MADDY POEHLEIN

Maddy Poehlein is a Planner with Winterbrook Planning. She is passionate about creating a healthier built environment through good planning and brings focus on the impacts of land use planning on environmental and public health to her role. Maddy’s specialties include executing long-range housing projects for small and medium-sized cities in Oregon, facilitating Project Advisory Committee meetings and community engagement, conducting code research to determine feasible development scenarios for clients, using spatial analysis to determine residential land capacity, and crafting development applications for private and public clients. She has experience working with municipal planners in jurisdictions across Oregon as well as coordinating with architects, landscape architects, and other members of design teams to effectively demonstrate code compliance.

“I hope to work to inspire planners to prioritize health in planning work, and public health professionals to engage with how important the built environment is to health and well-being.”

Maddy completed her undergraduate education at Whitman College, majoring in Environmental Studies and Politics. She recently earned both a Master of Public Health (MPH) and a Master of Urban and Regional Planning (MURP) at Portland State University. As a graduate student, she worked with the PSU Homelessness Research and Action Collaborative (HRAC) to facilitate the 2023 Point-in-Time Count. Additionally, she contributed to a joint HRAC and Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC) project, conducting outreach with Continuums of Care nationwide to identify best practices for addressing encampments on state transportation rights-of-way.

Her career milestones include internships with Alaska Community Action on Toxics and the Multnomah County Health Department (MCHD), which ignited her interest in environmental justice and reaffirmed her passion for improving the built environment as a pathway towards health equity. While working with MCHD, she assisted in collecting qualitative data for an environmental health mapping tool that helps decision makers prioritize health and equity during brownfield redevelopment.

When not in the office, Maddy enjoys biking, yoga, reading, going to movies, patronizing local SE Portland businesses, playing guitar and fiddle, and taking long walks around our beautiful city.

Representative Work:

Pendleton Housing Capacity Analysis – Maddy prepared an updated Housing Capacity Analysis (HCA) for the City of Pendleton, Oregon. This included conducting a residential Buildable Lands Inventory (BLI) and updating the City’s 2019 HCA, which had not been adopted, to incorporate current Census and ACS data and ensure compliance with ORS 197.296. Using the results of these analyses, Maddy determined that the City could accommodate housing needs over a 20-year planning period. She presented the findings in a Planning Commission work session, responded to questions, and refined the analysis. She then presented the results to both the Planning Commission and City Council, after which the HCA was formally adopted. Maddy is currently preparing a Housing Production Strategy (HPS) for Pendleton, which involves analyzing the city’s unique development constraints and developing policies to ensure it can meet its 20-year housing needs for residents across all income brackets.

Cleveland High School Modernization Conditional Use Application – Maddy prepared a Type III Conditional Use Application for the Cleveland High School Modernization Project in SE Portland. This included crafting descriptions of the existing site conditions, project proposal, land use history, and the community engagement process. She wrote Conditional Use findings, development standards findings, and 20 adjustments to the approval criteria due to the constraints of building a large public high school on an R2.5 site. In addition, she collaborated with the design team to ensure all applicable standards were met and to develop arguments for the need for the adjustments. She organized and completed the notice requirements for a neighborhood meeting.

Portland Zoning Analysis Memoranda – Maddy has prepared zoning analysis memoranda for sites with varying primary uses and zones in Portland. This included analyzing the development potential of each site based on permitted uses and development standards. She then analyzed different development scenarios based on the client’s desired spectrum of uses, describing related land-use concepts to clients, such as the differences between primary and accessory uses, the difference between the processes for Zoning Map and Comprehensive Plan Map amendments, and the different land use permits that would be required, including the associated timelines and application fees.