The city of Lake Oswego has received an exemption from certain state of Oregon policies designed to reduce local housing regulations. However, the exemption comes with a suite of conditions and city councilors continue to express unhappiness with the current predicament — in which the city is forced to relinquish local control in favor of state rules designed to incentivize housing production — and are worried about the implications of meeting the requirements, as well as the amount of time city staff are having to spend keeping up with new laws.
“Give us some credibility that we can manage maintaining and running our city, maintaining the character of our city while at the same time addressing these bigger issues,” Councilor Rachel Verdick said at a meeting Tuesday, Sept. 16. “Set high goals, overarching goals, but get out of the weeds please. We’ve had enough.”
To receive the exemption from a policy mandating that cities allow up to 10 adjustments to local land use policies (such as setback, lot coverage, parking, density maximums and facade standards) for housing applications that meet certain requirements (generally for new middle housing like duplexes and multifamily apartment complexes), the city will need to approve at least 90% of adjustment requests from developers and comply with other conditions like annual reporting and disseminating information to developers. Though city staff told council that it has accepted 100% of code adjustment requests for housing development in recent years, staff and councilors worried that developers will submit more ambitious housing proposals and force the city into a predicament where it either accepts potentially outlandish plans or risks losing the exemption if it rejects them…