Coos Bay council authorizes regional problem‑solving process to study adding six areas to urban growth boundary

The Coos Bay City Council voted to authorize the Regional Problem Solving (RPS) process as the pathway to consider including Barview, Blossom Gulch, Bunker Hill, Charleston, Libby and Millington within the city’s urban growth boundary.

Council approved the motion after an extended presentation and discussion in which city staff, a consultant and a DLCD representative said RPS offers the most likely legal and technical route to change the UGB given the city’s unusual planning history.

The RPS process lets local governments “flex” certain DLCD administrative rules when a region can show that alternate steps meet the statewide planning goals. Jay Harlan, a consultant with CSA Planning, told the council that Coos Bay’s situation is atypical: past planning actions left the UGB line effectively aligned with city limits, and a direct legal “validation” approach was judged unlikely to succeed. Harlan said RPS would require a formal agreement between the city and Coos County, a statement of the regional problem and goals, incentives and corrective measures, and then more detailed facility and master planning.

“RPS is regional problem solving,” Harlan said during his presentation.

Chelsea, a city staff member working on the project, described the areas under consideration and said work already completed includes historical research, mapping and convening a project management team with representatives from the schools, downtown association, ODOT and community members. Council members pressed staff and the consultant on sequencing: what RPS would require first, how long master planning would take, and who would pay for engineering and infrastructure work.

Harlan said the RPS planning step itself is largely a planning exercise and estimated it could take 12 to 18 months of work, with a statutory maximum of three years to complete the major milestones. He warned that facility master planning — sewer, water, transportation and emergency response — is an expensive, separate engineering task that must follow. Those facility plans, Harlan said, are what would allow the city to demonstrate service capacity when/if annexation is later requested by property owners.

A DLCD representative told the council the department supports pursuing RPS: “DLCD is with the Coos Bay and the Coos County for this project the entire way,” the representative said, and noted DLCD technical‑assistance funding is on a biennial cycle that could support the work if the county and city move forward with an agreed work plan.

Council members stressed that adding land to the UGB would not automatically annex property to the city and that annexation remains a separate legal process. The consultant described likely annexation options — petition by property owners, voter‑initiated annexation or, rarely, forced annexation — and recommended the city and county negotiate urban growth management and service agreements to define how newly included areas would be managed and when city services would extend to them.

After discussion, the council unanimously approved a motion stating that RPS is the approved pathway by which the listed areas “will be considered for incorporation into the city’s UGB.” The motion did not bind the council to any particular boundary or annexation outcome; it authorizes staff to proceed with drafting goals, objectives, incentives/disincentives and a draft agreement with the county and DLCD to guide the RPS work.

Next steps described by staff and the consultant include drafting a concise regional problem statement for public review, developing a work program and schedule for DLCD, and seeking DLCD technical assistance and possible grant funding. The council was asked to expect further public outreach and multiple planning documents — including the RPS agreement, facility master plans and later service agreements — before any final land‑use changes would be adopted.

Proponents told the council RPS could open options for housing and economic development in areas already served by sewer and other infrastructure; opponents and members of the public will have multiple public hearings in future phases. The council emphasized that any inclusion in the UGB would not immediately change services, taxes or local zoning and that any annexation would require its own public process and approval.

The council instructed staff to return with draft goals and an RPS work plan and to coordinate with Coos County and DLCD on funding and schedule.