News

ARTICLE
Date ArticleType
8/7/2018 Member News

City of Lake Oswego considering options to promote affordable housing


Lake Oswego City Councilors recently voted to move forward with several incentives regarding affordable housing in the City, including System Development Charges (SDCs), design flexibility for affordable projects, and a rent voucher system and local housing bond.

The council voted to reduce SDCs for multi-unit housing, and will continue to work with City staff to streamline the process for building accessory dwelling units (ADUs), including minimizing SDCs on ADUs. Councilors decided to move forward and further study implementing SDCs on teardowns, citing that this could help preserve the existing housing stock and maintain the affordable housing the city already has. According to the City Planning Director, Lake Oswego does not impose SDCs on demolitions or for replacement houses because City systems supported by SDCs are not impacted by such activities, but a demolition SDC could incentivize people to remodel instead of redevelop. The HBA has communicated with City Councilors that under current law, the imposition of and SDC on a demolition would not be allowed. There is still uncertainty in what final policy recommendations will be provided to the city council session and the HBA has reached out to staff to further clarify what is allowed under current law.

The city council also addressed inclusionary zoning, rent vouchers and a local housing bond, but do not plan to move forward on any of those policies.

As a result of the Councilors decisions at this meeting, city staff will move forward on creating policy frameworks for: charging SDCs for demolitions, reducing SDCs on below-market multi-unit construction, increasing design flexibility and adding affordable housing to future urban renewal districts

Read a full article on the recent meeting here: https://portlandtribune.com/lor/48-news/402071-298488-lake-oswego-city-council-mulls-incentives-for-workforce-housing