Oregon City planners weigh state-mandated parking reforms, EV and landscaping rules under CFEC

City of Oregon City planning staff and consultant Brian Davis presented an initial implementation plan on Jan. 13 for the state’s Climate Friendly and Equitable Communities (CFEC) administrative rules that would change local parking requirements, add EV infrastructure standards and require new landscaping or solar options for parking lots. The presentation and discussion were informational; the commission did not vote on code language and staff said formal legislative hearings are scheduled this spring.

The issue matters because the administrative rules — adopted at the state level by the Department of Land Conservation and Development (DLCD) and its Land Conservation and Development Commission (LCDC) — require cities in metropolitan areas to choose a compliance path that affects how developers provide parking, design lots and add electrical infrastructure. "One of the requirements there, if you took option 2, is the idea of unbundling parking," Davis told the commission, describing the second compliance option. "Property owners shall be allowed to redevelop any portion of existing off street parking areas for bicycle oriented and transit oriented facilities," he read from the administrative language, citing OAR provisions that guide the changes.

Davis told the commission there are three broad compliance options outlined in the new state rules: remove parking minimums citywide (the option most jurisdictions are taking), adopt a menu of significant parking reforms (including measures like unbundling parking from rents) or adopt a prescriptive set of interventions the consultant described as the "path of least resistance" for Oregon City. Staff and the ad hoc committee convened last year…