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Date ArticleType
10/30/2019 Member News

West Linn Says NO to Housing


At a West Linn City Council work session last week, several Councilors expressed dissatisfaction with two pieces of recent state housing and land use legislation and signaled their enthusiasm for challenging the new laws. House Bills 2001 and 2003 provide much needed state direction for cities to legalize duplexes, triplexes, townhomes and cottage clusters in residential zones. Additionally, the legislation requires transparent accounting of available land for housing and the creation of a direct link between available land housing production strategies. Currently, both are done on an ad hoc inconsistent basis.

These bills are needed to deal with particularly NIMBY (not in my back yard) elected leaders, such as those in West Linn. House Bills 2001 and 2003 provide the framework for cities to explore new housing types and reduce overly burdensome anti-housing barriers. Sadly, our friends in West Linn continue to thumb their collective noses at the housing crisis, even as city fails to ensure that it is supporting the creation of enough new homes to accommodate existing growth. HBA will continue work at the state level to overcome unwilling municipalities who refuse to allow for new housing. To learn more about HBA’s involvement in the rule-making process for House Bills 2001 and 2003, please contact Jodi Hack at jhack@oregonhba.com.

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