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Date ArticleType
4/6/2022 Member News

WaCo Planning Commission Agrees with HBA; Includes Detached Plexes and Removes Sidewalk Requirement from Middle Housing Ordinance


On March 30, the Washington County Planning Commission voted to send Ordinance 885 to the county council with recommendations to include detached plexes as part of the allowed middle housing types and remove a requirement for sidewalk development as part of middle housing and single family construction.

This comes after a months-long process of staff proposals, committee requested changes and public testimony. Although the original ordinance 885, as proposed by staff, was developed to allow and even incentivize development of middle housing without substantial additional cost, HBA highlighted some design standards as well as the sidewalk requirements that could make it difficult to achieve middle housing production across the largest number of lots possible. The staff worked diligently to address HBA and planning commissioner concerns within the bill and were able to quickly make many of the requested changes, but the sidewalk and detached plex issues were left as policy decisions for the commission to address.

Ordinance 885 now goes to the Washington County Commission where HBA staff will work with County and Planning Commissioners to support the changes proposed by the planning commission.

HBA's original letter to the commission can be found here.

For questions or concerns, or to offer testimony at the upcoming Washington County Commission meeting contact ryanm@hbapdx.org.