Eugene planners outline actions after state assigns about 26,000‑unit housing need

Eugene and Lane County planning staff told the Lane County Board of Commissioners on March 12 that a new state housing‑planning method requires Eugene to plan for roughly 26,000 new dwelling units over 20 years, and staff described steps they will take to try to meet that number without immediately expanding the urban growth boundary.

For the record, Jared Bowder, a planner with Lane County Planning, opened the board presentation, saying, "I'm Jared Bowder with Lane County Planning. Today, the project management team for the Eugene Urban Growth Strategies project have prepared a work session update and a presentation for the board." The team from the City of Eugene included Terry Harding, the city's principal planner for community planning and design; Rebecca Kershaw, senior planner; and Leah Rausch, senior planner. Alyssa Hunter, Eugene's planning director, and Heather O'Donnell, senior planner, joined later to answer questions.

Why it matters: the state’s new Oregon Housing Needs Analysis (ONA) methodology allocates an updated 20‑year housing need to cities, and then requires city‑level analyses that can lead to code changes, incentives, and—if necessary—an urban growth boundary (UGB) expansion. The number staff cited — about 26,000 new dwelling units for Eugene over 20 years — is far larger than prior planning assumptions and, staff said, includes both projected future household growth and a measure of "current unmet need" from decades of underproduction.

Staff presentation and numbers Leah Rausch described the ONA framework and the steps the city will now be required to take. Under the state process she outlined, the state…