Portland Embarks on Regulatory Relief Effort to Tackle Housing Barriers

HBA is working with Commissioner Carmen Rubio’s office to advance a major reform effort called the Housing Regulatory Relief Project, which will tackle significant barriers to housing production in the city. This is following a survey that the city conducted earlier in the spring asking residential developers about barriers to new housing production. Some of the primary issues outlined in that were related to code-constraints like prohibitive bike storage requirements, ground floor active use, bird-safe glazing, land use vesting timeframes, design review, and neighborhood contact regulations. According to the city website, the Housing Regulatory Relief Project “includes a set of zoning code amendments that temporarily waive or reduce some zoning code standards, along with more permanent amendments that clarify the zoning regulations. The proposed temporary waivers and reductions would last 5 years. And unless otherwise stated, the temporary waivers and reductions apply to development that includes residential units.”

While there is still a lot of work to be done, we are hopeful that under Commissioner Rubio’s leadership, this regulatory relief effort (and others) will encourage the city to turn the tide in the long decline in housing production.