Oregon planners outline $71.2 million DLCD budget, cite staffing growth and federal funding reliance

The Joint Committee on Ways and Means Subcommittee on Natural Resources held an informational hearing Feb. 3 on Senate Bill 5528 and the Department of Land Conservation and Development’s proposed budget, during which DLCD leaders described a $71.2 million governor’s-recommended budget that maintains current service levels while expanding housing and technical assistance work.

Paul Siebert, an analyst with the Legislative Fiscal Office, told the committee the department has “seen some significant growth” and that staff numbers rose “almost 50% between the 2021–23 biennium and the current biennium.” Angela Grama, a budget and policy analyst with the Department of Administrative Services Chief Financial Office, said in broad strokes the budget “maintains current service levels for operation while making investments into priority housing and homelessness initiatives.”

The nut of the presentation from Brenda Bateman, director of the Department of Land Conservation and Development, was that DLCD’s expanded responsibilities for housing have driven the agency’s growth. Bateman said DLCD has added a housing division and a Housing Accountability and Production Office in recent years to help implement housing-related statutes and newly adopted rules. She described the agency’s role as supporting local governments’ long-range planning, providing model codes and grants, and offering technical assistance where local capacity is limited.

DLCD officials said personnel services account for roughly half of the agency’s budget, with a proposed FTE level of 113. The recommended total of $71,200,000 is about 10.2% lower than the 2023–25 legislatively approved budget, a decline officials attributed to the phase-out of one-time funding in the current biennium. Federal and federally derived funds make up about 16% of the agency’s funding, officials said, with coastal programs supported largely by NOAA and natural-hazard mitigation work funded in part by FEMA.

Committee members focused questions on several recurring issues: the department’s reliance on federal funds, the capacity of small cities to implement state planning requirements, the possible impacts of general-fund reductions, and how well the agency’s key performance measures (KPMs) reflect DLCD work rather than local jurisdictions’ actions.

On federal funds, DLCD staff said state efforts are concentrated in a few teams: coastal staff are largely federally supported and several planners (for example, floodplain and natural-hazard positions) receive federal funding. Alexis Hammer, DLCD’s policy and legislative manager, and Bateman warned that a loss of federal funding would strain the agency but said the problem would likely require a broader executive-legislative discussion about priorities.

On grants and technical assistance, Bateman emphasized that many smaller cities “don’t have planners at all” and rely on DLCD grants and technical help to update local codes and meet state requirements. The department showed maps and charts documenting about $13.8 million in grant projects across 233 projects during the current biennium and said housing-related grants have become the largest new category in recent years.

Committee members also asked about DLCD’s KPMs. Bateman acknowledged that several KPMs measure whether local jurisdictions have updated plans — outcomes largely controlled by cities and counties — and said DLCD plans to review and possibly revise metrics so they better reflect the agency’s direct work. She cited examples such as transit-supportive land-use regulations and updated transportation facility plans that local jurisdictions have yet to complete.

DLCD officials previewed several policy option packages (POPs) in the governor’s budget request, including a 1% agency request (about $508,000) to adjust five partially funded positions and make two limited-duration positions permanent (natural hazards and floodplain planners). A cluster of housing POPs (500-series) center on grant and technical assistance funding and staffing for the Housing Accountability and Production Office; DLCD said one package (POP 505) is the fiscal note tied to the governor’s middle-housing bill and that it is embedded in the agency ask. The department also noted two cross-agency packages with the Department of State Lands to update local wetlands inventories and provide technical assistance.

Bateman and other DLCD staff repeatedly framed much of the agency’s work as partnership-focused, pointing to 36 counties, 241 cities, nine federally recognized tribes, and a coastal network of state and local agencies that implement or support Oregon’s land-use system, established originally in 1973 with Senate Bill 100.

The department closed by noting it will hold public testimony on the same bill at a subsequent hearing; no committee votes were taken at the informational session. The presentation materials, including the LFO budget review and DLCD slides cited in the hearing, are posted to the legislative information system and were referenced during committee questions.