Land Use & Environment Committee Meeting Summary - March 2, 2026
Land Use & Environment Committee Meeting - March 2, 2026
Note: The instruction specified the meeting date as March 2, 2026, but the agenda, minutes, and transcript all indicate the meeting occurred on Thursday, February 26, 2026. This summary reflects the content of the February 26 meeting but uses the supplied date per the instruction.
The Land Use & Environment Committee met to discuss two main items: rent-to-own/tenant opportunity to purchase (TOPA) arrangements and the appointment of Hearing Examiner candidates. The committee also received public comment and reviewed upcoming agenda items.
Consent Calendar
- Approval of the agenda (unanimous).
- Approval of the January 22, 2026 Land Use and Environment Committee meeting minutes (unanimous).
Public Comments & Testimony
- Rebeca Potasnik, President of the Thurston Housing Land Trust, spoke in support of the tenant opportunity to purchase (TOPA) concept. She stated that the Housing Land Trust has the mission and infrastructure to assist the city if it moves forward, noting their strategic plan includes rental-to-ownership, infill, and acquisition rehab strategies. She also offered to refine a surplus lands inventory project with University of Oregon students to include data points valuable to the city.
Discussion Items
6A: Rent to Own / Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Arrangements
- Staff (Christa Lenssen, Senior Housing Program Specialist) presented a high-level overview of two options: a rent-to-own exemption from the rental registry and inspection program, and a tenant opportunity to purchase (TOPA) policy. The presentation covered risks (e.g., scams, unpredictable timing, need for tenant safeguards) and benefits (e.g., preserving affordable housing, reducing investor flipping).
- Committee members expressed support for continuing to explore both options. They discussed:
- The need for safeguards in rent-to-own arrangements, such as requiring home inspections, appraisals, and legal representation.
- The importance of advanced notification and adequate time for tenants to organize and secure financing for TOPA.
- Concerns about private equity outbidding community buyers and the need for protections.
- Potential partners: Northwest Cooperative Development Center, ROC Northwest, and Thurston Housing Land Trust.
- Staff indicated they will return in April and July with more detailed information, including comparisons of other cities' policies, hardship exemptions, and notification timelines.
6B: Hearing Examiner Position Candidate Recommendations
- The committee discussed two candidates: Mark Scheibmeir (current Hearing Examiner) and Phil Olbrechts. Members noted that both were highly qualified, but valued Scheibmeir's experience, community engagement approach, and local proximity.
- Motion: Committee member Gilman moved, seconded by Berendt, to recommend the City Council reappoint Mark Scheibmeir as Hearing Examiner and offer Phil Olbrechts the position of Hearing Examiner Pro tem. The motion carried unanimously (3-0).
Key Outcomes
- Unanimous vote to recommend reappointment of Mark Scheibmeir as Hearing Examiner and appointment of Phil Olbrechts as Hearing Examiner Pro tem.
- Staff received direction to continue developing both the rent-to-own exemption and TOPA policy, with further presentations scheduled for April and July 2026.
- The committee will meet next on March 26, 2026, with agenda items including ED updates (Steve Spare), manufactured housing (Christa Lenssen), and the Plum Street / East Side sub-area plan (Casey Shoffler).
- Committee members also raised the need for better coordination of environmental work across departments and for seeing the transportation work plan alongside the CPED work plan in future agenda planning.
Meeting Transcript
Welcome to the Thursday, February 26, 2026, Land Use and Environment Committee. I'm here with my colleagues. We never did discuss if you want to introduce yourselves or you want me to introduce you. I have Clark Gilman and I have Paul Bear. And so here we are at the beginning of the meeting. Do we have anyone we want to get a motion to approve the agenda? So all favor. All right. Do we have a person from book comment? Yes. Rebecca. Rebecca. Patosnik. Hello. Hello. Hi. Hello. I'm Rebecca Petasnik. I'm the president of the Thurston Housing Land Trust. I just wanted to say hello to this committee. I've not attended this meeting before. I noticed that you had on your agenda the tenant opportunity to purchase as a possible item to consider. And I just wanted to make sure that the committee members were aware of the Thurston Housing Land Trust and that we're an available resource for the community. But we have the mission and the infrastructure to assist with that if the city moves forward. And just this week I happened to share with Krista and just um just Cinda, our strategic plan, which in our one of our goals with our portfolio development has four very specific strategies to meet those goals, which would complement TOPA really well. One of our strategies is a rental to ownership strategy, and we're really interested also in doing infill and acquisition rehab. And then there was one other side thing that I don't know is actually something you're talking about tonight, but I was reading one of the attachments that was um your homeownership project final brief looking at 2024-25. And one thing that stood out to me that I just wanted to mention, I saw that you had um an action doing a vacant lands inventory, and it looks like that has not been able to move forward. And I just wanted to share if this is of use to the city. The Thurston Housing Land Trust is about about to embark on a project doing a surplus lands inventory for Thurston County, so a little bit different than the vacant lands inventory, but we're engaging with students at the University of Oregon, their um community and regional planning students, and so we're gonna be finalizing their scope of work um in the next month. And so I still have room to refine that scope of work if the city is interested. I mean, we'll definitely share the results of that if you're interested, but we also still have some time if there's any certain data points that would be valuable to the city. Um I'd love to talk to you and see if we could include that so the students could also scoop that in when they do the surplus lands inventory. Thank you so much. If you want to, could you put your contact information in the chat in the chat and then I'll grab it after me? The chat is disabled. I can uh I can send an email and that information for you if you'd like. Okay, staff will staff can grab it for you. Okay, great, thank you. Thank you. Any responses from the comment? Sure. Thank you. Thank you, Rebecca. This is all helpful, and I I know you know over the years we've looked to the housing land trust the conversation. And I also just want to mention that I was just in a food system study planning meeting where your name came up the hour before this. So thank you for being here tonight. Well, it was funny because I was actually looking to see if this committee was going to be talking about the food system food system planning, and then I saw on the agenda that you were talking about TOPA. So I switched my hats around and um, yeah, attending on behalf of the Housing Land Trust. I just uh wish to thank you also, Rebecca.
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