DLCD outlines middle-housing rules, ONA rollout and new HAPO office to speed production

Representatives of the Department of Land Conservation and Development told the House Committee on Housing and Homelessness on Jan. 27 that recent statutory changes require new state rules and tools to help local governments plan for and approve more housing.

“A model code for middle housing served a couple of purposes,” Ethan Stuckmeyer, manager of DLCD’s housing division, said of earlier rulemaking that accompanied House Bill 2001. DLCD officials described a model-code approach that both guides local code updates and acts as a backstop when a local jurisdiction does not adopt compliant rules.

DLCD staff outlined three related areas of work. First, middle housing: DLCD described implementation of HB 2001, expansions in subsequent legislation (including provisions that allow expedited middle-housing land divisions to facilitate fee-simple sale of middle housing), and changes from 2023 that expanded middle housing requirements to smaller cities.

Second, officials described the Oregon Housing Needs Analysis (ONA), a multi-agency process required by the legislature to reshape how cities plan for housing by allocating “needed housing” and housing production targets. DLCD said the Department of Administrative Services has published inaugural targets and that DLCD is in the middle of a two-phase rulemaking process to integrate the ONA into statewide planning rules and to address links with urban growth boundary (UGB) processes.

DLCD said the ONA approach is intended to shift local planning away from technical zone-capacity calculations toward actions that directly facilitate production, affordability and choice; the department noted it has $3.5 million in technical-assistance grants to help local governments do the new work.

Third, DLCD and the Building Codes Division described the newly created Housing Accountability and Production Office (HAPO), established by Senate Bill 1537. Joel Madsen, HAPO manager at DLCD, told the committee the office’s work will emphasize collaboration with local governments and developers, provide technical assistance, administer studies and contracts to identify permitting and public-works bottlenecks, and host a dashboard where jurisdictions can see which statutory “housing land use adjustments” are in effect or where local governments have applied to opt out.

Alana Cox, administrator of the Building Codes Division at the Department of Consumer and Business Services, said building codes staff are expanding “permit-ready” plan programs and exploring prefabricated construction pathways, and that the statewide building-code board system can help resolve disputes that slow permitting. Cox said the division already operates a permit-ready plan program (historically for unoccupied structures) and said the agency is revising that program to cover smaller housing and accessory dwelling units.

DLCD staff also described a Senate Bill 1564 directive to develop three model housing development codes (for very small, medium and large cities), and said the new model codes may be adopted by reference to reduce local administrative burden.

Committee members raised questions about the accuracy of local housing inventories, data gaps underpinning housing needs analyses, and whether additional statutory or regulatory requirements add cost to housing. DLCD staff acknowledged data limitations, described the ONA as an iterative improvement in factual basis and said the HAPO and building-code efforts are meant to reduce permitting delays and regulatory ambiguity as one pathway to cost reduction.

Ending: DLCD and building-code officials told the committee they will return with more detail and that agencies are continuing rulemaking and technical assistance work this year.