SIUSLAW NEWS ❚ WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2017
Housing
“Is Coastal Living in Jeopardy?”
from 1A
Series List
Nov. 15: SOS
Nov. 22: State
of housing
Nov. 29: How we got here
Dec. 6: Time to step up
This 10-part series covers the current housing
and employment crisis facing the Siuslaw
region. Through in-depth interviews with gov-
ernment officials, volunteer organizations,
property managers and employers, the series
examines the problems facing the region, the
solutions that the community is working on
and what the community can do to help.
In October, the City of
Florence submitted a request
for information letter to the
governor’s office about a new
Workforce Housing Initiative.
“They are trying to take tools
that are already in the state’s
toolbox, that already exist and
are already funded, plus some
new additional things,” said
Reynolds. “That could be
money, resources or support so
they can come and help fill the
gap so they can incentivize
workforce housing.”
Reynolds defined “work-
force housing” as different for
every community. In Florence,
it would be a request for more
affordable housing, especially
for lower income families.
In its submission, Florence
noted that the state’s timing is
aligned with the city’s current
plans and goals to address the
housing needs of the communi-
ty, including a projected
demand of 510 housing units in
the next five years.
The request for information
also included “opportunities”
— or places where the city has
already begun to develop plans.
Some of these include:
• Establishing a goal to pro-
vide workforce housing
• Creating the Housing and
Economic
Opportunities
Project (HEOP) Committee
• Engaging with local and
regional non-profit and for-
profit housing developers that
have expressed interest in
investing in workforce housing
developments
• Considering amending the
Florence Comprehensive Plan
policies to eliminate barriers to
workforce and affordable hous-
ing developments
• Reviewing local policies
and regulations regarding short-
term rentals and how they
impact the long-term rental
market
• Identifying a number of
sites that are vacant and zoned
for workforce housing develop-
ments, especially near the city
center, and looking for ways to
secure future sites
• Refining its housing devel-
opment feasibility model to
determine and bridge funding
gaps for specific projects
• Focusing on economic
development to bring momen-
tum and growth.
“The City is now considering
ways to promote workforce
housing development in con-
junction with business expan-
sion proposals by major
employers, such as Peace
Harbor Hospital, the Siuslaw
School District, Lane County
Community College and vari-
ous tourism and recreation ori-
ented businesses,” the submis-
sion stated.
Other partnerships have been
with economic drivers in the
area, from the Regional
Upcoming topics include
employment, volunteerism,
economic development and
the future of industry in the
region.
All parts of the series are available online at
thesiuslawnews.com, or in print by request.
Accelerator and Innovation
Network (RAIN), South Coast
Development Council, Siuslaw
Vision 2025 and Florence Area
Chamber of Commerce.
Letters of support came from
Siuslaw Outreach Services,
Siuslaw Elementary School,
investors working to develop
Florence-area businesses and
PeaceHealth Peace Harbor
Medical Center.
As mayor, Henry thanked the
governor for addressing the
need for housing and offering
Florence the chance to apply.
“The lack of adequate work-
force housing is holding
Florence back from its potential
growth. One thing that I have
learned is simply, if we are not
growing, we are dying. That is
why this initiative is so impera-
tive. I support all efforts related
to bringing more workforce
housing to our great city, and
feel it is essential for our
growth and prosperity. Thank
you for offering assistance in
creating a path forward to
address this very serious issue,”
he wrote.
In his town hall, Bozievich
said that 73 percent of his lis-
teners were aware of the hous-
ing crisis.
“I’m surprised at how many
people were unaware,” he said
of the remaining 27 percent.
The five county commission-
ers sit on the board of Housing
and Community Services
Agency of Lane County
(HACSA), since it serves as the
housing authority in Lane
County and administers fund-
ing
from
the
Oregon
Department of Housing and
Urban Development.
HACSA reports that approxi-
mately one third of all Lane
County residents are housing
burdened because they spend
more than 50 percent of their
income on housing.
