Good evening.

I'd like to call to order tonight's planning commission meeting of Monday, September 22nd, 2025.

Christina, would you please call the roll?

Chair Mitchell.

Here.

Commissioner Moreno.

Here.

Guinea?

Here.

Slide.

Here.

Booing?

And Bruce?

Here.

And Vice Chair Najrak is absent today.

Thank you.

Item number three on tonight's agenda is the public comment.

The purpose of public comment is to allow community members to raise an issue regarding items not on the agenda.

Christina, do we have anyone in here or on Zoom that would like to raise an issue not on tonight's agenda?

None today.

Thank you.

Item number four on tonight's agenda, the Commission for Citizen Involvement General Updates.

I don't think we had any additional updates tonight that I saw.

So that will take us on to the next item on the agenda, which is 5.1.

This has to do with the finding conclusions in order from the fair housing policy and education.

This is LU25-001.

At our last meeting on September 8th, the planning commission issued a preliminary recommendation for city council to approve the proposed comprehensive plan amendment and directed staff to return the draft findings, conclusions in order.

The draft was distributed to the earlier to the commissioners.

So I'll open it up to the commissioners on if there were any comments, questions, or uh anything else related to the draft uh findings.

I have some head nods.

No.

No.

Okay.

I think then uh we need a motion.

Motion to approve as presented.

Okay.

I think there was a motion, and then I think I heard Commissioner Twang say second.

Uh and then I guess we have to do individual votes on this one, Christina, because we need a majority.

I guess let's do individual votes.

Okay.

Mitchell?

Yes.

Modeno.

Yes.

Yes.

Slide?

Yes.

Uh two in.

Yes.

Bru?

Yes.

630.

Okay.

Thank you.

That will bring us on to item number 6.1 on tonight's agenda.

The this is work session number two for the rezoning for housing.

Uh this is PP 25-0001.

Um, and we're going to receive an overview and introduction to the rezoning for housing project, uh, which is one of the strategies I didn't identified in the city's housing production strategy.

I'll turn it over to uh staff coordinator Michael.

Thank you.

All right, so good evening.

Um I'm here to discuss the upcoming rezoning for housing project, which will examine the city's mixed-use commercial and non-residential zones for their potential to accommodate more housing.

Uh you previously talked with Eric Olson about this project as part of a discussion on the city's housing production strategy in May.

In this presentation, I'll discuss the background of the project and its purpose, talk about the project team, give you an overview of the anticipated process and schedule, and then open things up for questions and discussion.

Um in particular, we're interested in feedback the commission might have on the proposed methodology or flow of the project.

So first let's talk about where this project is coming from.

Uh the city adopted a housing needs analysis or HA in accordance with state law in 2023.

This analysis looked at the city's 20-year housing needs and tried to determine if there was enough land in the city to meet those needs.

Uh the results of the HA were then used to create a housing production strategy, also in accordance with state law.

The housing needs analysis identified a need to produce almost 2,000 housing units for the period from 2023 to 2043.

Importantly, it also found that under the city's existing zoning map and ordinance, there wasn't enough capacity to meet that demand.

The HA determined there was a deficit in capacity of about 640 units under the city's existing zoning rules without changing the zoning capacity of our existing incorporated land.

The analysis found the city would need to add at least 86 acres of land to accommodate accommodate the demand through 2043.

The city adopted a housing production strategy or HPS in 2024.

It identifies the work the city is committed to doing to fill the housing needs and gaps identified in the HA.

Let me make sure we're okay.

Yes, sorry about that.

It also serves as a work plan for the city's housing efforts over the next eight years.

The state of Oregon holds the city accountable for implementing or making progress in implementing all strategies adopted in the HBS.

One of the 13 strategies identified in the HBS is to increase housing capacity of land within the city's boundaries through rezoning.

The HBS breaks the strategy into phases, beginning with non-residential and mixed use land before moving to residentially zoned land.

The strategy identified in the HBS involves rezoning commercial or other non-residentially zoned properties to allow for housing development in those areas, especially multifamily housing.

It could also involve rezoning lower density areas to allow for higher density housing.

The strategy addresses the fact that the city faces a shortage of residential land across all zones to meet housing needs.

