recommended by City Staff
3. Appealing Hearings Officer or Planning Commission land use decisions now goes straight to the Land Use Board of Appeals, they can no longer be appealed to Council.

A lot of bills were implemented in this code package, but I want to highlight two: Senate Bill 8, and Senate Bill 1537.

SB8 requires that the city allows affordable housing on any property that is owned by a public body, religious institution, zoned for commercial use, or on public land. The public land bit is where the controversy lives, because locally it means land zoned as a Public Facility. This means theoretically BPRD can build affordable housing on parks if it wants to, and Greenwood Cemetery can also build affordable housing if it wants to without a zone change.

There is not a version of the future where BPRD builds affordable housing on park land. There may be a version of the future where Greenwood Cemetery builds affordable housing on the unused part of their property.

SB 1537 requires local governments to grant up to 10 adjustments to development or design standards for housing projects that meet certain criteria. The adjustments cannot be made to the tree code, fire code, or other codes that could impact safety or that you should care about. There is a list of criteria that a project could use to qualify, but the criteria that everyone is going to use is if the adjustment allows for the development of more housing units.

As for the City-led code changes, the city has made changes to make Cottage Cluster developments more feasible. Parking is now allowed in the ally (where it belongs) and the front of the units can now face common open space instead of the street. The City also increased the maximum lot coverage allowed for townhomes to 60% in the RS zone. This makes building townhomes on the smaller lots allowed from recent changes to State law possible.

There is a ton more stuff. If you want to learn more, check out last night’s City Council Meeting, read the issue summary, or wait for local news to write something more comprehensive.