Less Parking, More Housing?
April 12, 2023
Street Roots
Beginning Jan. 3, some parking mandates in Oregon housing construction were no more.
The state’s land use commission approved the new rules last July in hopes of accomplishing numerous impacts, namely enabling more housing construction.
Earlier this year, newly sworn-in Gov. Tina Kotek issued an executive order outlining a goal to construct 36,000 new homes per year in Oregon — up from the state’s current estimated 20,000 new homes built annually, according to the Oregon Housing Needs Analysis. The Oregon Housing Needs Analysis, or OHNA, created by the Oregon Legislature in 2019, finds a current shortage of approximately 140,000 homes across the state.
The state’s land use commission and Oregon Housing and Community services, tasked by the Legislature with preparing recommendations in response to the OHNA, put forward numerous parking reform tweaks in an effort to help Oregon close the gap.
The new rules stipulate all properties within a half mile of frequent transit service, or three-quarters of a mile of a rail station, no longer have parking requirements.
The new regulations also remove parking mandates for certain housing types in metro areas, regardless of distance from transit service, including regulated affordable housing, single-room occupancy housing, domestic violence shelters, homeless shelters and housing units smaller than 750 square feet.
The rules apply to the 48 Oregon cities in Oregon’s eight metropolitan areas and some additional counties meeting population requirements, such as Clackamas, Marion and Washington counties.
Some rules covering parking near transit took effect Dec. 31, 2022. Others, such as a stipulation for electric vehicle charging, took effect March 31, while still other rules that cover parking regulation improvement, like encouraging redevelopment of underused parking, take effect June 30.
The rollbacks are in response to 2019 Oregon House Bills 2001 and 2003, both of which called for Oregon to increase missing middle housing construction and reduce impediments to increasing housing, according to Anyeley Hallovà, chair of the state Land Conservation and Development Commission.
Some experts say the parking rollbacks will encourage new development, including additional affordable housing.