It prioritizes rezoning in areas with the greatest potential for higher density multifamily housing, including areas where non-residential uses are underutilized.

As mentioned, the city is using a phased approach that begins with non-residential, mixed use, and commercial zones before possibly looking at upzoning lower density residential areas in a later phase.

Based on recent feedback from the city council at a study session earlier this month, the second phase may be deprioritized, and the city may try to focus on getting the zoning capacity we need from the non-residential areas.

From there, several rezone alternatives will be developed for each focus area.

The final stage of the project would be to adopt zoning map and comprehensive plan amendments and zoning text amendments if needed.

Okay, thank you.

Okay.

So you can see there are clusters along Cruise Way in Lake Grove along Boone's Ferry.

In first edition Evergreen, at the former Merrillhurst University campus in what is now called Mary's Woods, and in the industrial zoned area in the southwest corner of the city along Boones Ferry Road, which will likely not be an area of focus because it's not appropriate for residential use.

Staff have applied for a grant under the housing planning assistance grant program from the State Department of Land Conservation and Development.

The program is structured so that DLCD can provide the consultant directly rather than the city having to put out a request for proposals, although the city does still have the option to hire our own consultant using the grant funding.

The city asks for a grant in the amount of 210,000 with a DLCD provided consultant, and DLCD has indicated they will announce their decision in October.

The project team will consist of myself, Michael McNamy as the primary project manager, along with Eric Olson, long-range planning manager, and Jessica Newmanolou, community development director.

Assuming we are awarded the DLCD grant, a consultant would be selected in fall 2025 for a project kickoff in early 2026.

The project will be conducted in several steps with the ultimate goal of drafting and adopting zoning map comprehensive plan and CDC amendments as needed to increase the capacity to build housing in select focus areas.

Project kickoff will involve getting the consultant up to speed on the project and drafting a public involvement strategy.

From there, we'll create a rezoning background report, the purpose of which will be to assess existing conditions and lay the groundwork for identifying focus areas.

Building on that report, the project team will create a rezoning opportunities and constraints, constraints, summary map and paper, which will identify groups of redevelopable parcels and potential focus areas for rezoning.

After the focus areas have been identified, the project team will analyze the potential for new development and identify zoning concepts to increase density where appropriate, which will be put together with draft rezoning recommendations in the focus areas alternatives report.

From there, zoning map amendments will be prepared along with comprehensive plan and CDC text amendments as needed, after which they will be put forth to the planning commission and city council for potential adoption.

This is the tentative schedule for the project.

The DLCD grant runs through the state's biennium, which ends in June 2027.

So the city's goal is to complete all of the consultant work by then.

The project is projected to kick off in January 2026 with the rezoning background report done in April and the rezoning opportunities and constraints summary map and paper finished in July.

After that, the focus areas alternative report is planned to be finished by January 2020, excuse me, 2027, with a first draft completed by September 2026 and a second draft in November 2026.

Draft amendments are planned to be completed by April 2027 with a target date for adoption of September 2027.

So next steps, uh DLCD should give us a decision on the grant in October.

After that, consultant selection and a contract with DLCD will DLCD will follow.

As mentioned, the project is planned to begin in early 2026.

That concludes my presentation.

Um or participate in any discussion at this time.

Thank you, Michael.

I'll I'll steal steal it and ask a quick question.

The city council said that we should focus on the non-residential areas first, right?

And deprioritize like lower density residential areas or maybe even wipe it off.

Could you talk a little bit about the the city's council's reasoning for why they wanted to focus on the non-residential areas first?

I think they just know that that's politically not a very viable uh proposal.

I think a lot of folks would be opposed to that.

And given that uh our deficit is, you know, 600 and what is it, 20, 640 units or 627 units?

I might have had that, but it's around 600.

Um, you know, that's not a ton.

So what we're hoping is that if we can accommodate those within our mixed use and commercial areas, then we won't have to approach the zoning uh of uh a rezoning or upzoning of residentially zoned properties.

If we do, I can assure you that we would uh first focus on higher density before going into lower density.

But because it's not a lot, we're pretty optimistic, especially if we get to consider the foothills area, which would be rezoned to allow additional housing, that we should be able to meet those needs without having to resort to going to the residential pure residential zones.

