residences while within a fl oodplain. “I think it’s going to
really cause a lot of people, particularly our low-income
people where I’m from, to miss out on a great opportu-
nity," Tibbetts said during the Nov. 19 meeting.
Tibbetts, a Cottage Grove resident, said most of his
city lies within a fl oodplain. “If we’re allowing stick-built
houses to go on the fl ood plain but not RVs, and here’s
this bill that is attempting to defi ne RVs as residential
uses, then I think those two need to be consistent with
one another,” Tibbetts said.
A stick-built home is a wood-framed house assembled
on site, not a prefabricated home that is assembled else-
where and more mobile.
“It doesn’t make sense to me that we would allow
something that’s completely immoble to get fl ooded, but
something else that actually is mobile to not,” he said.
In her Nov. 12 memo to the Planning Commission, Lane
NEWS
‘Housing is running between $350
and $400 a foot these days, which
makes it nearly impossible to build
something.’
— DAVID LOVEALL, COUNTY COMMISSIONER
Photo by EW Staff
Legal RV Living
New legislation allows rural Oregonians to live in their
recreational vehicles, and Lane County government can
place requirements on permanent residential RVs
BY BENTLEY FREEMAN
A
ll rural Lane County residents can now host
permanent residential recreational vehicles,
so long as the property doesn’t lie within a
fl oodplain.
Under Senate Bill 1013, which went into
eff ect Jan. 1, county governments can decide how rural
Oregonians within their jurisdiction are allowed to legally
use their RVs.
SB 1013 allows for counties to individually determine
several requirements at their level. To use an RV as a
permanent dwelling, it must be on a residentially zoned
property, be owned or leased by the tenant, be parked
on a property with one single-family home, be provided
every essential service (sewage, water and electric) by
support.eugeneweekly.com
the property owner, be outside the urban reserves area
(where the urban growth boundary will expand to) and
may not be used as a vacation occupancy (a temporary
home under 180 days according to county code).
These are statewide requirements that cannot be
circumvented.
On Nov. 19, the Lane County Planning Commission
voted to approve Lane County code amendments allow-
ing all RVs for residential use across rural Lane County
— sending the fi nal say-so back to the Board of County
Commissioners next year.
Jack Tibbetts, the owner of Saginaw Vineyard, was the
lone dissenting vote on the Planning Commission, citing
his concerns surrounding restrictions on using RVs as
County Lane Management Division (LMD) Senior Planner
Rachel Serslev noted that about 3,700 of rural residences
partially lie within a fl oodplain and almost 800 parcels
are completely enveloped by a fl oodplain.
No property within a fl oodplain would be allowed
to host a residential RV in Lane County under the Lane
County Planning Commission’s recommendations. Lane
County Commissioner Heather Buch says the changes
under SB 1013 will increase housing options for rural
Lane County residents. SB 1013 will now open up more
than 9,000 rural residences in Lane County to have a
residential RV, according to analysis completed by LMD.
“I hope to see more people housed,” she says. “That's
the bottom line.”
During a Sept. 17 work session, the County Commis-
sion supported two Lane County requirements: that there
is a rental agreement with the tenant of the RV and that
the property owner and RV dweller comply with any or
all appearance, repair or siting requirements.
SB 1013, sponsored by state Sens. Cedric Hayden, Dennis
Linthicum and David Brock Smith, outlined several mini-
mum statewide standards for residential RVs.
Before SB 1013, in Lane County, RVs could be used
for medical hardship, for recreational purposes up to 30
days a year, for residence when a dwelling is being built
on that property and for housing by anybody impacted
by the 2020 wildfi res.
“It's not like a quick house hack to make some money
on the outlying properties of Lane County,” County
Commissioner David Loveall tells Eugene Weekly over the
phone. “I think it would probably be used for hardship,
because a certain amount of people own RVs and they're
cheaper to build than houses,” he says.
“Housing is running between $350 and $400 a foot
these days, which makes it nearly impossible to build
something,” Loveall says.
The LMD presented several of its own suggestions
during that Sept. 17 meeting, which the board
determined it would support several of — specifi cally
requiring RVs to have proper airfl ow if parked within a
structure/garage, have a landlord tenant agreement in place
with the property, have a toilet and sink and be setback
at minimum 10 feet away from the nearest dwelling (with
other minimum setbacks for resource-zoned properties).
However, LMD’s suggestion to establish a cap on rent
did not meet approval from the Planning Commission.
Rental “agreements are made between landlord and
tenant, and I just didn't think that the government or
the county or anybody else should step in and be a part
of that,” Loveall says. “Because it's really none of their
business.”
For information on future Planning Commission meetings, go to
LaneCounty.org or call 541-682-3577.
November 21, 2024
5