West Linn Planning Commission Work Session on Housing Production Strategy — March 19, 2025

The West Linn Planning Commission met in hybrid format on Wednesday, March 19, 2025, at 6:00 PM. The meeting included roll call, approval of the March 5 meeting notes, commissioner and staff announcements, and a work session on the West Linn Housing Production Strategy (HPS) Public Review Draft. The chair initially read the meeting date as March 5 before correcting it to March 19. No final vote was taken on the HPS; the item was informational and deliberative.

Consent Calendar

• The meeting notes from the March 5, 2025 Planning Commission meeting were approved unanimously by roll call vote.

Public Comments & Testimony

• Darren Gusdorf, West Linn resident, general manager of Icon Construction and Development, and member of the HPS working group, expressed opposition to the proposed Construction Excise Tax (CET). He stated the working group supported all proposed strategies except the CET, on which the working group vote was split 50-50. He said West Linn had the highest System Development Charge (SDC) fees in the state, with over $70,000 in permits and SDC fees for a medium home product, and argued the CET would increase costs, push developers out of the community, and reduce housing supply. He also said there was no solidified implementation plan for CET fund allocation and urged adoption of the proposed strategies with the CET removed.

Discussion Items

• Commissioner Jones provided a brief update on Vision 43, describing the latest working group meeting as very productive and encouraging public input via the Vision 43 website.
• Staff announced upcoming Planning Commission items: a follow-up public hearing on the HPS, which is not a legislative item and goes to the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development (DLCD) for compliance review after council adoption; Vision 43 updates; waterfront project work; FEMA code amendments; and code cleanup work sessions beginning in late April. The planning docket is scheduled to go to council in mid-April, and the waterfront working group is scheduled to meet the first Thursday in May.
• Matt Hasty (city staff) and Brandon Crawford (MIG, participating remotely) presented the HPS. They reviewed the state requirement to adopt a Housing Production Strategy, following the housing capacity analysis adopted in November 2023, the six-year update cycle, and DLCD monitoring including a mid-term check at three years. They described twelve proposed strategies in three categories: housing options and choices (rezoning land, small dwelling unit development, SDC updates, multiple-unit property tax exemption); affordable housing actions (tax increment financing, land acquisition and banking, public-private partnerships, low-income rental housing tax exemption, zoning incentives for workforce and affordable housing, and the CET); and equitable housing opportunities (home buyer opportunity limited tax exemption, and fair housing education and referral).
• On SDC scaling, the presenters reviewed three approaches used by other cities: direct scaling by dwelling square footage (King City, Albany), tiered approaches with floors and ceilings (Eugene, Portland, McMinnville, and Lake Oswego, which is considering tiers such as homes under 2,000 square feet paying 68 percent of the average SDC and homes above 3,600 square feet paying 113 percent), and scaling by number of bedrooms (Eugene, for multifamily).
• On the CET, the presenters noted statutory requirements that 50 percent of revenues be used for developer incentives, 35 percent for affordable housing programs, and 15 percent remitted to the state. They noted a CET can apply to commercial and industrial development as well as residential, and that case studies in Corvallis and Milwaukie show CET funds were used for gap financing and local contributions for affordable housing projects.
• Commissioners discussed the desire to disincentivize very expensive homes and incentivize smaller, more affordable units; interest in cottage communities and accessible, aging-in-place design, including strong demand for main-level bedrooms and bathrooms; the drivers of high SDCs, including low growth projections across much of the city with 10,000-square-foot lots spreading infrastructure costs over fewer units; the Metro housing bond, for which Clackamas County funds have been distributed but no projects built new housing in West Linn; and HOA restrictions on middle housing, including the possibility of pending state legislation addressing existing HOAs.

Key Outcomes

• No formal decision was made on the Housing Production Strategy; the item was a work session.
• The public hearing on the HPS is scheduled for April 2, 2025, followed by a city council work session in late April and a council adoption hearing in mid-May.
• Staff agreed to follow up with additional information on Clackamas County Metro housing bond allocations and on pending state legislation related to HOAs and middle housing.