Planning commission leans toward eliminating citywide parking minimums under CFEC rules

Wilsonville planning staff returned to the Planning Commission on April 9, 2025, for a third work session on parking changes required by the state's Climate Friendly and Equitable Communities (CFEC) program. Staff reviewed draft development code amendments and three compliance options for the parking B phase of CFEC; commissioners responded that their prevailing preference was Option 1 — eliminating parking minimums citywide for the areas covered by the rule — while requesting additional analysis and visual examples of lot‑level design impacts.

Daniel Polley, planning manager for the city, described the three compliance paths under Parking B that staff reviewed: (1) remove parking minimums citywide (Option 1); (2) retain minimums in some areas but add a menu of programs (Option 2) — such as unbundled parking, a mandatory flexible commute benefit for large employers, limits on multifamily parking ratios and a commercial parking tax — and choose at least two menu items; or (3) map‑based approaches that exempt certain areas from minimums and keep them elsewhere (Option 3). Staff recommended Option 1 for Wilsonville and presented draft code edits consistent with that approach.

Commissioners agreed that Option 1 has the lowest implementation cost and is unlikely to change the amount of parking supplied in the city over the next two decades, given the limited areas where CFEC would apply. Several commissioners, however, asked for more detail on the CFEC design…