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5/3/2022 Member News

PDX RIP2 Testimony at Council


On April 27th, the Portland City Council took testimony from the public on the Residential Infill Project 2.0 (RIP2) recommendations of the Portland Planning and Sustainability Commission. Over 60 members of the community testified including HBA, Portland Building and Urban Development (PBUD) members and many Metro Build Small Coalition allies as well as affordable housing proponents and providers. They spoke to additional changes that can be made to allow for more flexibility in housing placement, design, and type so that more units can be built to address the housing crisis. In addition, some of the requested changes spoke to making townhouses and “plexes” more economically viable, including a request for duplexes, triplexes, and quadplexes to be allowed as detached units which is allowed but not required under HB 2001.

In addition to recommended changes for HB 2001, HBA and others also spoke of the need to make some changes to allow the expedited land division created by SB 458 to work more efficiently and across more projects. These recommendations include allowing shared infrastructure such as sewer and stormwater and confirming that townhouses are allowed to use the, SB 458 defined, expedited process rather than only the current process in place for “attached homes.”

These changes and some others referenced by testifiers are intended to offer more opportunities for middle housing creation, more expedited land divisions and more home ownership opportunities.

In addition to verbal testimony, HBA also submitted written testimony to the committee.

For more information or to participate in future PBUD meetings contact Ryan Makinster, Ryanm@hbapdx.org.