Okay.

Okay.

Thank you.

So, how would it actually look if I'm a landowner that owns land in a commercially zoned district would and it gets you know rezoned to the new standards?

Would the landowner be forced to sell, or would they then be able to sell off as once it's been rezoned for that new use?

Is that how that would work?

Um I try to answer.

So uh rezoning would not force a property owner to sell, it would just change what could be done with that property.

Uh before any rezoning happened, there would be hopefully a pretty um involved public engagement process.

We're still fleshing that out.

Um, but it doesn't force a property owner to do anything.

Um we have laws that allow people to continue if, for example, a use or a building became non-conforming.

Uh our zoning laws allow those to continue.

Um so yeah, there isn't a need to do anything once your property is is rezoned.

It just has the potential to do some different things.

Right.

We we're we're required to add the capacity.

Obviously, we can't force anyone to build the actual housing.

We would hope that they would if we if we make it easier and and and it's and it's allowed to do that.

Actually, this commission will have a public hearing um next month on a uh rezone, and this would is a great example of sort of low-hanging fruit.

It's a property on Cruiseway Place.

Um, it is currently zoned office commercial, and they want to rezone it to uh high density residential.

And the reason is is because the office commercial actually allows residential, but it allows it at such a small maximum floor area ratio that it doesn't make it really practicable.

It's a very kind of suburban uh style density with surface parking, low buildings that um just isn't doesn't accommodate high density residential zoning.

So that's the kind of rezoning that we would look to first is maybe residential is already allowed there, but there are barriers in in certain zone standards that actually prevent any meaningful residential development from happening.

Um so commercial would still be allowed.

Um in this case it wouldn't because they're going to R0, but in other zones, if we did the same thing, we would probably keep the same zoning, but we would um change the standards and so that it uh uh would allow for more um accommodation of mixed use.

Another example is we have a zone called mixed commerce.

Could you go to that um map?

Uh and if you're familiar, it's out in the cruiseway area, it's that light blue area.

Yep, right there.

That actually does not allow any residential use today.

Um, and that is a possibility if we could allow that.

There's a lot of surface parking lots that are in that area that are underutilized.

Um, so that that could be ripe for mixed um for a redevelopment and potential mixed use.

Um so I do think there are some opportunities out there.

Um, but you know, again, we'll need to study.

I'm not saying this is definitely going to happen, but um, but those are the types of things that are are definitely opportunities for us to look at.

Is the aim here low cost housing?

Is that aim?

Well, we need um housing of all income types, but low income is uh or lower cost housing is of uh a higher need because I think if we let things go as they are, we don't have a problem with high high-end housing that that seems to be getting built.

Um, but it so if you're um opening up opportunities in high density areas, those are going to be lower cost housing just because they're gonna be of higher density.

Isn't that one of the goals here though?

Yeah, it is one of the goals.

Um, but this is getting out specifically increasing housing capacity, and um, but again, uh by encouraging higher density housing, that is also addressing indirectly the um the cost issue as well.

Can uh is any of I guess let me think about how to ask this question.

We're talking about any vacant lots that are just zoned for non like something other than residential, or is everything here that would be identified if we when we got there, or like have an office building on it, have retail on it, have already existing commercial or non-residential structures.

Well, when we're looking at this first phase, it's only commercial and mixed-use zones.

There are there some out there that are vacant.

I don't think there's a lot out there, but I can think of one that's in the um MC zoned area that's a park.

Well, it's not vacant, it has a parking on it, but it has no building.

Um, but yeah, I don't know that there's a lot of vacant commercial land out there, but there is some.

Um, but again, the the whole purpose of this is for us to do a study, find what our focus areas are, and then come up with alternatives for those focus areas.

So that will be part of the process in identifying which areas are, I guess, most suitable for rezoning.

Yeah, I I and I and I I understand the point of this exercise and and what we're sort of tasked with doing.

Um, and then I think also what we're required to do, which is create the capacity to your point, we can't make people do anything.

