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Consultants: Woodburn code fails to meet many new state housing requirements; 26 statutes reviewed
Summary
Cascadia Partners told the commission it reviewed 26 state statutes against the WDO: the code "complies with 1, partially complies with 6, does not comply with 15," and codification is recommended for four more. Consultants said the result is largely a response to many new state laws rather than a failure of prior local drafting.
Cascadia Partners presented the statutory-compliance tally for Woodburn's development ordinance and urged the commission to view the exercise as legal housekeeping driven by recent state action. "Out of those 26 state statutes, the ordinance complies with 1 of them, partially complies with 6 of them, does not comply with 15 of them, and then codification is recommended for the remaining 4," Tara said.
Consultants and staff explained the result reflects an unusual level of recent legislative activity in Oregon on housing law, not necessarily negligence in local code-writing. Mary Phillips and Jamin Kimbell said many jurisdictions across the state are facing similar updates. Staff added that even before local code changes are adopted, the city must apply the new statutory standards when developers invoke them, which is why codifying the updates now matters.
The consultants recommended a prioritized action plan that will convert required statutory provisions into codified language and identify optional local cleanups that improve usability and clarity.
