Last week, Sweet Home held its second Housing Roundtable meeting at City Hall. Winterbrook Planning has been working with many communities across the state to get the most out of Department of Land Conservation and Development (DLCD) grants aimed at updating local land use plans and ordinances in response to affordable housing issues.

Residents and housing producers joined forces to deepen their understanding of the Housing Production Strategy (HPS) process, brainstorm, and provide feedback on strategies to increase housing production for all income groups in Sweet Home.

Facilitated by Kearns & West, with presentations from Winterbrook Planning’s Larissa Gladding and Greg Winterowd, the meeting was rich with valuable insights and feedback from the Sweet Home community.

Meeting Objectives

• Develop a shared understanding of the HPS process.
• Review recent city efforts on housing.
• Discuss Sweet Home’s housing needs.
• Brainstorm and provide feedback on potential housing strategies.

Key Highlights

Housing Production Strategy Overview: We discussed the HPS’s role in boosting new housing construction and redevelopment to meet Sweet Home’s current and future needs. The strategies aim to align with community priorities through various tools, actions, and policies.

Strategies to Increase Housing Production: Participants explored several strategy “buckets”:

• Affirm Fair Housing Policy Commitment: Focus on fair housing policies and the associated challenges.
• Middle Housing Prototypes: Promote the local production of diverse housing options like duplexes and townhomes.
• Medium- and High-Density Plan Updates: Update plans and codes to provide more opportunities for density in housing developments.
• Modify SDC Fee Schedules: Adjust system development charges to lower financial barriers to small-scale lower-cost housing development.

Dot Exercise: Participants prioritized strategies by placing dots on posters. Blue dots marked important strategy buckets, while red dots highlighted specific strategies within each bucket. Additional feedback was provided via sticky notes.

Key Takeaways

Sweet Home’s housing market is increasingly competitive, making affordable housing unattainable for many existing  and future residents. There’s a need for diverse, accessible and affordable housing types . Participants identified several barriers to affordable housing production, such as high infrastructure costs, a lack of  resources  for potential land banking, perceptions of code restrictions, market preferences, and  concerns with providing affordable housing  opportunities near existing single-family neighborhoods.

Moving forward, we will finalize the Housing Production Strategy report and encourage community engagement  at future Planning Commission City Council and Planning Commission meetings. 

A big thanks to everyone at the meeting!