From sadie.carney at state.or.us Fri Jan 18 17:40:23 2019 From: sadie.carney at state.or.us (Carney, Sadie) Date: Sat, 19 Jan 2019 01:40:23 +0000 Subject: [LandUse-News] Land Use News: January 18, 2019 Message-ID: <54b68451d5664ae8ac220acee375135d@dlcd.state.or.us> Welcome to this 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, agency announcements 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. ________________________________ Latest town hall discusses scope of housing crisis St. Helens Chronicle Fueling the crisis, according to the summary, is a long term drop in ratio between incomes and housing costs. Oregon's high in-migration intensifies these trends. As applied, Oregon land use laws, particularly in rural areas, add costs that help make housing unaffordable and, in the meantime, federal disinvestment in traditional housing supports further burden housing affordability. "Without a change in direction, the county housing crisis will only worsen over time," Brown said. Downtown prepares for next round of remodels, projects Herald and News In 2017, downtown Klamath Falls grant programs helped make new upstairs apartments for medical students a reality. Once again, the Klamath Falls Downtown Association (KFDA) is getting ready for another round of applications. This time they'll have at least $145,000 to distribute toward front-end building redesigns, clean-ups and additional upstairs housing plans. Welcome to Tax Breaklandia Bloomberg Portland is about to see a flurry of construction because of a provision in the 2017 tax overhaul that led to the creation of more than 8,700 "opportunity zones" across the country-areas that, in theory, have been ignored by investors and need generous tax breaks to catch up. But Oregon did an audacious thing: It selected the entire downtown of its largest city to be eligible for the law's suite of benefits. Washington may rope in ranchers to fight rural wildfires - as Oregon and Idaho already do NW News Network Ranchers in remote corners of the West have formed all-volunteer crews and gotten permission to fight range fires when professional firefighters are far away. These "neighbors-helping-neighbors" provide initial attack - and consequently don't suffer the helpless feeling of having to stand by while valuable forage for grazing burns. When the authorities arrive to take over the locals can continue to help out, but they would not be in command of the fire. State of Oregon finalizes funding list for Safe Routes to School projects BikePortland.org Region 1 (which covers all of Portland) will receive $3.39 million for four projects that will make it easier and safer for kids to walk and bike to class. ODOT awarded nearly $16 million for 24 projects statewide. Demand for these funds far outstripped supply as the agency received a total of 112 project applications requesting a total of $85 million. State board passes rules for Oregon Agricultural Heritage Program Capital Press The Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board has approved new administrative rules for a voluntary state grant program to protect and preserve working farms and ranches. Established by lawmakers in 2017, the Oregon Agricultural Heritage Program was conceived to address the increasing fragmentation and conversion of farmland - an issue that simultaneously threatens natural resources such as fish and wildlife habitat supported by agriculture, officials say. Everything You Need to Know About a Rent Control Bill That Oregon's Power Brokers in Salem ... Willamette Week Senate Bill 608, which would limit rent increases and bar no-cause evictions after a tenant's first year in a building, has powerful sponsorship from House Speaker Tina Kotek (D-Portland) and Senate Majority Leader Ginny Burdick (D-Portland). On Jan. 14, the bill received the endorsement of Gov. Kate Brown. Hundreds Rally Outside Final Pipeline Hearing KLCC FM Public Radio Some people showed up in support of the project. They said it would provide well-paying jobs in a part of the state that has often lagged behind economically. Josh Zimmer of Silverton said fellow members of the plumbers union he's a part of could benefit from the pipeline and terminal. "I don't know that I would be working on that project, per se. But I know that a lot of brothers and sisters from our local and other locals, it would give them good employment," said Zimmer. Oregon 10-year plan aims to reduce energy burden, improve efficiency Utility Dive Oregon will turn to energy efficiency to address the disparity in energy burden and affordability for low-income residents, but officials say efficiency alone will not be enough - the task will require collaboration among multiple agencies, funding streams and stakeholders. The state's 10-year plan was announced last week by the Oregon Housing and Community Services (OHCS), the Oregon Department of Energy and the Oregon Public Utility Commission. Central Oregon transit service looks to future KTVZ Cascades East Transit is kicking off a series of six open houses to find out what Central Oregonians want to see in the future of transportation. Andrea Breault is a senior transit planner for CET. She said Tuesday public houses are incredibly helpful when it comes to development. "I would say public input is