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Recording in progress.

All right, good evening, and welcome to the January 26, 2026 Twalton City Council work session.

First of mine, our first item on our agenda tonight is clear and objective code update.

It'll be led by Teresa Monteballo and Madeline Nelson.

Welcome, Teresa and Madeline.

Great, thank you.

Good evening.

My name is Madeline Nelson.

I'm a planner with the city of Tualeton, and I'm joined by Teresa Montalvo, our planning manager.

And we're returning to work session tonight to follow up on the clear and objective code update that we introduced to you back at a work session in November.

So as a brief review of tonight's agenda, we'll first start by reviewing the purpose of this project and then reviewing the background.

We'll briefly discuss on the project timeline.

We'll also provide an overview of the code audit that has been completed since the last time that we met.

So just kind of to flow for this meeting, we're going to go through the entire presentation and then loop around to the policy questions at the end.

So as a refresher, this is a project to audit and update the Twilalton Development Code to meet Oregon Revised Statutes 197A.400.

Through a state grant, we have partnered with consulting group MIG or MIG as our project consultant.

So the ORS requires that local governments regulate housing development using clear and objective standards.

These standards are intended to reduce barriers, uncertainty, delay, and cost to housing development, and in theory support local housing needs.

So clear and objective standards use terms and measurements that provide consistent interpretation.

Whether that be interpreted by city staff, consultants, developers, homeowners.

The point is that there should be no you need to utilize discretion when using clear and objective standards.

State law does allow local governments to offer a discretionary review path as an alternative to the clear and objective pathway, but the clear and objective standards do need to be in place.

Through some previous code updates, the Twalton Development Code does have language that reflects clear and objective standards related to residential housing.

These are just now some additional requirements that mandate this update.

So this slide provides an example of some discretionary language that was actually flagged in the recent code audit.

So an example of discretionary language says a private main entry area must be provided as a private extension of each dwelling.

So in this example, the keyword there is private, which could be subjective.

So what makes a main entry area private could be up to the interpretation of who's reviewing it.

So through this project, we're going to start to utilize the clear and objective language, like on the right, which states for ground floor dwelling units, a main entry area must be recessed at least five feet.

So whoever's reviewing that application can see that numeric value of five feet, and that's specific, measurable, and enforceable.

So that's kind of the brief refresher over what the clear and objective code project update is.

Are there any questions on what is clear and objective code?

Okay, awesome.

Um so since we've reviewed the purpose of the project, the slide highlights the remaining timeline.

So at this point, uh the project consultant has performed an initial code audit and code concepts.

We met with planning commission last week to obtain feedback on the policy questions and then our meeting with council tonight to seek your input to inform the direction for the rest of our code update.

We've also heard feedback from both council and planning commission on your desire to have stakeholder engagement throughout this process.

So since our last meeting, staff has compiled a group of local developers and consultants to provide feedback on the draft code language once we have that available.

And that group will help us test the feasibility of the proposed language.

And then looking at the adoption timeline, we're aiming towards the end of the calendar year for formal adoption.

So as I previously mentioned, the project consultant has conducted an audit of the Twalton Development Code, and that identified sections of our code that are not conforming to clear and objective standards related to residential housing.

A copy of that code audit summary is available in your packet materials.

And then the coming slides, we're gonna walk through some of the frequent flyers of issues and themes that were highlighted in that audit.

So our first identified issue involves conditional use permit requirements.

So there's some zones that allow certain housing types to only be permitted through a conditional use permit process.

So for example, retirement housing and multifamily housing require an applicant to obtain a conditional use permit in the low density, low density residential zone.

So the issue with this practice is that the conditional use permit criteria requires discretion.

So essentially, if a housing type is allowed in a zone, it must have a clear and objective approval pathway.

The next issue dives into the development review language.

And most sections of the code development standards have a numeric value.

However, the audit identified a couple of sections that have code language that states as determined through the architectural review process.

So this language requires staff to use discretion when determining the setbacks in this particular example.

So our pathways forward would just be to establish clear and objective language in these instances and allow for deviation through an optional discretionary review.

Another issue arises with discretionary or undefined language.

Some building design standards use terms such as decorative features, which again could be open to interpretation.

And then the simple solution here would just be to refine this vocabulary vocabulary throughout the code to match our current practices.

The last issue we want to highlight are the access management standards found in Twalton Development Code Chapter 75.

So some of our access management standards allow discretion by the city manager.

For instance, there's some examples of repeat phrases that say the city manager may restrict, and this style of code can create uncertainty for applicants for their property to know if they would be subject to those restrictions or not.