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Governor's office and advocates lay out package of housing changes in omnibus bill HB 4037
Summary
HB 4037 would expand self-certification for building plans, remove public hearings for clear-and-objective review applications, shorten review timelines for repeat applications, and streamline state land disposition; supporters said changes accelerate housing delivery while some technical details will be worked out in follow-up.
Aurora Shuttle, a housing policy analyst from the governor's office, and Matthew Schawbold presented House Bill 4037 as a package of technical and substantive reforms designed to speed housing production.
Shuttle said sections 1–11 make technical changes to the moderate income revolving loan program. The bill would expand building-plan self-certification beyond conventional light-frame construction to additional engineered or non-prescriptive designs, while maintaining inspection requirements. "This is a way that they are able to avoid the local or state administered building plan review process, and it can just really expedite the development timeline," Shuttle said.
On land-use process changes, Shuttle explained section 17 would require that housing development applications routed through the clear-and-objective review pathway be processed without a public hearing; written notice to nearby property owners would still be required. Sections 18 and 19 would shorten review timelines for substantially similar applications to 90 days (from 120) and set a two-year limit for the comparison standard.
Shuttle and Schawbold also described clarifications to the state-lands disposition process to reduce confusion about who may buy state parcels for housing and in what order. Bill Van Vliet (NOAH) supported changes to CDFI eligibility and adjustments to a predevelopment loan fund that would shorten affordability periods, add for-sale housing as eligible, and raise maximum loan sizes from $500,000 to $1,000,000 to encourage program use.
John VanLandingham (Oregon Law Center/Lane County Legal Aid) spoke to section 21, which addresses landlord and tenant rights after destructive natural disasters; he described dash-1 clarifications that preserve a landlord's ability to use a 24-hour termination and accounting for pre-existing debts in certain circumstances.
Shuttle said the governor's office and partners would be available to answer questions; the committee continued the public hearing on HB 4037 to a future date, leaving written testimony open for 48 hours. No vote was taken at this session.
Ending: The committee continued the HB 4037 public hearing to next Tuesday and adjourned the meeting for the day.
