EUG Planning Newsletter
What's New with EUG Planning
October 25, 2020
This month's EUG Planning Newsletter provides updates on: Meet the Cottage Clusters, Urban Reserves, Middle Housing/HB 2001, and Growth Monitoring. We hope you'll find this information useful and reach out if you have questions. As always, you can find more information on all of our work by visiting our website. We wish you and your families good health and hope to see you, soon.
Meet the Housing Types
In the wake of House Bill 2001 and our ongoing Middle Housing project, we are conducting a series on each housing type we are discussing in that project, the sixth and final of which is Cottage Clusters.
Cottage Clusters
Cottage Clusters are an innovative type of middle housing because they allow multiple detached structures to exist on a lot. Commonly, this housing type features two to six small cottages with a studio, 1, or 2 bedroom layout. The entrances to the cottages either face a shared open space or face the street. This style of housing creates a community where cottage residents can meet, share resources, and connect in the shared open space. 

House Bill 2001 states that, no later than June 30, 2022, Eugene must amend the City’s land use regulations to allow cottage clusters in “areas zoned for residential use".

Currently, Cottage Clusters are not outright permitted in the City and can be constructed only through Planned Unit Development (PUD) or Cluster Subdivision (CS) process.  

Next time you’re on a stroll in your neighborhood, look to see if you can spot some cottage clusters! Use our Housing Scavenger Hunt to spot different types of housing around you. For more information, check out our Missing Middle Handbook.

Coming up...
Now that you’ve had the chance to learn a bit about different housing types from our meet the housing type series, we want to tell you about some of the ways that these housing types are built. Our next informational series will focus on land development and some of the factors that go into making a piece of property available for housing. We hope to answer some questions like: What is zoning? How did that get built? And of course, how do I make my voice heard? Stay tuned for our first topic in this new series which will be available in the November newsletter. 

Urban Reserves Update
Urban Reserves has been making progress towards moving into the adoption phase with a preferred Urban Reserves Option. Below are the highlights that have occurred since the last newsletter:

Eugene City Council Direction: 

On Wednesday, October 21, 2020, after several work sessions, the Eugene City Council passed a motion in a 7 to 1 vote to support Urban Reserve Option 3, which includes enough land to meet approximately 27 years of growth beyond 2032. Option 3 includes almost 6,000 acres of land, but excludes from Urban Reserves all agricultural properties with predominant Class 1 and adjacent Class 2 land—our highest value soils.

The City Council’s direction is consistent with the unanimous recommendation of the Eugene Planning Commission, the Envision Eugene Technical Advisory Committee’s recommendation to staff, the majority of public input, and the City Manager’s recommendation. Watch the meeting webcast here. 

Next Steps: 

Staff will be meeting with the Lane County Board of Commissioners on November 10, to seek their direction on a preferred Urban Reserve Option. Meeting links and time will be posted on our Engage Eugene page when available. Please note, if you wish to provide input to the Board of Commissioners, you must submit written remarks in advance, directly to the Lane County Board of Commissioners or to city staff to pass on.

Once consistent direction is reached from both the City and County elected officials, staff will begin preparing an Urban Reserves adoption package to be considered in 2021 through a process that will include public hearings before the planning commissions, County Board and City Council.

Thank you to everyone who has participated in the Urban Reserves process so far! Your continued interest and support is greatly appreciated. For more information, please visit the project webpage. Feel free to contact Project Manager Rebecca Gershow with questions, or use the Q&A feature on our Engage Eugene page.
Middle Housing Project Update
Public Outreach for the Middle Housing project is underway! In the past month, we finalized the Healthy Democracy recruitment letters, email invitations went out to coordinate representatives on our Boards and Commissions and Local Partner Roundtables, coordination continued for the upcoming Equity Roundtable, and we continued to monitor the state rulemaking process.

Healthy Democracy

Last week, 7,500 households in Eugene received a letter inviting them to be a part of our first ever lottery selected Planning Review Panel, a partnership with Portland-based nonprofit Healthy Democracy. On Friday October 30th, the EUGPlanning Facebook page will host a Facebook Live event where the 30 panelists will be chosen. The panelists will meet 14 times through spring 2021 and will provide a truly democratic lens to the project. For more information about our partnership with Healthy Democracy, visit the Middle Housing project webpage and the Healthy Democracy Eugene page.

Boards and Commissions Roundtable

This week, we are holding a Boards and Commissions Roundtable on Wednesday October 28th and a Local Partners Roundtable on Thursday October 29th, both from 5:30-7:30pm. The Roundtables will both be discussing guiding values and principles for the project and will meet again in early 2021 to discuss code concepts. Meeting links to watch both Roundtables live are posted on the project webpage and Engage Eugene page. Or you can watch meetings at your convenience, as they will be recorded.

State Rulemaking

The Department of Land Conservation and Development (DLCD), the state's planning agency, is still working to finalize a model code and minimum standards for compliance with House Bill 2001. The Land Conservation and Development Commission (LCDC) will be the body to finalize and adopt the standards. LCDC must adopt the model code and minimum standards by the end of 2020. The LCDC's next meeting to discuss the standards will be held on November 12th and 13th. The agenda and meeting links will be posted on their webpage, when available.

For more information, visit the Engage Eugene page or project webpage. For more frequent updates, sign-up for our Interested Parties List. If you have any questions about the project, contact Project Manager Terri Harding at 541-682-5635.
Growth Monitoring at Planning Commission
The Eugene Planning Commission will receive a progress update on Eugene’s growth monitoring program at their October 26, 2020 meeting.

The program aims to collect and report on a wide variety of growth-related information from population and jobs growth and the number of houses being built, to the status of our undeveloped land supply. This is a multi-year effort to get systems in place for regular reporting so we can be better prepared for changing growth trends. Staff will share with the Planning Commission the progress that’s been made on the different components of the program. To learn more, watch the meeting webcast or view the meeting materials at the Planning Commission meeting webpage.

In August, the Envision Eugene Technical Advisory Committee (EETAC) started to shift their primary focus from the Urban Reserves project to growth monitoring. The EETAC began the first of several meetings discussing methods for developing an updated inventory of the city’s undeveloped (or ‘buildable’) land supply. The new inventory will be part of the first growth monitoring report anticipated to be completed next year. EETAC meeting notes, webcasts and their meeting schedule are available on the EETAC website.

For more information on Growth Monitoring, please visit the project webpage or contact project manager Heather O’Donnell at 541-682-5488.
We're Now On Instagram!
As the planning team shifts most of our public engagement online, we are looking for opportunities to reach more people in the community. You can keep up with all things planning related through this newsletter, our Facebook, and now on our Instagram! If you’re on Instagram, find us at @EUGPlanning or click the link at the bottom of the newsletter.

Is there social media we should have a presence on or content you'd like to see? If so, share your thoughts with Sophie McGinley.
Interested in Land Use Updates?
It’s important to us that community members know when someone has applied to develop their property through the land use application process. City staff are always happy to discuss a project before the formal review, and can provide information about what the formal review process will be to ensure that you have a fair opportunity to review and comment on a project. Sign up to start receiving emails that list recently submitted projects.
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