Well, since I decided to “borrow” the term as lead-in for periodic newsletter missives, the originator has exited Fox News and left the bloviating field wide open for me, so here goes.
While this year’s legislative session has rightfully focused on short- and long-term solutions to budgeting problems, there are also hundreds of other initiatives/bills that percolate under the media radar and might never be known beyond small cadres of ardent supporters and equally ardent opponents. The general public is often unaware of the details of most of these bills until it’s too late to get involved in the discussion. One such bill is HB2007, and, as is usually the case with legislation, the devil is in the details (26 pages of legalese to be exact). Summarized as an initiative to address the affordable housing crisis, which sounds innocuous enough on the surface, HB2007 actually allows the state to usurp local zoning and historical preservation management without meaningfully addressing affordability. One key concern is that it permits expansion of duplexes to all single-family zoned lots, not just on corner lots as is now allowed in Portland. Just walk by the development at Klickitat and 43rd to see an example of what this might look like plopped down throughout blocks of single-family zones. Priced at close to one million per unit, it’s anything but affordable to the vast majority of folks.
Supporters of HB2007 have deemed critics of the bill as NIMBYs (as in Not-In-My-Backyard whiners). Such trite, smug political sound bites only serve to exacerbate polarization and impede substantive discussion on balancing the need for higher density and (affordable) development, while at the same time recognizing and maintaining the value of existing homes and established neighborhoods.
More encouraging is SB871. Although amended several times, the basic intention of this enlightened legislation is intact—a strong attempt to allow cities to require responsible demolitions using best practices for mitigating the impact of hazardous dust on nearby residents. Key is how the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) meets its responsibility to establish these best practices within a timely manner. With deconstruction (i.e., recycling useable materials from demolitions) being the safest method to remove a house in an urban environment, it’s notable that Portland will host the national conference “DECON and REUSE ‘17” in September, which will bring together experts from around the country. Hopefully this will challenge our City Council to be bold and accelerate the use of deconstruction when removing homes of all ages—not just those built before 1916, as is the case today. Best to keep this issue above the radar.