Legislative Policies for the 2007 Oregon Legislative Session

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_ _ - City of Eugene Legislative Policies for 2007 Oregon Legislative Session City of Eugene Legislative Policies for 2007 Oregon Legislative Session ~ Supportlocal discretion in standards forneeded housing. livability. It required cities and counties to adopt and maintain comprehensive plans, focusing urban development within UGBs and limiting rural development outside UGBs to C3. Twenty-Year Land Supply preserve Oregon's farm and forest land. HB 2709, which passed in the 1995 Legislative Session and is codified as ORS 197.296, requires cities to include enough residential land within their urban growth boundaries During the 1993 Legislative Session, the legislature adopted HB 3661, which revised and (UGBs) to meet residential needs for the next 20 years. Intended to reduce land prices by weakened the requirements for development on rural lands. increasing the amount of land available for housing, the bill required that projections of the 20-year need for residential land be based on the development that occurred since the last Subsequent legislative sessions have produced legislation to expand uses allowed in rural periodic review or during the last five years, whichever is greater. This ignores changes in areas and to require LCDC to review its rules on developments in rural residential areas policy and land use code provisions to facilitate more compact development. The City near cities. supports the Land Conservation and Development Commission (LCDC) requirement fora 20-year buildable lands inventory, but continues to oppose the requirement that the Bills also have been introduced over the past decade to restructure the LCDC. Proposed housing needs analysis be based only on actual past development. changes included the shift from an appointed to an elected commission and the establishment of several regional commissions to replace the existing single commission. Since the passage of HB 2709, commercial realtors have argued for comparable The number of commissioners was increased from seven to eight by the 1993 Legislature, legislation for commercial and industrial land. HB 3557, which passed in the 2001 but the commission structure was not changed. Legislative Session, called for establishment of a working group to address issues related to the need for commercial and industrial land. Recommendations ~ Oppose7egislation that would weaken the statewide land use planning program or Recommendations the role orstructure of the Land Conservation and Development Commission. ~ Support legislation to amend ORS 197.296 to allow policy and land use code ~ Oppose proposals for intensification of use in rural areas outside city urban growth amendments to be considered in the determination of housing capacity and need. boundaries. ~ Oppose legislation that would establish a comparable requirement that the determination of commercial and industrial capacity and need must be based only C6. Preemptive Zoning and Supersiting on actual past development. During the past several legislative sessions, legislation has been introduced that would ~ Support legislation that would evaluate and account forrural residential preempt local zoning regulations and substitute statewide zoning regulation, or that would development's impact on housing capacity within the urban growth boundary. establish State supersiting authority. While it is the responsibility of the Legislature to identify land use issues of statewide concern, local governments should have the flexibility C4. Annexation to implement State land use policy within the context of their acknowledged The Eugene-Springfield Metro Plan establishes an urban growth boundary and envisions comprehensive plans. State agency plans and decisions should be consistent with local: that all land within the urban growth boundary ultimately will be annexed to a city and acknowledged comprehensive plans and local planning processes. provided with the required urban services. Annexations to Eugene are processed by the Lane County Boundary Commission. In past legislative sessions, legislation has been Recommendation introduced to eliminate the Lane County Boundary Commission and to eliminate or ~ Opposelegislation thatestablishesstatutorypreemptivezoningorStatesupersiting weaken existing methods of annexation. authority. State law currently requires that withdrawals of annexed territory from special service C7. Condemnation Authority districts be processed by a city separately from Boundary Commission action on the focal governments' existing condemnation authority is a rarely used but important tool that annexation request, necessitating a separate city hearing and action following Boundary is available to cities and urban renewal districts to help achieve public policy goals relating Commission approval of an annexation. to transportation, housing, and economic development in particular. Limitation of this authority could result in increased costs to the City and make it more difficult to achieve Recommendations important public policy goals. ~ Oppose legislation that eliminates or weakens existing methods of annexation. ~ Support legislation to allow withdrawal of territory from special seNice districts. Recommendation ~ Oppose legislation thatrestricts cities'condemnation authority ormakes itmore difficult to use this authority to achieve public policygoals. C5. Oregon Land Use Planning Program and Land Conservation and Development Commission Senate Bill 100, enacted in 1973, established a statewide land use planning program to address concerns that rapid and uncoordinated development was threatening Oregon's 26 27