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Record of Proceedings

Milwaukie City Council Work Session: Economic Development Update and Middle Housing Code Discussion – October 20, 2026

City Council — Tuesday, October 20, 2026
BodyMilwaukie, Oregon
SessionCity Council
DateTuesday, October 20, 2026
StatusFILED
Video Record
0:00 / 2:13:24

Original source
Transcript — VerbatimClick a timed line to jump · ⧉ to share it

Speaker numbers apply only to this recording.

Speaker 1

16:12

Yes.

16:13

But not with me.

16:15

They're at the shop.

Speaker 2

16:16

But I

Speaker 1

16:17

kept

Speaker 2

16:18

them safe.

16:19

Okay, we are on the air for our October 20th work session, and we have two agenda items.

16:26

The first one being a update on our economic development goals presented by our assistant city manager Joseph Brillo and the economic development coordinator Sierra Fox.

Unassigned speaker

16:42

And

Speaker 3

16:42

we've been here before, so you know what's coming.

Speaker 4

16:45

We have a look council.

16:47

This is our last quarterly update with this ground goal to Council of Institute of these goals.

16:55

So we want to try and squeeze the most out of it today, talk about some burning initiatives and uh take a peek into the 2027 with you all.

Unassigned speaker

17:03

Um

Speaker 4

17:03

so we're gonna dive into marketing and tourism.

17:06

That's kind of where we want to focus uh most of the uh time today is updating you on some ongoing initiatives um as well as some planned initiatives um before diving into uh what's uh around the corner and what's on deck for twenty twenty-seven.

17:21

So

Unassigned speaker

17:22

first

Speaker 4

17:23

up is bringing up to speed on oh, is that

Speaker 1

17:27

the same thing?

Unassigned speaker

17:29

Oh it's

Speaker 3

17:33

it working it's it's possible screen.

Speaker 4

17:43

Okay.

17:44

Um I'm sharing my screen, so it's eat on my

Unassigned speaker

17:47

butt

Speaker 4

17:47

um so I haven't participated since May, since we went to some tourism conferences, Counselor Stafford and I on a lower Willamette community collaborative.

18:01

Welcome.

18:03

And this is an in-portal passports between communities of Oregon City, Lucky, Bucky, and Milwaukee, um, where we have the shared goals in development promote uh shared access and itineraries, activities and events along the lamb.

18:19

And the river as a unified regional tourism and recreation outfit other than five is cleanable waterfronts.

18:26

So part of that work um being right now, we most recently met with River Water Trail, which is in that image on the top left.

18:34

That's their main page on their website.

18:36

Uh they focus on the entire river, whereas the kind of collaborative that I'm a part of is really wanting to advertise Clackmas County municipality their access to the river and their unique itineraries.

18:58

So

Speaker 5

18:59

the

Speaker 4

19:00

water trail, they are actually working on an app.

19:03

And so they are wanting to coordinate this task force to be able to incorporate our itineraries.

19:09

We can be at

Speaker 5

19:09

the table

Speaker 4

19:10

and say what businesses we want highlighted on the map on the app of places that people can go when they dock and get off the river.

Unassigned speaker

19:19

And

Speaker 4

19:19

so that's gonna be an ongoing initiative with a statewide um coordination meeting coming up in November to continue that work.

19:26

And then the other one, that bottom left photo is

Unassigned speaker

19:28

a

Speaker 4

19:28

screenshot from Mount Hood Territories, which is our regional destination management organization.

19:36

Um their website they have

Speaker 5

19:38

in itinerary, which is very simple, as you can maybe not be very

Speaker 4

19:43

volunteer.

19:44

Um it's got basically three lines of text um about what to do when you get off the water in Milwaukee.

Unassigned speaker

19:51

So I'm working on updating that on this next quarter and making it a bit more of a robust itinerary and more up-to-day itinerary of what they can do because the main collector's call sort of one of the dining list on there.

Speaker 4

20:03

Yeah.

Unassigned speaker

20:05

So

Speaker 3

20:05

here it's the same here.

Speaker 4

20:10

Presentation.

Speaker 3

20:23

Okay, this is what shiny X.

Unassigned speaker

20:25

So

Speaker 6

20:26

is this larger group?

20:27

Is this the people who have like the root loop around Mount Hood and stuff like that?

Speaker 4

20:31

Um I

Unassigned speaker

20:32

don't

Speaker 4

20:32

know.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Zoning Code Amendments█████████████████████████████████████████41%
Economic Development████████████████████████████28%
Tourism████████8%
Housing█████5%
Community Engagement████4%
Active Transportation███3%
Legislative Updates███3%
Affordable Housing███3%
Waste Management██2%
Summary of Proceedings

Milwaukie City Council Work Session: Economic Development Update and Middle Housing Code Discussion – October 20, 2026

The Milwaukie City Council held a work session on October 20, 2026, to receive the final quarterly update on economic development goals and discuss potential changes to the city's middle housing code in response to state law requirements and recent development trends.