Um, but uh you know, I'd say if the goal is at the end of the day to try to get more housing, and we're talking about um land that already has commercial, like things that need to be knocked down and residential needs to be built on top of it, just thinking about again recognize it's beyond the task of what's currently in front of us, but like what is the plan for incentivizing these landowners to then like knock down the commercial buildings and build some residential, because that's ultimately what what we want to do at the end of the day.

Well, I mean, I think if you're providing more options that increases the um the value it being valuable for for uh ripe for redevelopment because you know we this cruiseway place um site, we had a number of inquiries of people wanting to build multifamily, and they couldn't because there isn't um it isn't zoned for that.

Um so there was definitely a lot of interest in it, but nobody could do it.

So I think opening it up kind of provides that incentive, but we're also doing other work, like for instance, our code audit um is coming up.

Uh that's that's something that um I can I can tell you that we heard from Metro that we are getting a recommendation from the staff that they to approve the the city's grant for that project.

Um, of course, the Metro Council has the final say in it, and so we won't know for sure until um the end of next month.

But uh assuming that project goes forward, one of the things that we're gonna look at is removing barriers to housing as well.

So anything that you can do to remove uncertainty and um uh the time it takes to get uh the land use approvals is going to help folks develop.

But there's also things that are outside of our control, like the current economy and financing, which I think is probably the bigger issue if we're if I'm being perfectly honest.

I think just a comment.

We're we're talking about trade-offs here, economic vitality of land for businesses, we're trading it for housing and um not a you know, not as serious as some conversations at the state level with exclusive farm use land or industrial land, or like once those zonings change, they don't come back.

Um but a city like like Oswego that is essentially landlocked, like we're not gonna be annexing in urban reserves or rural reserves to create more land for housing or businesses or things like that.

Um I will be interested when it gets to the study phase and and the public engagement to hear from the Chamber of Commerce, the business associations, even our uh city municipal governments on you know just the amount of uh vacancies that are open right now.

There are local businesses that can't hire but for a lack of housing.

And even within the city, I think um when I first moved to Lake Oswego, one of the first things I did was arrange to go on a ride along with local law enforcement, because that's one of the best ways you can learn your community.

And talking to uh the leadership right here in this building, how many officers actually live in Lake Oswego that work here?

And well, all those kind of conversations.

And so uh I'll be you know very interested to see how this goes forward and and especially the different groups that come in and and talk about this.

And you're absolutely right.

I mean, one of the items in our HPS that we needed to um that was noted we need to look out for is if we're going to rezone to a um allow more residential use, we need to make sure we still have the adequate land available for employment, um, commercial industrial needs because we all we need those for for a vibrant city too.

So that will be a really important consideration.

Um, but again, with I think with the foothills being um rezoned, that is gonna add a pretty significant amount of capacity that we can count um towards that deficit, and um and that relieves some of the pressure on on some of the other areas.

And and the idea is not to replace um, I think the rezoning you're gonna application you're gonna see is actually gonna go from a commercial to a residential zone, but I think that what we're gonna be looking at is is kind of keeping that mixed use to allow both residential and um commercial uses on uh in those zones.

I just wanted to kind of follow up on Commissioner Twing's uh question there about will the city employ strategies to encourage affordable diverse housing that goes in, or will it it just be free for all and can be market-based?

Because if it's market-based, it seems like things are gonna be expensive.

Yeah, I mean, it's it's really hard to nobody nobody's going to um build affordable housing with a capital A without subsidies and assistance.

And one of our strategies is to keep looking into public-private partnerships with the city, um, and there's different strategies that we can employ in the Foothills district.

We can use the um uh tax increment financing to use part of those funds to assure that when it's redeveloped that it includes um affordable housings again with a capital A, like actual um income restricted housing.

Um and you know, there's we have other strategies like we um provide tax um exemptions for certain developments, we have these other incentives that that um these uh types of uh low-income housing can use.

Um but yeah, it's not gonna happen on its own.

So rezoning is just one aspect, and then in terms of the other strategies for encouraging low-income housing, those are also included in our housing production strategy.

So they're all working together, but this is just one phase of the 13 strategies that we have in our housing production strategy report.

Yeah.

So is there a plan B if the uh grant does not come through, or are we just going to pay the money out of pocket that we're just going to go to the consulting?

