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Bill would expand notice radius for middle-housing land divisions and require clearer traffic information
Summary
Senator Sarah Gelser-Blouin and North Albany residents told the committee Senate Bill 737 would improve communication by increasing the required notice radius from 100 to 300 feet for middle housing land divisions and by clarifying whether a traffic study is needed.
Senator Sarah Gelser-Blouin told the Senate Committee on Housing and Development on March 31 that Senate Bill 737 is aimed at improving communication between local governments and neighbors before middle-housing lot divisions proceed.
Gelser-Blouin described a North Albany incident in which a previously approved 22-lot single-family subdivision later proceeded as an 80-unit townhouse land division; many neighbors were not effectively notified and were confused about whether the notice meant they could influence approval. “The problem with this is that when you get a notice about a hearing, that would suggest that you can go and testify at the hearing,” Gelser-Blouin said, and she explained the confusion caused when a notice concerns a lot division that cities are often required to approve under middle housing rules.
The bill would increase the radius for required notice from 100 feet to at least 300 feet and require additional information in the notice, including whether approval would trigger a traffic study and how the jurisdiction determined infrastructure sufficiency under the middle housing code. Brad Dennis, chair of the North Albany Neighborhood Association, testified in favor of SB 737 and described the local context: a 22-unit approval that later became an 80-townhouse proposal and concerns that the city’s 100-foot notice radius left most residents uninformed.
Dennis said that because the site covered several acres few neighbors lived within 100 feet of the project and that multiple large projects that individually avoid traffic studies could cumulatively overwhelm local roads and a bottleneck bridge across the Willamette River. The committee closed the public hearing on SB 737; no committee vote was recorded during the session.
Ending: Supporters framed the bill as a targeted communications fix to reduce surprise and confusion when middle housing lot divisions change project scale and to clarify whether traffic analysis has been performed.