Bozievich thinks Oregon has
one solution: Senate Bill 1051.
SB 1051 requires cities with
population greater than 5,000
or counties with population
greater than 25,000 to review
and decide on applications for
certain housing developments
containing affordable housing
units within 100 days. It
became effective Aug. 15,
2017.
“In the short term, SB 1051
opens us up to accessory
dwelling units,” Bozievich said.
“This could double the housing
stock in western Lane County
very quickly with affordable
options.”
Florence Planning Director
Wendy FarleyCampbell has
definite plans for accessory
dwelling units in the Florence
area.
“A lot of our current houses
are smaller homes on bigger
lots, and some of those have
been rezoned where they could
have at least two dwellings on
the same lot. That is an oppor-
tunity. If we could get some
implementation of some of the
code that we’ve done would be
nice,” she said.
Creating more population
density would help keep build-
able land available for people
who want to build multi-family
housing.
One form of multi-family
housing that may be unfamiliar
to people is cottage housing,
where multiple units, often
unattached, share a common
outdoor space. These units can
range from so-called “tiny
homes” to more standard,
1,100-square-foot buildings.
“I personally have three sen-
ior friends whose spouses have
passed away and they would
move into this style of living
tomorrow if they were avail-
able,” FarleyCampbell said.
“One of them is living pay-
check to paycheck wishing she
had some place to move to. She
doesn’t want to leave Florence,
she doesn’t want to go live with
her daughter. She wants to stay
with her friends. But she has no
place to go. That’s what she
wants — some little place with-
out the yardwork or mainte-
nance. Not an apartment.”
She said that updates to the
city’s codes would encourage
such alternative spaces, espe-
cially as they could be afford-
able options not only for
Florence’s established, often
senior, population, but also for
couples or young families.
“They’re
congregated
around an area so you have a
built community, or neighbor-
hood if you will, that’s on a
microscale, like a block. They
have shared common spaces. If
they want to garden or dink
around, there is usually a place
to grow some carrots or roses or
whatever they want to do. They
can still have the ability to do
that, but a lot of the areas are
common and have a landscaper.
Two of the women I mentioned
are already paying HOA-type
fees for those services, so that
wouldn’t be a change for them.
T
h
e
y
just want a smaller, more
manageable house size,”
FarleyCampbell said.
One group looking to initiate
this cottage program is the
Neighborhood
Economic
Development
Corporation
(NEDCO). All it would take is
some available land —
NEDCO’s current model is to
use donated land — that could
be zoned multifamily. From
there, the nonprofit agency
would build one- to two-bed-
room cottages for low-income
housing.
Alternative methods may be
a way to get outside investment
for Florence’s housing.
According
to
Farley
Campbell, several developers
have looked into the communi-
ty, but balked for various rea-
sons.
“There were some Portland
developers who said they could
build something, but they
would need to charge $1,200
rents. We went, ‘There’s no one
here who could pay $1,200 in
rent — not enough people,’”
she said. “Usually demand
drives price. If there was more
housing available and less
demand, that usually makes
prices drop. One thing we could
do would be to improve the
quality of jobs we’ve got so that
people make more money to
afford the rents. If we improve
our economic position, that
can’t hurt.”
HEOP is currently looking at
financial barriers within the
existing city code, and possible
ways to improve the process
and make it more affordable.
Besides continued new con-
struction, land owners have
other options to replenish the
housing stock: repair, maintain
and update their existing hous-
ing units.
“The council made this a
goal because of the issues with
a lot of the housing stock. We
need to do something about
that. Some of the policies the
council will be looking at will
be creating incentives for own-
ers of those to demo and build
up those lots, and to infill
so there is suitable housing
for
people
locally,”
FarleyCampbell said.
She said incentives could
help encourage someone to
knock down a building with
mold growing up the walls and
redevelop the property, hope-
fully with greater density.
Much of FarleyCampbell’s
information comes from recent
surveys conducted by the City
of Florence, HEOP and profes-
sional housing economist con-
sultants the FCS Group.
