Oregon just made a significant change in what kind of housing is allowed to be built in the state. The new law requires that certain cities allow duplexes in areas zoned for single-family homes.
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown recently signed four bills into law that set out to address the state’s housing shortages. The measures require cities with more than 10,000 people to allow duplexes in areas zoned for single-family homes. In the Portland metro area it goes a step further, requiring cities and counties to allow the building of housing such as quadplexes and “cottage clusters” of homes around a shared yard.
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Oregon is now the first state in the nation to make such a move. Gov. Brown said in a statement:
“This session, we committed to significant investments that will help every Oregon family have a warm, safe, and dry place to call home. No one single solution will address our housing crisis, and this legislation tackles the whole spectrum of issues, from homelessness to stable rental housing to increasing homeownership.”
Oregon has also passed recent legislation to restrict rent increases and prohibit no-cause evictions.
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Single-family zoning has been removed in other cities nationwide. Minneapolis became the first major city in the U.S. to do away with it. City and state lawmakers indicate they are trying to find solutions to combat housing affordability and housing shortage problems across the country.
In Oregon, the end to single-housing zoning has many residents concerned. They feel the zoning change will alter the character of their neighborhoods. Stewart Wershow is president of his neighborhood association in Corvallis, Ore. He’s concerned that denser housing in traditional single-family neighborhoods could ruin the area’s appeal and add traffic, noise, and strain on city services. He told OregonLive.com:
“I’m opposed to this bill because it can have negative effects on established neighborhoods without mandating affordability.”
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House Speaker Tina Kotek, a Democrat, was the driving force behind Oregon’s bill. She said in February:
“We all know we have a housing crisis. We need multiple tools. One of them is to smooth and encourage additional construction.”
Kotek said she understands there’s a lot of fear around adding missing middle housing. Portland already allows duplexes on corner lots, she said, but less than 5% of those residences have been converted to duplexes. She also wanted to make clear that the bill is not a ban on single-family homes, adding:
“I grew up in a single-family home. This isn’t about single-family homes. This is about choice. This is about the future, this is about allowing for different opportunities in neighborhoods that are currently extremely limited.”
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Many homeowners supported the common objections to increased density, arguing that the bill would “destroy neighborhoods” and “that the real winners will be developers, not people who can’t afford a home.”
If you own a home in a neighborhood zoned for single-family homes, I imagine that was an intentional and conscious decision. How would you feel if suddenly your neighborhood zoning changed and contractors began buying up single-family homes right and left and plopping down duplexes?
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