Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek wants to make it easier for housing developers to identify and build on the more than 3,500 acres of suitable-for-development land the state owns or manages.
The governor revealed an online map on Thursday aimed at making the state inventory of land more transparent. All told, more than 1.7 million acres are under Oregon state control, but about 360 parcels on the nearly 4,000 acres have been identified for possible housing development.
Kotek has staked her political reputation on making housing more affordable in the state.
Much of her administration’s energy has been poured into what the governor once declared a “man-made” and “humanitarian disaster.” Kotek has promised a significant increase in housing production goals; her goal is to move from the historical 22,000 units to 36,000 new housing units per year, an ease in permitting and a push to put hundreds more people into housing. The state has struggled to meet those goals.
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, center, talks with Northwest Oregon Housing Authority executive director Hsu-Feng Andy Shaw on the site of the future Owens Adair II affordable apartments.
Julia Shumway / Oregon Capital Chronicle
But there are signs of progress from the 2023 legislative session when the state created the Housing Accountability and Productive Office to help local governments streamline their efforts, including the new website.
The online map is cumbersome looking right now, but Deborah Flagan, with Hayden Homes, said finding land poses the greatest challenge for builders. Flagan was on a housing advisory council that recommended the idea.
“We spent time looking at the land inside the urban growth boundary and tried to come up with ideas to unleash land that was leased or could be available for sale and not used and we were finding that thousands of acres [were under state control],” Flagan said. “And there is a large majority underutilized and this could be an opportunity.”
Flagan said there isn’t much land inside the urban growth boundary that is ready to build and that the state owns larger parcels.
“You could actually get numerous housing units,” she said.
In a statement, the governor said she was turning over “every rock to turn dirt faster for new housing.”
Another central piece of Kotek’s housing production plan also recently launched. The $75 million “revolving loan fund” went live last month. It’s aimed at helping cities and counties boost affordable housing stock. The idea is to create a program to help local governments offer interest-free loans to developers who are building moderate and affordable home projects but have a funding gap. The $75 million is the starting point and will be replenished once the loans are paid off.
Joel Madsen, the manager of the Housing Accountability and Production Office, said he believes it makes sense to have state-owned and leased lands be part of the solution to the state’s “greatest social and economic crisis.”
“[My office] looks forward to engaging with the development community and our state agency partners to leverage public land for the public benefit of increased housing production, affordability and choice,” Madsen said in a statement.
This legislative session, one of the governor’s big pushes is to allow for more “middle housing” or cottage clusters to be developed. The governor is pushing a measure that would remove any single-family housing zoning requirements across Oregon, as long as the land is inside an existing urban growth boundary.
