In 2019 the Oregon legislature passed house bill 2001 also known as the “Middle Housing Bill”. This allows “Middle housing” – including duplexes, triplexes, quadplexes, townhomes and cottage clusters – to be build within single family zones.
Which means that it is entirely possible that in south Newberg we could see a 4-plex going in where a 1960’s house one stood…..😮
As with any Federal, State or local law there are winners and losers.
The biggest loser will be neighborhood aesthetics. Even with market demand, it will be pretty hard to watch a 3 story townhouse going in where a 1 story house previously was.
The biggest winner will be our kids and grandkids who need affordable housing of their own. Also by building housing within the city we have less need to chop down hazelnut orchards to expand our cities boundaries.
How will this affect the Berg?? It is way too early to know for sure. Oregon was the first state to adopt these middle housing rules, and it will be 5, 10 or even 20 years before we start to fully understand the secondary impacts.
In the meantime Let me know if you are interested in seeing any of these documents or rules, and I’m happy to send them your way.