Keizer staff outlines 2025 planning work plan; flags climate-friendly areas, parking reform and TSP update

City planning staff laid out a multi-item work plan for 2025 at the Jan. 8 Keizer Planning Commission meeting, telling commissioners the work will center on implementing state rules and local priorities, and on several longer-range planning efforts that could return as code or comprehensive-plan amendments.

Staff said top items for the year include adopting climate‑friendly and equitable-communities (CFA) designations and associated code amendments, participating in a regional scenario-planning process that targets transportation-related greenhouse‑gas reductions, and parking‑reform work tied to state rules. Staff noted they have requested and received extensions on some deadlines; for example, the parking-reform text amendments are targeted for a May–June timeframe given state deadlines and coordination needs.

Other work items staff flagged:

- Walkable-design standards and a code audit to align Keizer code with recent Oregon Administrative Rules (staff said a consultant-audit and grant-funded technical assistance are underway). - Middle-housing-related tweaks (lighting, screening/buffering and street-facing elevation standards) to address issues that have arisen as middle-housing projects are built. - Clarifying code language for transitional and supportive housing models so operators and funders have clearer regulatory expectations. - Floodplain ("Pickham/Pickums") impacts and a case‑by‑case approach; staff said they are monitoring legal guidance and may need code updates depending on outcomes. - Anticipated master-plan applications for specific large properties (staff said Area B and a River Road property remain possible master-plan items this year). - A Transportation System Plan (TSP) update; staff said state funding and regional scenario planning resources are becoming available and kickoff work is beginning.

Staff encouraged commissioners to suggest additional items for the work plan and to stay engaged as these projects move forward. "Please feel free to reach out to myself or to Dina. Let us know. Put things on our radar if we need to bring something up at a planning commission meeting," staff said. Several commissioners noted the workload from 2024 and supported the staged approach to the 2025 tasks.

Staff said many of these items are interdependent — for example, regional scenario planning and the TSP update both influence multimodal and parking policy — and that some code amendments will be presented as text amendments to the commission for review and recommendation to council. Several items noted grant or state technical assistance; staff said they will return with timelines and draft code language when ready.