HEOP held its fourth and last
meeting yesterday for the FCS
Group to go over final findings
on the Buildable Land
Analysis, Housing Needs
Analysis, Employment Needs
Analysis
and
Policy
Considerations
undertaken
since April. These recommen-
dations will then be taken to the
Florence City Council and
Planning
Comm-
ission to implement necessary
changes to Florence City Code.
Reynolds said one of those
topics will be the addition of
accessory dwelling units.
“We have to figure out what
that means for our community,”
Reynolds said. “This housing
code process will be very simi-
lar to the process we went
through with marijuana to
implement local rules and regu-
lations for a statewide mandat-
ed item. That was a process that
went really well. There was a
lot of good communication, and
a lot of coordination with the
council and planning commis-
sion, and with the community
in listening to concerns. This is
just yet another big item that
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7 A
impacts daily lives, and they
will be working through that.”
HEOP is looking at several
components of current city
code, including City of
Florence’s rates, especially for
building permits and system
development charges (SDC).
As far as FarleyCampbell
can tell, the city’s costs are rea-
sonable, and could be a draw
for people to bring new devel-
opments to the city.
“For a residential permit, we
can get you out the door in 10
days. For that same exact work
in Lane County, it will be
months. Our building permit
process, per se, is not bad,” she
said.
She said people who want to
build an addition to a current
house pay less than $500 for a
permit. People who want to
build a home pay $2-2,500.
“That includes permits for all
your inspections for electrical
and plumbing. What is the high
part of the permit — I don’t
think it’s too high — is the sys-
tems development fee. Those
aren’t permitting fees, it’s an
additional fee that has nothing
to do with permits,” she said.
SDCs are a charge for water,
sewer, storm water and roads
that the developer pays into the
system.
“You’re building a new
structure,
you’re
getting
hooked up to sewer or the
water, having a street built in
front of you, the streetlights are
there. You haven’t needed to do
any of that,” FarleyCampbell
said. “Somebody put those in,
and they were put in with SDCs
that somebody else paid years
ago. You’re paying yours for
the people down the line, for
whatever system improvements
need to be done.
“It’s a cost of doing business,
and businesses can be $30,000.
It’s not some little amount. It’s
a big price. For a house, the
SDC is just over $12,000 for
brand-new construction.”
Compared to the price of a
septic tank in the county, which
can cost $20,000, she doesn’t
think that number is too high.
For land owners who want to
rebuild a house, those SDCs
were already paid with the orig-
inal construction.
With the changing housing
market landscape, some cities
are looking to revise their SDC
process.
“Florence may consider
varying SDCs by home size, as
a way to lower the cost of deliv-
ering more affordable housing,”
the letter to the governor con-
tinued. “Newport recently
changed its SDC methodology
from a single fee per single
family home (similar to
Florence’s
current
SDC
method) to a variable SDC that
takes into account home size.”
Until new developments
come in, there are things people
can do now to alleviate some of
the stress of Florence’s housing
crisis.
FarleyCampbell said, “At
City Hall, there’s a list of infor-
mation we provide at the count-
er here for people with ques-
tions on housing.”
Much of the information
details the rights of the renter
and landlord and some basic
information on some of the sub-
sidized housing resources in the
state and Lane County.
“We have some answers for
them to some degree about
HACSA and other housing
resources locally — which
there are not a lot. It’s all lot-
tery, too. Maybe you’ll get
some help, but you’re compet-
ing with everyone else in the
county,” she said.
The big thing is that people
need to be self-advocates who
know their rights.
People also need to find the
resources that can provide
housing vouchers or direct
them to low-cost housing. In
the Florence area, Oregon
Housing and Community
Services indicates there are
nine low-cost housing sites,
with a varying number of units
(egov.hcs.state.or.us/reser/APS/
LowCostHousing.jsp). Using
those links, people can be in
contact with owners and man-
agers of the properties.
See
HOUSING 9A