Discussion Items

  • Economic Development Update: Assistant City Manager Joseph Brillo and Economic Development Coordinator Sierra Fox presented highlights from the last two years of the council's economic development goals. Key initiatives included marketing and tourism efforts: two billboard campaigns (November 9 to January 3 on 99E and 224), plans to procure a marketing firm for influencer campaigns during shoulder seasons, and use of a city sponsorship fund to support business-oriented events. Staff reported over 75 actions since 2025, 39 grants totaling $1.3 million invested, and that foot traffic has returned to pre-2020 levels. Other topics included a Metro Choose to Reuse pilot at Milwaukee Station, potential bike-share expansion with Biketown, and the launch of a business newsletter.
  • Middle Housing Code: Planning staff presented options for revising middle housing development standards following community questions about variances, Senate Bill 1537 exemption, and recent cottage-cluster projects. Staff noted that since 2021, 41 Type II variances were issued, of which 15 were for fence height. Council considered four areas where the city's code is more generous than state law: (1) reducing the allowable variance reduction for residential setbacks from 25% to 10%; (2) minimum lot size for middle housing (currently 3,000 square feet vs. the state's 5,000); (3) cottage spacing (currently 6 feet, state allows up to 10 feet); (4) other incentives for desired designs. Council also discussed maintaining the SB 1537 exemption to retain local control over Type II variances.

Key Outcomes

  • Council directed staff to draft code amendments based on the following consensus:
    • Reduce the residential setback variance flexibility from 25% to 10% to match state law, applicable to residential development only.
    • Keep the minimum lot size for middle housing at 3,000 square feet (no increase to 5,000), and allow single-family homes on smaller lots.
    • Increase the required separation between cottages to 10 feet, but allow a reduction to 6 feet if the common courtyard area is correspondingly enlarged.
    • Maintain the city's exemption from SB 1537 mandatory adjustments, preserving local control over Type II variances.
  • Staff will incorporate these changes alongside previously identified policy-light clarifications in an upcoming code amendment package.
  • No formal votes were taken; these are staff directions to proceed with drafting. A broader discussion on additional incentives and upcoming state rulemaking will occur later.

Meeting Transcript

Yes. But not with me. They're at the shop. But I kept them safe. Okay, we are on the air for our October 20th work session, and we have two agenda items. The first one being a update on our economic development goals presented by our assistant city manager Joseph Brillo and the economic development coordinator Sierra Fox. And we've been here before, so you know what's coming. We have a look council. This is our last quarterly update with this ground goal to Council of Institute of these goals. So we want to try and squeeze the most out of it today, talk about some burning initiatives and uh take a peek into the 2027 with you all. Um so we're gonna dive into marketing and tourism. That's kind of where we want to focus uh most of the uh time today is updating you on some ongoing initiatives um as well as some planned initiatives um before diving into uh what's uh around the corner and what's on deck for twenty twenty-seven. So first up is bringing up to speed on oh, is that the same thing? Oh it's it working it's it's possible screen. Okay. Um I'm sharing my screen, so it's eat on my butt um so I haven't participated since May, since we went to some tourism conferences, Counselor Stafford and I on a lower Willamette community collaborative. Welcome. And this is an in-portal passports between communities of Oregon City, Lucky, Bucky, and Milwaukee, um, where we have the shared goals in development promote uh shared access and itineraries, activities and events along the lamb. And the river as a unified regional tourism and recreation outfit other than five is cleanable waterfronts. So part of that work um being right now, we most recently met with River Water Trail, which is in that image on the top left. That's their main page on their website. Uh they focus on the entire river, whereas the kind of collaborative that I'm a part of is really wanting to advertise Clackmas County municipality their access to the river and their unique itineraries. So the water trail, they are actually working on an app. And so they are wanting to coordinate this task force to be able to incorporate our itineraries. We can be at the table and say what businesses we want highlighted on the map on the app of places that people can go when they dock and get off the river. And so that's gonna be an ongoing initiative with a statewide um coordination meeting coming up in November to continue that work. And then the other one, that bottom left photo is a screenshot from Mount Hood Territories, which is our regional destination management organization. Um their website they have in itinerary, which is very simple, as you can maybe not be very volunteer. Um it's got basically three lines of text um about what to do when you get off the water in Milwaukee. So I'm working on updating that on this next quarter and making it a bit more of a robust itinerary and more up-to-day itinerary of what they can do because the main collector's call sort of one of the dining list on there. Yeah.

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