Talent planning commission reviews proposed zoning updates to encourage prefabricated and mass-timber housing

Brandon Crawford, a land-use planning consultant with MIG, presented proposed zoning-code updates to the Talent Planning Commission on Dec. 10 aimed at removing barriers to prefabricated and modular mass-timber housing and ensuring local rules align with recent state law.

Crawford said the Oregon Mass Timber Coalition received a $41,000,000 grant from the U.S. Economic Development Agency and that part of the grant funded technical assistance to 10 jurisdictions, including Talent, to revise local zoning and support community engagement. “We’re hired by the state to help a handful of cities throughout the state update their zoning codes to reduce barriers and encourage prefabricated and modular mass timber housing,” Crawford said.

The recommended updates fall into two categories, Crawford told commissioners: changes required by state legislation and additional, recommended measures to encourage prefab and mass-timber housing. He named House Bill 4064 (passed in 2022) as the primary state rule that requires cities to allow manufactured and prefabricated dwellings on lots where single-family homes are permitted and to treat those dwellings consistently with single-family definitions.

Among the state-alignment items, Crawford said the draft code would update Talent’s definitions for “manufactured dwelling” and “prefabricated dwelling” to match state definitions and would remove provisions that treated manufactured homes more restrictively than single-family houses unless a state exception applied. Crawford identified two standards historically applied only to manufactured homes: a requirement that a manufactured home include an enclosed space of at least 300 square feet and a requirement that it sit on a permanent excavated/backfilled foundation. “If the city did want specifically to require those for manufactured homes, you could just choose to require it for single-family homes as well,” Crawford said, noting a 300-square-foot threshold is rarely used by manufacturers.

In the recommended (nonmandatory) category, the consultant focused on changes to encourage accessory dwelling units (ADUs) and cottage-cluster housing because prefabricated and mass-timber products are often better suited to smaller housing types. Key recommendations presented included: - Apply the same rear-yard setbacks to ADUs that apply to alley-access garages and increase allowable lot coverage by 10% for lots that add an ADU (changing an example base lot coverage from 50% to 60% where an ADU is added). - For cottage-cluster housing, consider allowing clusters through a streamlined Type 1 process rather than Type 2 to reduce cost and review time, lower the minimum lot size in the RLD and MRD zones from 15,000 square feet to 8,000 square feet for certain cluster configurations, and increase allowable lot coverage for clusters up to 75%.

Crawford also flagged several discretionary or subjective standards in the manufactured-dwelling and cottage-cluster sections that the state’s clear-and-objective requirement does not permit, and he recommended removing or replacing those standards with clear objective language. He said the proposed changes generally align with Talent’s comprehensive-plan goals that support a range of housing types but suggested removing language that encourages only large, detached lots.

Commissioners asked several technical questions. Commissioner Alicia asked which regulations exclusively applied to manufactured homes; Crawford pointed to the two standards noted above (300 square feet and the permanent foundation) and said those are documented in the consultant memo. Alicia also asked about a Silverton example shown in the slides; Crawford said he did not have the exact address but that the graphic referenced Steelhammer Road and Reserve Street and that the example came from the Oregon Housing Choices guidebook. Staff offered to follow up by email with specific addresses and materials.

Several commissioners cautioned that the cottage-cluster ordinance needs a careful, substantive review before any reduction in minimum lot size or changes to density controls. The chair said existing cluster rules include provisions that could allow three-story buildings without corresponding infrastructure requirements (parking, walkways), and commissioners agreed such gaps should be addressed in any amendment. The commission clarified that the 15,000-square-foot threshold applies to subdivisions where individual lots are created; clusters that remain on a single legal parcel are governed by different rules.

Next steps: staff will draft revised code amendments reflecting Planning Commission feedback, schedule a Planning Commission public hearing, and then forward the matter to the City Council for its hearing. Crawford said his contract runs through March 31, 2025, and he can attend hearings scheduled before that deadline. The commission also discussed scheduling related consultant meetings in January (including a citizen advisory committee meeting and a joint Planning Commission–City Council session on Jan. 14) and additional review of the buildable lands inventory in February.

The commission did not take any formal votes on the code language during the meeting; the discussion closed with direction to return with revised draft amendments and supplemental materials for public hearing review.