Applicant Final Argument - Laserfiche WebLink

Eugene Hearing Official November 23, 2015 Page 10 The record shows that the subject property is included in the City's currently adopted Residential Land Study as buildable land. The HO correctly based compliance on the subject application being Needed Housing because it is in the buildable lands inventory (i.e. the Residential Lands Study). [See Applicant's Exhibit A] The City Attorney is also correct in rejecting Mr. Williamson's argument that ORS 197.304(2), commonly called the Eugene/Springfield Divorce Statute, operates to negate the validity of the current, acknowledged BLL Since passage of the Divorce Statute in 2007, the two cities have been incrementally adopting separate BLIs and housing programs. The process has been akin to the separation of the arctic ice mass. Slow. Springfield now has its own acknowledged BLI. Eugene, as usual, is moving more deliberately than Springfield. For the reasons explained by the city attorney, the 1999 BLI for the Metro Area remains the BLI for Eugene. Mr. Williamson challenged the legal status of the proposal as "needed housing." He made the same challenge to the 47-lot Deerbrook PUD (PDT 12-1) approved by the City in 2013. Applicant submitted, as post-hearing Exhibit F, a copy of Mr. Williamson's testimony in the Deerbrook matter. It is the same theme, and it was addressed by the Hearing Official in the Deerbrook decision at page 9. See Applicant Exhibit A. He said: "Ross Williamson's written comment (June 11, 2012) and Southeast Neighbors' written testimony submitted at the hearing (August 1, 2012) both noted that the definition of "Needed Housing" in ORS 197.303(1) includes the phrase "at particular price ranges and rent levels," and because the Residential Land Study document cited above do not distinguish between price ranges and rent levels, there is no "needed housing" as defined by state law. "The hearings official notes that the City Attorney's Office explained in a memorandum to the Mayor and City Council that Springfield and Eugene met their obligations under the needed housing statutes by adopting the Residential Lands Study documents cited above, and that the studies are acknowledged. The hearings official notes that the studies do not distinguish between price ranges and rent levels. No person explained the reason for this to the hearings official, but the reason is not important because they are acknowledged and the hearings official must apply them in the form in which they were acknowledged. Here, this means that the applicant may properly apply for single-family dwellings as "needed housing." "The applicant also noted that the subject property is in the buildable lands inventory; it is inventoried as Site 8 in subarea 6." On appeal in Deerbrook, the Planning Commission confirmed the status of land that is on the acknowledged BLI as land that is for "needed housing" in the meaning of the statute. Commission decision at page 10. Applicant Exhibit A.