News

ARTICLE
Date ArticleType
8/10/2022 Member News

Statewide: Wildfire Risk Designation Mapping


HBA of Metro Portland has been following the lead of our partners in Salem, the Oregon Home Builders Association in tracking developments and engaging with the state’s Wildfire Risk Designation Maps. Having just been released in late June, the maps were quickly retracted on August 4th by the Forestry Department due to severe and overwhelming public outcry over the plan to label individual properties and potentially penalize land owners with unknown insurance hikes, building restrictions, and devaluing of property in certain risk zones.

Locally, the vast majority of properties in the Portland region were labeled as low or moderate risk. However, major portions of east Multnomah and Hood River counties had been classified as high and extreme risk levels. While the state has not released information on any future iterations of the mapping plan, we will be tracking proposals to ensure that property owners rights are balanced with the need to defend the environment from catastrophic wildfires, all while encouraging a pro-housing platform to address our region’s severe housing supply and affordability crisis.

For more information, please reach out to Preston Korst (prestonk@hbapdx.org).