House Bill 2003

In 2019, the Oregon Legislature passed House Bill 2003 to help communities meet the diverse housing needs of Oregonians. The law requires Oregon's medium and large cities to study the future housing needs of their residents and to develop strategies to produce the housing their residents need. Cities within Metro are required to update their Housing Needs Analysis every six years. The bill then requires each city to adopt a housing production strategy within a year of completing the housing needs analysis. The strategy must list specific actions a city will take – such as revising regulations or providing financial incentives – to promote the development of all identified housing needs.

The City of West Linn, with the help of the consultant team from Angelo Planning Group, has commenced the technical exercise of Phase 1. The work consists of a housing needs projection, a buildable lands inventory, a residential land needs analysis, and recommended measures to accommodate needed housing.

The consultant work on Phase 1 will be complete by June 2021.  City staff will then begin Phase 2 and engage the community on the recommended measures to accommodate needed housing. This will be an opportunity to define the City’s policy stance on either providing the minimum to meet the community’s identified housing needs or going further and adopting policies/developing programs to encourage the development of differing housing choices within the community. Ultimately, the City Council will adopt the Housing Needs Analysis and the associated housing production strategy.