Dear John,

Unfortunately, I write to you with another Major Threat to our land use system. While we support many elements of the governor's Housing Production bill (SB 1537), including needed infrastructure funding and climate-smart housing incentives, this bill still contains core problematic issues. In its current form SB 1537 allows cities a one-time expansion of their urban growth boundaries (UGBs) by at least 75 or 150 acres.  

That’s why we need your help  in contacting your lawmakers today asking them to amend SB 1537 to remove the provision that allows large UGB expansions. Overriding land use and environmental laws will not produce the housing Oregonians need, where they need it, and with the urgency needed. 

In fact, sidestepping land use laws to expand UGBs to build primarily private-sector, high-end housing will undermine our efforts to build the housing most Oregonians need - for those of middle and lower incomes. 

We expect SB 1537 to have a hearing next week, the first week of the 2024 Short Session. Right now is our best opportunity to get this bill amended so it is no longer a Major Threat to a Healthy Oregon. Please ask your lawmakers to amend SB 1537 to remove the large UGB expansion provision. Here’s why your lawmakers needs to hear from you:

Spending limited infrastructure dollars goes further and faster inside UGBs––where we have over ten thousand acres of vacant land designated for residential use––to produce more houses than spending those dollars on new land, added at the edge. Residential lands inside UGBs are often closer to existing infrastructure or have some infrastructure in place, but need just a bit more. This means less cost and less time to get more homes on the ground than through a UGB expansion.

Building at the edge puts more people farther away from the services, stores, and jobs they need. This is bad for climate leading to more driving, while also making living at the edge much less affordable. Building at the edge also increases climate change and wildfire risks to lives, livelihoods, and homes. 
 
Building at the edge exacerbates inequality and racial and economic injustice. Housing policies should open up existing neighborhoods to those who have been racially redlined and economically excluded from areas of opportunity: those of lower incomes, people of color, Black people, indigenous people, and those on fixed incomes.

We can and must take meaningful actions to deliver the climate-friendly housing Oregonians need, where they need it, and quickly. Thankfully, we have a Governor and State Legislature poised to take historic action to pass transformative housing production legislation in 2024. We need to ensure the actions taken today are building the Oregon we want for today and the future.

Please let your lawmakers know that they should amend this Major Threat - SB 1537 - to remove the large UGB expansion provision. And then they should pass this bill.

Thank you,

Julia DeGraw

Coalition Director, OLCV