Trick or treat! Did you know that Halloween is an opportunity to check out housing types and walkable neighborhoods? As you show off your costumes in quests for candy, keep an eye out for duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, townhomes, cottage clusters, and ADUs. Need some help? Use this Middle Housing Scavenger Hunt for some clues. Have fun and Happy Halloween!

The Middle Housing formal adoption process kicked off in September with publication of draft land use code and plan amendments for middle housing in Eugene. To help the community navigate and understand this information, we scheduled three information sessions and produced a Guide to the Adoption Process, which includes a summary of the draft code and ways to get involved. Recordings of all of the info sessions will be available on the project website. 

The Planning Commission will hold the first public hearing on the project on November 16. After the hearing, Planning Commission deliberation sessions are scheduled for November and December. Once the Commission completes its recommendations, the Council will hold its own work sessions and public hearing, anticipated for February 2022.

The project team worked from a Planning Commission approved Public Involvement Plan to reach out to the general public, boards and commissions and local partners, an Equity RoundTable, and the Healthy Democracy panel to inform the draft code recommendations. In addition, we recently created this Middle Housing Affordability FAQ to answer frequently asked questions about what the city can and can’t do with respect to affordability strategies. Spoiler alert: we can do a lot to encourage and incentivize affordability, both in and outside of the code. 

Highlights of the Planning Commission’s guidance on the draft land use code include:

In the upcoming public hearings process, we want to hear from everyone! The project team has set up an email address for public comments about the middle housing project: middlehousingtestimony@eugene-or.gov. Community members can send their comments there, and staff will compile the testimony for sharing with the Planning Commission and City Council at their respective points in the process.

For more information, visit the project webpage, Engage Eugene, Facebook, and Instagram. If you have any questions about the project, contact Public Engagement Lead Sophie McGinley.

As autumn leaves fall here in Eugene, staff are continuing to carve out time (and a few pumpkins too) for assembling the Urban Reserves adoption package. From writing findings to developing draft land use policies in coordination with Lane County and assembling the land study, staff are making gourd progress towards beginning the public hearing process.  

Before the public hearing process begins, written public notice will be mailed to all property owners in and surrounding the proposed Eugene urban reserves as well as identified interested parties. If you would like to receive formal mailed notice for Eugene urban reserves public hearings, please sign up here. 

Since designating Eugene urban reserves is a joint city-county effort, public hearings will be held with the Lane County Planning Commission, the City of Eugene Planning Commission, the Lane County Board of Commissioners, and the City of Eugene City Council. There will be opportunities for community members to provide public testimony. Complete meeting details will be posted to the Urban Reserves webpage.  

As always, stay tuned to this newsletter for monthly project updates, and feel free to contact City Project Manager Rebecca Gershow with additional questions, or use the Q&A feature on the Urban Reserves Engage Eugene page. We’ll do our best not to leaf you hanging!  

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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