Eugene planners propose microvillage housing and two tax‑exemption incentives to boost production and deep affordability

City of Eugene planning staff on Wednesday presented their 2025 community engagement summary and outlined two housing actions intended to accelerate housing production and create deeply affordable options.

At the Eugene Planning Commission meeting, Terry Harding, principal planner with the city’s Community Planning and Design team, and Leah Rausch, planner, described a proposed microvillage housing type and Amanda D’Souza, development program manager in Community Development, outlined two proposed 10‑year property‑tax exemption incentives that would be enabled by state statutes for transit‑supportive multi‑unit housing.

The microvillage concept would allow small dwelling units — "essentially tiny homes," Rausch said — generally at or below about 400 square feet with a required private bathroom and a shared common building containing cooking and other service spaces. Staff proposed allowing a mix of detached and attached units and said developments would likely be required to include a minimum number of units (staff discussed roughly seven or more as a working example) plus open‑space, pedestrian circulation and basic landscaping and parking standards. Rausch said staff are also considering bonuses for units that are qualified and available to low‑income households and limited commercial uses on village sites to support resident workforce development or services.

"This type of housing is intended to meet some of Eugene’s local housing needs, especially for people with the lowest incomes," Rausch said. She added staff are designing code concepts that would allow microvillage housing in residential and commercial zones and would avoid industrial zones.

Amanda D’Souza told commissioners staff propose two new 10‑year property‑tax exemptions to fill two gaps in the city’s existing housing programs: one targeted to moderate‑income housing for households earning roughly 60–120% of area median income (AMI) and a second to encourage market‑rate dense housing in core commercial and downtown centers. The transit‑supportive exemption would be limited to properties within a quarter‑mile of a fixed‑route transit line under state rules staff cited.

"Supporting the creation of more and a variety of dense housing helps achieve our housing production goals," D’Souza said, noting these exemptions align with compact‑development and climate goals and that projects would resume paying full property taxes after the exemption period expires.

Staff framed the proposals against the 2025 Oregon Housing Needs Analysis figures the city must plan to meet: Rausch said the ONA shows Eugene will need to accommodate more than 26,000 new dwelling units over 20 years and that the city should produce closer to 1,600 units per year for the next decade versus roughly 960 units per year over the last decade. She said roughly 100 subsidized units per year were built in the previous decade and that the city needs additional deeply affordable and moderate‑income units to meet projected demand.

Commissioners and staff discussed operational details and statutory constraints in follow‑up questions. Commissioners asked whether microvillage units could be owner‑occupied (staff said land‑use rules would not prohibit owner models and developers could pursue ownership structures such as community land trusts), how shared kitchens and other common facilities would be managed (staff said management and service provision are programmatic matters often handled by the project sponsor and could be required by funding agreements), and whether manufactured or prefabricated units and RV/mobile‑park precedents had been considered (staff confirmed prefabrication and modular construction are part of the conversation and noted similar models exist elsewhere).

On the incentives, staff said a quarter‑mile eligibility buffer around fixed transit routes is a statutory limitation of the state transit‑supportive exemption; staff also noted the city would need to adopt local ordinances to use the tax‑exemption tools and that council would have to approve program specifics if it chose to pursue them. D’Souza said staff are also evaluating a state revolving‑loan program for moderate‑income housing and plan additional market analysis funded in part by a Department of Land Conservation and Development grant.

Staff asked for Planning Commission feedback before presenting the same materials to City Council at an upcoming work session and for council to initiate the formal adoption process later this fall. The project team said further public hearings and formal adoption steps would follow in 2026 for plan and code amendments. Staff also said parcel‑level land‑supply studies and the buildable‑lands inventory work are underway and will inform whether the city must expand its urban growth boundary.

Youth Advisory Council members who partnered with staff on engagement presented their experience. Leila Schraff, community ambassador for the Youth Advisory Council and a Willamette High School senior, described youth participation in the project as "empowering" and urged continued in‑school and targeted outreach to underrepresented youth. Samuel, a University of Oregon freshman who served as a liaison between staff and the youth council, said the youth perspective is important because young people represent a significant share of Eugene’s population and face distinct mobility and housing constraints.

No formal vote occurred at the meeting. Staff noted next steps include a Council work session on the adoption package, a request that council initiate the public hearing/adoption process, additional commission briefings on Dec. 9, and county coordination in December with Lane County staff as co‑adopters of parts of the proposal.

Looking ahead, staff said they will refine land‑use details for microvillage housing, scope financial and market analyses for incentives, and return with ordinance language and draft code amendments as the project moves into the public‑hearing stage.