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The City finalized details related to an update of their code for flag lot development. The HBA worked with Lake Oswego staff and the City Council to improve a proposed policy change regarding street widths that would have further hurt flag lot developments. As background, Lake Oswego recently approved changes, despite HBA’s work to prevent them, which reduced the maximum number of flag lots to three plus the parent lot. Due to this change, an issue regarding streets serving infill developments arose. The City code required a public street to serve all developments of four or more homes, which also now impacted flag lot sites. Lake Oswego code already provides for a variety of right of ways (ROW) for public streets. However, it was the stated policy of the City’s traffic engineer that only a 50 ft. minimum ROW would be allowed on flag lot developments. Applying this to flag lot partitions would have made it next to impossible to develop or would have further reduced the number of lots the developer could achieve. The HBA worked with staff to look at alternative minimum ROWS below the 50 ft. requirement for public streets accessing four to eight homes. After many meetings with LO city council, staff, city engineer, and planner, the city council directed the chief engineer to allow for a minimum of 40 ft. ROW when the applicant’s plan demonstrates the design fits the local context, meets minimum safety requirements, and contains parking. You can find more information about the change in flag lot policies in previous editions of this newsletter.