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Monmouth seeks legislative approval for limited UGB land swap amid constrained lot supply
Summary
House Bill 2,647 (dash-3) would allow Monmouth to swap flood- and habitat-constrained acreage inside its UGB for 75 acres of developable land; supporters say the city lacks staff and funds to complete a standard multi-year swap, while opponents stress protecting local process and public participation.
House Bill 2,647, modified by a dash-3 amendment, would authorize a narrowly targeted urban growth boundary (UGB) land exchange for the city of Monmouth. City officials told the House Committee on Housing and Homelessness that Monmouth faces an acute shortage of serviceable lots and that the conventional UGB swap process is time consuming and expensive for smaller cities.
Cecilia Coontz, mayor of Monmouth, described the difficulty of meeting housing goals when large property owners inside the UGB decline to annex or develop land. "We have spent hundreds of hours in the last three years updating our housing needs analysis and our housing production strategy," Coontz said, and added that landowners' unwillingness to develop or sell has produced a shortage of buildable lots.
City staff said Monmouth has fewer than 10 serviceable lots available and that portions of the current UGB contain floodplain, wetlands and other environmental constraints that make development cost-prohibitive. Suzanne Jeffner, Monmouth's community and economic development director, told the committee that the alternate, expedited exchange process enacted last session (Senate Bill 1537) does not apply to Monmouth because the city is surrounded by resource lands; that exclusion left the city without the intended expedited pathway.
Under the dash-3 amendment presented to the committee, Monmouth would remove approximately 90 acres (constrained by floodplain, wetlands and a fish-bearing creek) and add about 75 acres of flatter land suitable for medium residential zoning allowing middle housing types. City witnesses and developers said the swap would shorten the timeline to produce housing; testimony cited that traditional swaps can take two or more years and incur substantial costs, with one example referencing a prior swap that cost more than $25,000 and required multiple years to complete. Lane Shetterly, Monmouth's city attorney and a former director of the Department of Land Conservation and Development, said the dash-3 amendment is narrowly tailored and that the circumstances can justify an exception to the standard process.
Opposition testimony echoed concerns heard on other site-specific swap bills. Mary Kyle McCurdy of 1,000 Friends of Oregon and Rory Isbell of Central Oregon Land Watch urged the Legislature not to bypass the local land-use review and public participation processes, noting that state law provides swap mechanisms and last year's changes to SB 1537 were intended to streamline exchanges in some situations.
The committee closed the public hearing on HB 2,647 with no committee vote. Monmouth officials asked the Legislature for a temporary, site-specific authorization to shorten the local timeline, citing limited staff capacity and an urgent local affordability problem.
