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Council declines immediate update to Molalla housing needs analysis; staff outlines grants and a later UGB timeline
Summary
Planning Manager Dan Zender told the commission City Council chose not to order a new housing needs analysis now; staff described how a $115,000 DLCD grant and an ODOT TGM grant could support a new HNA and UGB expansion that would likely push adoption to 2028–29 if pursued.
Planning Manager Dan Zender briefed the commission on Feb. 4 about whether the city should produce a new housing needs analysis (HNA) to update population estimates and housing goals. Zender said the City Council met twice and "elected to continue with the process as it was going to not go back and update the new HNA." He advised commissioners on the implications of that choice.
Zender explained that if the city had completed a new HNA under Oregon’s updated rules, it would have required a new housing production strategy and a more robust buildable lands inventory; he also said the city could have used a $115,000 DLCD grant to evaluate Goal 14 practicability and a subsequent TGM (Transportation Growth Management) grant through ODOT to support UGB and transportation planning. "We would have used the $115,000 from DLCD to produce a new H&A and buildable lands inventory," Zender said.
Under the scenario Zender outlined, producing a new HNA would have delayed the UGB expansion timeline: the kickoff would follow completion of the updated analyses and could shift adoption and related TGM and TSP work into 2028–29 rather than the earlier 2026 target under the previously adopted schedule. He said the current council direction was to proceed with the adopted HNA and readopt the housing production strategy as planned in February, and that staff will bring updated materials to council on Feb. 25.
The commission did not take a formal vote on whether to direct staff to pursue grant applications; instead the session was an informational update explaining the trade-offs between updating technical work now versus preserving the planned schedule.