If the grant doesn't come through, then we're we're gonna have to look at um trying to do this with our own staff resources, which will be quite difficult because we have so many state mandates and so many other projects that we're committed to for the housing production strategy, not to mention, and I encourage you if you can look at this video for the council study session on September 16th.

Um we provided a pretty comprehensive overview of just the last legislative session and the the additional work that our department's gonna have to do based on eight HB 2138 alone that was just passed.

So if the plan B is that we'll have to reconvene and try to figure out how to we may have to scale it down, um, but ultimately we are com we are committed to have to have to do this, so we'll have to find a way, but it'll probably be scaled back significantly because we don't have all the resources we need for the scope that we have outlined in uh the grant that we requested from DLCD.

Commissioners, any other questions or comments.

Yeah, and there isn't really anything that we were asking you today other than to kind of familiarize you with this project.

We're hoping that we get the grant and and we're gonna move forward.

Um there's a lot of updates, and I I've said this before that you've been getting.

We have so many projects that are just getting started or about to get started, so things are gonna get real busy for you, but we just want to keep you in the loop, keep this top of mind because these things will be coming up to you in the in the coming months, and um, there'll be lots uh lots of work for you all.

So appreciate your questions.

Thank you.

Thanks, Michael.

Thanks, Jessica.

Okay, that brings us to item number seven on the tonight's agenda.

Other business.

No other business item eight, schedule review.

Are we doing schedule review without Eric?

Yep.

Uh Eric is uh uh out for some much uh deserved time off, but he'll be back at your uh next meeting.

Um I do want to just update you on your next two meetings.

Uh the meeting on October 13th is actually canceled, so you get a little bit of a break.

So no meeting on October 13th.

October 27th, you have two items on your agenda.

The first is going to be a study session with our current uh long-range planning or current planning manager, Johanna Hasty.

Um, she is gonna give an update on uh Senate Bill 1537, which is actually from the 2024 legislative session, and this is a bill that required cities to approve up to 10 uh adjustments to city standards or what we call variances to city standards for um housing applications that meet certain criteria.

Um, the only rigorous criterion is that you have to meet a minimum density requirement, but other than that, it's just pretty much if you meet the minimum density requirement and you state that it's gonna make housing less expensive or some other um or affordable or or etc.

Um, they'll essentially uh allow you to um have up to 10 variances to um our our uh zoning standards.

The city council did direct staff to apply for an exemption, and the city or the not the city, the state allows exemptions if the cities can show that they have a process in their through their local code that allows those same exemptions that are uh listed in state law.

So we actually ended up getting approval of that exemption through the state, which we thought was gonna be good news, but actually results in again more work and um more conditions of approval.

Um, and there were actually three adjustments that we didn't qualify for, so we got some direction from the city council.

So essentially um, Miss Hasty is gonna be uh give you all an update on that.

She'll provide the details, um, and it's just good for you to know this because these are the things that we have to keep in mind as we're doing all the other work that we're working on because it has it will have implications.

Um she'll be talking to you about that at the study session.

And then the other item, as I mentioned, is a public hearing on a zone change.

So this is an actual public hearing, and you will be considering a zone change at Cruiseway Place and make a recommendation to the city council.

Uh, the only other update that I would provide you, um, I'm not sure if Eric sent you an email on this, but we recently um hired a new municipal court judge, and that changes the court schedule a little bit.

It used to be on Mondays, and they've changed the court's dates to Wednesday.

So that has a little bit of an impact on your schedule in that when you had a planning commission meeting on a Monday that fell on a holiday, we automatically just reverted to a Wednesday meeting on that same week.

Because that conflicts with the court date, we're actually going to change that to a Thursday meeting going forward.

It really only happens a handful of times per year.

It's usually in uh, you know, like MLK Day, President's Day, those are usually when it comes up.

So I think for the Planning Commission, it's only going to come up a couple of times next year.

But just be aware of that where we normally would have met on a Wednesday when it when your meeting fell on a holiday, it will now be a Thursday.

But we'll remind you as we get closer to that.

But I think that's all the updates I have for you.

Great.

Thank you.

And unless anyone else has any other comments or questions or thoughts.

Adjourned.