From laura.buhl at state.or.us Fri Sep 2 19:35:22 2016 From: laura.buhl at state.or.us (Buhl, Laura) Date: Sat, 3 Sep 2016 02:35:22 +0000 Subject: [LandUse-News] Land Use News for September 2, 2016 Message-ID: Welcome to this week's roundup of the Land Use News! The Land Use News is an electronic news clipping service provided by the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development (DLCD). Land Use News emphasizes local reporting and commentary on land use in Oregon and other states. The links to copyrighted news stories in Land Use News are not archived by DLCD, and the archiving policies of these sources vary. The stories, if available, reside on the site of the original news source. Please direct requests for archived stories, or permission to reprint them, to the original news source. Past Land Use News weekly e-mails may be found here: http://listsmart.osl.state.or.us/pipermail/landuse-news Anyone may subscribe, unsubscribe, or change their subscription to the free service by visiting this site: http://listsmart.osl.state.or.us/mailman/listinfo/landuse-news. ________________________________ Destination Huntington Ontario Argus Observer -Dwindling area becomes boom town- Huntington is bustling with activity. Life in the small town had slowed over the years. It was bypassed by the freeway and the trains that still go through town but rarely stop, and the population eventually declined. But that has changed with laws that now allow use of medical and recreational marijuana. Marijuana Tourism Comes To Bend Bend Bulletin -Dispensary tour could be icing on the cake- Look for an open-sided, six-seat, electric touring car making its way along Bend streets starting in September. It will mark the advent of marijuana tourism, the next phase in a town already a destination for skiers, beer drinkers and bicyclists. Reedsport Boatbuilders Get Big State Grant Medford Mail Tribune A company that builds commercial fishing boats in Reedsport netted a $3.4 million grant from the state this month, positioning itself to expand its workforce by 50 percent in the coming years. Fred Wahl Marine Construction, currently the biggest private employer in the coastal city, won the grant through the Oregon Department of Transportation and its ConnectOregon program. Its award was the second highest monetary award after an $8.3 million grant given to Union Pacific for railroad improvements. 3 Reasons Why New FAA Drone Rules Could Help Oregon Soar Oregon Business Journal While some questions still remain about the new Federal Aviation Administration rules on commercial drone flights, Oregon operators have long been ready for the edicts to take effect. That's because Oregon emerged as an early hub candidate as the unmanned aerial system began taking shape. 8 Takeaways From 'Draining Oregon': The Big Water Giveaway Portland Oregonian Something seemed amiss in Harney County last summer, long before it became the scene of January's armed standoff at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. After years of liberally granting access to underground water across the high desert of southeastern Oregon, the state abruptly told irrigators it would accept no new applications to pump wells. Bend Parkway Driven More Like a Freeway Bend Bulletin -Why its speed limit is 45 mph, which often goes ignored- The speed limit on the Bend Parkway is 45 mph but is almost universally ignored. Peter Murphy, spokesman for the Oregon Department of Transportation in Bend, recalled a fellow motorist who rolled down his window and shouted at him while passing. Nobody drives 45 on the parkway Lane Transit District Receives $3 Million Grant For Santa Clara Park-and-Ride Station Eugene Register-Guard - Springfield rail company, Eugene Airport and city of Florence fail to get money from the state pot - Lane Transit District has received a multimillion-dollar boost from the state to fund its planned Santa Clara park-and-ride bus station. Oregon's Road Usage Charge Program Gets Grant To Expand Salem Statesman Journal The Oregon Department of Transportation has received a $2.1 million federal grant to expand its pilot pay-by-the-mile program. Local Residents Get Their Say on Transportation Issues at Public Forum Medford Mail Tribune -Bicycle lanes, sustainability and earthquakes among the topics- Local residents expressed a variety of views and some concerns Wednesday evening on transportation projects in Southern Oregon, from the merits of bicycle lanes to infrastructure improvements to the threat from a major earthquake to the Interstate 5 viaduct. Railroad Project Gets Green Light Ontario Argus Observer A railroad project in Malheur County made the final cut in late August for transportation funding. Two Malheur County transportation projects were on the final list of prioritized projects that had been recommended for funding