probably the most important, because those are the folks we want to take the service. And so hearing where their needs are is obviously essential to the entire plan," Breault said. The new master plan looks ahead to 2040 and would go into effect in 2020. Government shutdown taking toll on wildfire preparations Seymour Tribune PORTLAND, Ore. - Just two months after a wildfire wiped out Paradise, California, officials are gearing up for this year's fire season and fear the government shutdown could make it even more difficult than one of the worst in history. The winter months are critical for wildfire managers who use the break from the flames to prepare for the next onslaught, but much of that effort has ground to a halt on U.S. land because employees are furloughed. Shutdown Cancels Federal Wildfire Training In Oregon, Washington OPB News >From aviation contracts to deals with vendors and even seasonal hiring, the partial federal government shutdown is cutting into planning and preparation for the 2019 wildfire season in the Northwest. According to Washington Public Lands Commissioner Hilary Franz, one training for firefighting managers has already been canceled, because the federal government has been partially shuttered. New trade group director jumps on the 'solar coaster' Portland Business Journal Oregon's solar trade group has a new leader, and she's got a lot on her plate. OSEIA says residential solar installations took a hit when an Oregon tax credit expired last year. Reviving a state incentive for residential installations is a key priority in 2018. Oregon could effectively ban solar farms, but first a bunch of new ones ... Statesman Journal The Marion County Commissioners decided in March 2018 to stop taking applications for solar farms. After a contentious commission meeting where dozens of people on both sides of the issue expressed complaints, the commission placed what was termed a moratorium on future solar farms. "We've taken the position that no more solar fields, no more solar things come to Marion County in EFU land," Cameron said. In April 2018, Yamhill County opted to no longer allow solar farms, a move Polk County had previously taken. Commissioners to vote on 94-acre farm-land solar project Herald and News "It would be setting a dangerous precedent if Klamath County approved this exception because it would allow others in Klamath County to pursue projects on high-value farm land," Miller said. "It's not renewable, it's precious, and once it's taken out of use it's gone." How the shutdown is jeopardizing housing for rural Americans NBCNews.com The Mitchells are among the hundreds of thousands of families in rural America whose homes and prospective homes are being threatened by the closure of the USDA. The agency's rural affordable housing programs have a low profile inside the USDA even when the government is fully operational. Now they have fallen by the wayside as a skeletal staff has struggled to keep the USDA's core initiatives afloat since the partial government shutdown began. Adirondack advocates seek smarter growth plans Adirondack Explorer In time, though, as more homesteads were carved out of the forest and more roads and driveways wound toward them, it became clear to conservationists that the spread amounted to something like rural sprawl. The distance-if not distant enough-actually multiplied the effects of each structure. Ecologists found that spreading out instead of clustering and preserving connected open spaces discouraged wildlife migrations and evicted species that need a buffer. Affordable housing: Microsoft pledges $500M to tackle Seattle crisis OregonLive.com "A healthy business needs to be part of a healthy community," Microsoft President Brad Smith and Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood wrote in a blog post announcing the financial commitment. "And a healthy community must have housing within the economic reach of every part of the community, including the many dedicated people who provide the vital services on which we all rely." Smoke from Wildfires May Increase Violent Crime and Asthma Attacks Inside Science News Service In three of the four case studies, people went to the hospital for asthma significantly more often on days when wildfire smoke was present. In Oregon, the researchers also had data on inhaler refills, and they saw that people filled inhaler prescriptions more often on smoky days. In their country-wide analysis, the researchers found that admissions to intensive care units were significantly higher over the five days following an increase in smoke levels. People across the U.S. also tended to commit more violent crimes (including domestic violence) when there was wildlife smoke in their area, although the reasons for this aren't clear, said O'Dell. [cid:image003.jpg at 01D4AF54.E33286C0] Sadie K Carney Policy Analyst & Communications Manager | Director's Office Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development 635 Capitol Street NE, Suite 150 | Salem, OR 97301-2540 Direct: 503-934-0036 | Cell: 503-383-6648 | Main: 503-373-0050 sadie.carney at state.or.us | www.oregon.gov/LCD -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image003.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 2695 bytes Desc: image003.jpg URL: