NEWS
A12 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAy, FEbRuARy 20, 2019
Housing bills sponsored by Portland
legislators draw complaints from east side
By JADE MCDOWELL
NEWS EDITOR
Former Umatilla County
commissioner says
county needs a manager
ment the commission-
Former
Umatilla ers have with department
County
Commissioner heads. He said three com-
Larry Givens said it’s time missioners mean three
for the county to have a styles of administration,
manager and part-time and the system creates
“inconsistency and discord
commissioners.
Givens,
who
lost among departments and
re-election last year, told is not good for morale,”
the
county’s
Charter according to the minutes,
and that is a reason
Review Commit-
to have a manager.
tee at its Jan. 15
County Com-
meeting the county
missioner Bill Elf-
needs a manager
ering in November
who is educated
also suggested the
and experienced in
county move to a
municipal govern-
ment, according to
manager to oversee
Givens
the meeting min-
operations and the
utes, and a political
budget.
Commissioner George
science education would
Murdock spoke with the
be helpful.
Givens explained the committee in December.
board of commissioners is He has been adamant he
to create and oversee pol- would not make sugges-
icy and conduct outside tions to the committee, but
work, such as promoting he did answer their ques-
the county and obtaining tions. He said elections do
grants. Five part-time com- not guarantee continuity,
missioners receiving a sti- but a county administrator
pend of $28,000 a year, could help with continuity
for example, would be bet- and institutionalizing the
ter suited to the work than county’s vision. He told the
the three full-time com- committee 27 of Oregon’s
missioners the county 36 counties have some
form of county manager.
employs, he said.
Linn County admin-
Commissioners
now
make almost $91,000 a istrator Ralph Wyatt also
year. A county manager spoke at the December
would cost a chunk of meeting. He said he has
money, Givens said, but the a range of responsibili-
decrease in salaries for the ties, from human resources
commissioners would off- director to overseeing pay-
set that cost.
roll and the motor poll.
County-wide represen- Linn County employs
tation on the board also more than 670 people and
matters, he said, so two has a budget of $148 mil-
commissioners could be lion. Commissioners there
at-large and the others from make $96,000 a year, he
districts. The county could said, and have authority
limit commissioners to over the county budget.
working 20 hours a month He said new commission-
and mandate they can only ers can take as long as two
miss a certain number of years “to get up to speed”
meetings. That might make on county government.
The committee has
it tough to some who have
jobs, he told the commit- the task of reviewing the
tee, but retirees would be county charter, the found-
ing document for the local
interested.
Givens also complained government, and suggest-
about the liaison arrange- ing charges.
By HERMISTON HERALD
As Oregon communities
struggle to fix housing prob-
lems, solutions sponsored by
legislators on the west side
of the state are drawing com-
plaints from Eastern Oregon.
The city of Hermiston is
voicing opposition to a bill
banning single-family res-
idential zoning in commu-
nities of more than 10,000
people.
House Bill 2001, spon-
sored by House Speaker Tina
Kotek (D-Portland), would
require cities to allow “mid-
dle housing” — duplexes,
triplexes, quadplexes and
cottages clustered around
a courtyard — in all of its
residential zones. Propo-
nents of the bill say it will
help reduce the state’s hous-
ing shortage and create more
diverse neighborhoods.
Hermiston city planner
Clint Spencer said the city
has “pretty strong feelings”
against the bill. He submit-
ted written testimony to
the House Committee On
Human Services and Hous-
ing for a public hearing held
Feb. 11.
Spencer called the bill
a “top-down” solution that
takes control away from
cities. He said it also con-
flicts with Statewide Plan-
ning Goal 1, which seeks to
include citizen input on all
stages of land use planning.
“It would be changing the
character of existing neigh-
borhoods without the neigh-
borhood having any say in
it,” he told the Hermiston
Herald.
The bill as currently writ-
ten would retroactively
include existing zones within
cities. Spencer said for many
neighborhoods in Hermiston,
the water and sewer pipes,
street width, on-street park-
ing and other elements were
planned with single homes in
mind. If someone was able to
start building fourplexes on
HH file photo
The state legislature is considering bills that would protect tenants from steep rent increases
and no-cost evictions.
empty lots there instead, it
would in some cases require
new infrastructure to accom-
modate the strain.
“Who pays for that?” he
asked.
Allowing
multi-fam-
ily dwellings in all residen-
tial zones would also impact
long-term planning that cit-
ies already poured time and
money into creating, as it
essentially “quadruples our
buildable land.”
Spencer said he agrees
that communities need to
find solutions to their hous-
ing shortages, but there are
better ways to do so. Herm-
iston, for example, saw an
increase in housing permits
issued last year after mak-
ing several changes, includ-
ing the creation of an infill
program and easing require-
ments for setbacks and lot
coverage.
If HB 2001 passes, Ore-
gon would be the first state
to ban single-family zoning.
But cities such as Minneap-
olis, Minnesota have started
to embrace the tactic as a
way to diversify neighbor-
hoods by removing a desig-
nation that has historically
kept low-income families
and people of color out of
certain neighborhoods.
Proponents also hope that
the bill will encourage new
housing to open up faster as
developers add multi-fam-
ily dwellings instead of tra-
ditional houses to lots.
The Oregon Housing Alli-
ance submitted testimony
to the House Committee on
Human Services and Hous-
ing stating there is a “mis-
match between the types of
homes available, the peo-
ple who need a place to live,
and the incomes that people
earn.”
“Increasing the num-
ber of homes which can be
built per lot, subject to rea-
sonable restrictions allowed
under HB 2001, may over
time either help to decrease
the cost per home or offer
options which are better
aligned with current needs
based on household size,”
wrote the coalition.
House Bill 2001 is one
of several bills introduced
during the legislative session
in an effort to tackle Ore-
gon’s housing shortage.
Sen. Bill Hansell (R-Ath-
ena) recently spoke out on
the Senate floor about Senate
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Bill 608. The bill caps rent
increases at one per year, at
no more than 7 percent per
year plus the consumer price
index. It also bans no-cause
evictions for tenants on
month-to-month leases after
the first 12 months.
“One size does not fit all,”
Hansell told his colleagues.
“If Portland has a problem
— and I believe they do —
don’t impose the fix on the
rest of the state.”
He said housing develop-
ers and landlords in his dis-
trict have written him to say
that the bill would unfairly
tilt Oregon’s housing laws
in favor of tenants. A tenant
would be able to give 30
days notice without cause to
exit the lease, for example,
but a landlord could not.
Hansell said the bill,
while meant to protect ten-
ants, would actually hurt
them as landlords became
much more strict in their
screening process and hous-
ing developers pulled out of
Oregon altogether. He said
landlords needed to be able
to raise rents fast enough
to keep up with increases
in property taxes and other
costs.