through the sixth round of ConnectOregon. Historic Properties Get Little Protection Portland Tribune The city has taken note: Portlanders are interested in local history. A rise in demolitions and debate over local historic designations is putting pressure on the city to change its preservation policy. (Note: Discussion of State law) Sprawl, Density and Character Portland Tribune - How Peggy Moretti and Restore Oregon want to juggle the big three - Peggy Moretti is still steamed about the imminent demise of the Workmen's Temple downtown. The demolition delay on the Ancient Order of United Workmen Temple at Southwest Second Avenue and Taylor Street, to give it its full name, is past. So too the one for the Prohibition-era Albion Hotel, home to the Lotus Cardroom until that bar closed last week. The morbid and mortal toll of sprawl: The "elephant in the living room" of rising and preventable US traffic deaths and injuries is government-funded roads in drive-only places. Public Square - a CNU Journal The roads built to support sprawl, designed to modern safety standards, are contributors to the majority of US traffic deaths and injuries. A study by Garrick and Marshall of 24 small-to-medium-sized California cities highlights this issue dramatically. Twelve of these cities are mostly built on pre-1950 street grids. Those cities have less than one-third the traffic deaths per capita as the other 12 cities, with modern thoroughfare networks. The link between parking and housing City Observatory Generally, parking is thought of as a transportation and urban design issue, involving tradeoffs between easing access to a place by car while potentially imposing greater social costs by discouraging other modes and, sometimes, degrading the pedestrian environment and spreading out neighborhoods and entire cities. . . . But increasingly, parking is also understood as a housing issue-in particular, because of the near-ubiquitous laws that require new housing developments to include off-street parking. When Cities Force Developers to Widen Roads, Everyone Loses Streetsblog USA It's a common practice for cities to make developers widen a street when they put up a new building. The thinking is that development creates car trips that must be accommodated with more asphalt. But new research suggests these policies don't help anyone. The main effect is to increase the cost of building, making housing less affordable. Automatic street widening: Evidence from a highway dedication law Journal of Transportation and Land Use Abstract: Cities often require developers to widen streets or make other transportation improvements to account for the traffic impacts of new building. This article examines one parcel-level traffic mitigation law in depth-the highway dedication ordinance of the city of Los Angeles. I first show that the law emerged from a combination of happenstance and political and fiscal constraints, not from persuasive evidence it would be effective. I then show that the traffic predictions underlying the law are often inaccurate, and that, in fact, the standards the law is based on are in some ways unverifiable. Thus the law likely does little to reduce congestion and probably impedes housing development. Finally, I argue that the law persists precisely because its desired outcome is hard to verify: Without measurable goals, planners fall back on a measurable process. Parcel-level traffic mitigation becomes an exercise not in reducing traffic but in ensuring that developers carry out mitigations, regardless of whether those mitigations are effective. (Full Text) Got an Affordable Housing Crisis? Save the Cheap Housing You Already Have: Researchers at the Urban Institute make the case for preservation instead of construction. The Atlantic: CityLab Constructing more housing is important (albeit not easy), but we can't just build our way out of the problem: In some cases, the cheaper, better option is to simply preserve the existing affordable housing stock, instead of allowing it to get swept away by development. Portland Officials Can't Say What's Next For Right 2 Dream Too Portland Oregonian A cloud of uncertainty descended Tuesday over the future of Portland's enduring tent camp, Right 2 Dream Too, as the state's land-use board ruled city officials abused local zoning rules to justify a controversial plan to move campers to the Central Eastside. In a damning rebuke, the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals blocked the long-awaited move and sent city officials scrambling to figure out what comes next - not just for Right 2 Dream Too, about to start its sixth year on a prominent Chinatown corner, but potentially a large-scale homeless shelter proposed by developer Homer Williams. Portland Housing Bureau: Scofflaw Short-Term Rentals Have Cost City 1,000 Affordable Homes Willamette Week - An estimated value of Portland's affordable homes lost to short-term rentals is $380 million, says bureau director Kurt Creager.