State Rules and Guidelines

House Bill 2001 required the City of Lake Oswego and other “Large Cities” (Portland metro area cities, and cities with more than 25,000 residents) to allow all middle housing types in areas zoned for detached single-family dwellings. This entailed nearly all of the residential zones in the City, as shown in green on the map below:

The bill also outlined that cities may regulate siting and design of middle housing. However, cities were not permitted to adopt standards or requirements that result in unreasonable cost or delay in the development of middle housing.

The Department of Land Conservation and Development (DLCD) adopted minimum standards for compliance with HB 2001 (Division 46) as well as a Middle Housing Model Code in December 2020. Though these standards were relatively prescriptive in defining what cities can and cannot do, they did provide some flexibility for the City to make decisions within certain parameters - as long as the proposed changes did not result in "unreasonable cost or delay" for middle housing development.

This means that the City could:

• Apply the same minimum lot size standard that applies to single-family housing (except not to townhouses);
• Apply the same design standards that apply to single-family housing; and
• Apply the same dimensional standards (maximum height, setbacks, lot coverage, maximum floor area, etc.) that apply to single-family housing.

According to Division 46, the City generally could not:

• Limit middle housing to a small area within residential zones;
• Require significantly larger lots for middle housing than single-family housing;
• Apply more restrictive design or dimensional standards to middle housing than single-family housing; or
• Require more than one parking space per middle housing unit.

Because Lake Oswego’s prior development code did not comply with Division 46, the City amended its Community Development Code on June 7, 2022, in order to comply with the bill.

Erik Olson, Long-Range Planning Manager, (503) 697-6524 or email.