MEDIA CONTACT: Michael Andersen, Sightline Institute, michael@sightline.org
SALEM, OR – Governor Tina Kotek’s priority housing package, HB 2138, had a hearing in Oregon’s House Housing and Homelessness Committee March 3.
The legislation aims to build upon the state’s first-in-the-nation 2019 reform to its lower-density zones, implement lessons from the six years since that reform, and remove needless barriers to starter homes across the state.
Regional, nonpartisan think tank Sightline Institute identified the legislation as an important tool to ease Oregon’s deep statewide housing shortage and reduce energy costs by giving more people the option to live where and how they want to. Among the relevant parts of the bill, as introduced:
Cut red tape for split lots
The bill maps out an easier process for simple land divisions, opening the door to the small, detached starter homes that many first-time buyers and downsizing seniors say they prefer to attached versions.
Allow backyard infill
The bill would simplify zoning by ending requirements in some cities that homes on a lot be attached to each other. Importantly, this would make it easier to add homes without demolishing an existing, older house; meaning that you could build another full-size home on your property without essentially being required to raze your own.
Boost accessible housing
As the number of Oregonians over age 80 rises rapidly, the state faces a deepening shortage of accessible housing. HB 2138 would create strong new incentives for some new homes to offer stepless entries, lower countertops, and larger bathrooms.
Other pieces of the bill could reduce regressive fees on smaller, less expensive homes; boost development rights for property owners in many newer subdivisions; and more fully legalize single-room occupancy (co-living) in multifamily zones.
Sightline Institute Director of Cities and Towns Michael Andersen is available to comment on policy impacts.
Related research:
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Michael Andersen is Sightline Institute’s Director of Cities and Towns. Since 2006, he has been writing about ways better municipal policy can help break poverty cycles, with a focus on housing and transportation. He lives in Portland, Oregon.
Sightline Institute is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit think tank providing leading original analysis of housing, democracy, energy, and forests policy in the Pacific Northwest, Alaska, British Columbia, and beyond.