- Portland has lost 1,000 previously affordable homes to short term rentals operating outside city rules, according to an estimate from the Portland Housing Bureau. HUD Homeless Count Up Salem Statesman Journal The number of people homeless in Marion and Polk counties increased in the past year, at the same time local activists are reporting a number of shelters shuttering their doors and warning that the increase of 125 people under-represents the extent of the problem. Housing: New Frontier for Oregon Health Care Plans KTVZ Bend -'Housing is ... the foundation for all health outcomes'- Health-care plans in Oregon are considering a new aspect of people's health and well-being: stable housing. Care providers are looking to tackle a big issue in Oregon, which ranks in the top five for rates of homelessness. The nonprofit CareOregon is supporting this new task by giving grants to organizations that provide affordable and stable housing. Hope Village is looking to become a 'tiny-house' community for the homeless population in Medford. A study of Portland's homeless population by the Center for Outcomes Research and Education found that when people moved into stable housing, Medicaid costs dropped 12 percent and emergency care dropped 18 percent. TINY HOUSE PROJECT: Hope Village supporters get new hope Medford Mail Tribune Almost 100 supporters of a tiny house project for the homeless received some hope Thursday when the Medford City Council agreed to look at another property for the controversial project. The council is looking at locating the tiny house community, known as Hope Village, on a city-owned service yard at 821 N. Columbus Ave., at McAndrews Road. Bunn and Councilor Mike Zarosinski worked on a compromise solution to look at the service center property and to change Medford's code in order to create a process to address these sorts of proposals in the future. Grants Target Regional Affordable Housing Portland Tribune Sometimes it seems like the affordable housing crisis is happening only in Portland. Surveys consistently show housing costs in the city are increasing faster than practically anyplace else in the country. Mayor Charlie Hales and the rest of the City Council have been in crisis mode for months, approving a Housing State of Emergency last October, significantly increasing city funding for affordable housing projects and placing a $258.4 million bond measure on the November ballot to build 1,300 more affordable apartment units. More Farmland Rented by Established Operators Capital Press A survey of U.S. farmland ownership shows much of it is farmed by people who don't own it, young farmers have trouble gaining access to it and 10 percent of it is expected to change hands by 2019. Farmland ownership, tenure, and transfer have important implications for land accessibility, particularly for young and beginning farmers, according to a report summary provided by the USDAs Economic Research Service. Crook County Rejects Plan That Aimed For Local Control Over Public Land Bend Bulletin -County leaders suggest resource group rework plan and try again- Crook County commissioners at a special meeting on Tuesday voted 2-1 to reject a local groups natural resource plan that sought to give the county more control over public lands. Before a packed house of more than 50 people, County Judge Mike McCabe and Commissioner Ken Fahlgren voted for rejection after presentations from federal and state agency officials. City Manager Proposes Progressive Solution to Wastewater Problem Blue Mountain Eagle John Day City Manager Nick Green has proposed an innovative solution to upgrading the citys out-of-date wastewater treatment plant. Green has proposed a hydroponic treatment plant that would use reclaimed wastewater to help grow cash crops to offset the cost of the facility. Oregon Poet Laureate Advising Celilo Park Project Hood River News Oregon's Poet Laureate, Elizabeth Woody, will be working with an advisory group to develop interpretive elements at a project planned at Celilo Park, east of The Dalles. Confluence, an art and education nonprofit, has been meeting with an advisory committee of native elders and cultural experts to gather stories and histories about Celilo Falls. The group has also been gathering stories through individual interviews with elders along the Columbia River. Laura Buhl, AICP, CNU-A | Land Use & Transportation Planner Planning Services Division | Transportation & Growth Management Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development 635 Capitol Street NE, Suite 150 | Salem, OR 97301-2540 Direct: (503) 934-0073 | Main: (503) 373-0050 laura.buhl at state.or.us | www.oregon.gov/LCD/TGM -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: