Tight budgets, rapid growth, an affordable housing shortage, and the mounting impacts of climate change make it vital to prioritize policies and investments that maximize the beneficial outcomes our Central Oregon communities need to adapt and thrive.

With Oregon’s 2025 legislative session underway, our Cities & Towns team is focused on two key priorities: affordable housing and transportation.

LandWatch’s legislative advocacy this session focuses on approaches that deliver more diverse and affordable housing options within our cities and create more multimodal transportation options for biking, walking, rolling, and taking transit.

Central Oregon’s cities and towns have an opportunity to grow in intentional ways that make them more climate-resilient, promote thriving mixed-use development, afford better housing and transportation options for all, and keep nature nearby and in our neighborhoods — in other words, Complete Communities.

That’s why we want to see our elected leaders focus on approaches that help catalyze and support more affordable, infill housing options close to amenities and services with safe, convenient transportation options. Doing so will help deliver more of the vibrant, climate resilient, wildfire-safe, Complete Communities Oregonians need and want.

By the end of this year’s session, we want our elected leaders to:

Establish state programmatic funding for housing-related infrastructure ($100M at a minimum) within cities.
Deliver a geographically equitable transportation package with sustainable, well-funded multimodal programs.
Understand and support the acute, unique housing and transportation infrastructure needs of Central Oregon — the fastest growing region in the state.
Uphold and strengthen key pillars of our land use system, which is foundational to Oregon’s livability and a powerful tool to help us tackle some of the most pressing challenges of our times, including climate change, wildfire, housing, and growth.

From now until the first high desert spring days signal the end of the legislative session in June, we’ll be deeply engaged in the essential work that will ensure we’re creating a more livable future for Central Oregon: Working closely with our elected officials and the Governor’s office, crafting policy and funding recommendations, participating in and leading advocacy coalitions, and rallying our community to submit comments and deliver public testimony.

Below, we’ve detailed some of the key legislative opportunities on our radar in Salem this year that will move Complete Communities forward in our cities and towns east of the Cascades.

A Path Forward for Housing

Finding solutions to Oregon’s housing shortage continues to be a key focus for Governor Kotek and the legislature, and there are a lot of housing-related bills this legislative session.

LandWatch is closely tracking a number of key concepts and bills right now, including:

1) State Infrastructure Funding

Infrastructure costs and land readiness are among the biggest barriers to building the housing we need. Housing development depends on roads, bike lanes, sidewalks, sewer, water, and other utilities, and those costs cannot be borne by developers or cities alone. Statewide, city infrastructure needs for housing, transportation, water and sewer top $12 billion. In many cases, the infrastructure needs and expenses of a project lead to delays or cancellations, or stagnation of development in entire areas of cities — despite sustained demand for housing.

LandWatch is focused on: Establishing a state level infrastructure funding program that supports building more affordable, middle income, and infill housing and Complete Communities. We anticipate a bill being introduced on this soon with an initial funding level around $100 million. We’d like to see this number increased.

2) Affordable, Middle & Infill Housing (HB 2138)

*Cottage cluster developments are cost-effective and utilize land effectively. Credit: Sightline Institute*

The development of middle housing brings more housing options to the market, providing residents with more housing choice. This supports the diversity of housing needs in every community, based on residents’ ages, household sizes, household incomes, and location and lifestyle preferences.

Focusing on infill development uses our urban land more efficiently and reduces the pressure to sprawl into our neighboring farm and forest lands. Infill development also utilizes infrastructure more efficiently by using the water and sewer systems and roads we already have, rather than building costly, brand new infrastructure.

LandWatch is focused on: Advancing approaches that remove barriers and provide tools and resources that will help build more affordable, middle income, and infill housing.

3) Affordable Housing Preservation & Innovation

Many older homes and buildings that currently provide affordable options for folks need repair and upgrades. Caring for existing buildings is more cost efficient than new construction and keeps people in the homes, schools, and communities they know. Advancing innovative housing types is another approach that allows more housing options to be sited and built more quickly.

LandWatch is focused on: Lending support to measures that help preserve existing affordable housing. We expect a bill to be introduced on this issue soon. We’re also working to advance innovative housing types like modular and mass timber that allow more diverse housing types to be sited and built quickly and at lower costs (HB 3145).

4) More Efficient Urbanization to Meet Housing Needs (SB 73)

Spot zoning is a practice where, on a case-by-case basis, farm and forest lands in both very rural areas and near Urban Growth Boundaries are rezoned to allow for inappropriate, piecemeal (often luxury) development. This practice fragments open space and takes away cities’ ability to pick the most appropriate, efficient places to urbanize that will provide future needed housing and prevent unnecessary sprawl.

LandWatch is focused on: Putting an end to spot zoning to keep rural working farms and forests intact and preserve urbanization options directly adjacent to our existing Urban Growth Boundaries. SB 73 has been introduced and we expect a hearing in mid-February or early March.

Transportation Bills for a Multimodal Future

Our other key focus this session is Oregon’s statewide transportation package. Complex packages like this take the entire session to pull together. Legislators will be working to find solutions to gaps in funding that will maintain our existing system and operations while also investing in a multimodal system for all users.

LandWatch is proud to be part of Move Oregon Forward, a large statewide coalition of over 40 conservation, climate, active transportation and environmental justice organizations working together to ensure the new transportation package delivers on geographic equity and sustainable, well funded multimodal programs that include walking, biking, and transit.

Currently, there are a large number of 'placeholder' bills related to transportation, as many pieces and elements that will ultimately comprise a transportation package are still being discussed and formed. Placeholder bills are introduced early in session and then, via amendments or a 'gut and stuff', can become key policy bills that can run the gamut from great to awful. Some just fade into the sunset. For now, we're watching all these bills to see what (if anything) they become and will be ready to advocate accordingly.

To equitably and efficiently deliver a balanced, sustainable, and multimodal transportation system to Oregonians, we are urging legislators to prioritize:

1) Diversifying and Increasing Equitable and Sustainable Revenue Sources

Fair and sustainable funding incentivizes cleaner, safer transportation choices. It assigns burdens and benefits equitably and reinvests in the comprehensive transportation system we need. That means considering revenue tools that:

Charge more for heavy, oversized, or high emission vehicles.
Charge based on the amount someone drives.
Reduce relative costs for low-income people and account for geographic differences, including rural and tribal communities.
Raise funds that aren’t required to be used on roads.
Raise or dedicate funds for a specific purpose, program, or project.

2) Increasing Funding for Safety, Mobility and Multimodal Funds, Programs & Projects

How we increase revenue is critical — and so is what we spend that revenue on. It’s time to prioritize investments in and significantly increase funding for essential, oversubscribed multimodal safety and mobility funds and programs. These include: the Statewide Transportation Improvement Fund (STIF), Safe Routes to School, Great Streets, and Oregon Community Paths.

Robust, sustained funding for these programs at the State level can make a world of difference for local projects. Central Oregon’s transit system is in dire need of additional funding via STIF to sufficiently serve our community. There are also key, transformative transportation projects in the works that will help us meet our transportation, housing and climate goals, such as the Drake to Juniper Bike & Pedestrian Corridor and 3rd Street Safety and Connectivity Improvements. These local ‘game-changer’ projects — and others like them — would benefit from increased state level funding for the programs listed here.

The future Hawthorne Ave bicycle and pedestrian bridge crosses the barriers of US 97 and the railroad, and is the key feature of the Drake to Juniper bicycle and pedestrian corridor plan. Credit: City of Bend

3) Ensuring Geographic Equity in Funding & Investments

Investments and projects need to deliver real value to Oregon’s communities by supporting the streets and services we use every day. While populations and existing infrastructure are more significant in the Metro area and Willamette Valley, population growth and urbanization is most acute in Central Oregon. It is critical to strike a balance between investments on both sides of the Cascades so Central Oregon’s cities can maintain existing infrastructure, build new infrastructure on expansion lands, and upgrade existing infrastructure in infill areas to meet the growing needs of ongoing urbanization.

Advancing Complete Communities in Bend

Complete Communities follow a set of strategies that direct growth in ways that preserve livability, tackle climate change, and ensure all people have the opportunity to thrive here in Central Oregon while we protect the environment around us.

LandWatch is working to educate legislators and increase a collective understanding of Central Oregon’s unique and critical role in helping the state meet our climate and housing goals. As the fastest growing region in Oregon — and with the City of Bend leading on many key climate, equity, and housing initiatives, rules, and outcomes — our infrastructure needs are unique and significant. There are multiple critical infrastructure projects the City of Bend is highlighting this session - and we’ll be working to further elevate these needs and align momentum for Central Sewer (a key housing-related infrastructure project in the Bend Central District), as well as multimodal transportation projects in Bend, including the Drake to Juniper Route via the Hawthorne Bridge.

More Cities & Towns Updates

Nov 7, 2024

Act Local Challenge!

Nov 7, 2024

There are many ways to contribute to your community as an individual, with a group, or through local government. There are larger commitments, as well as simple actions, formal and informal, and all of it adds up to a more Complete Communities in this place we call home. So, how might you act locally? We’ve compiled a list of ideas!