March 11, 2024 Meeting – Item 6 <br /> In 2022, the City Council adopted Ordinance No. 20667 (the 2022 Middle Housing Ordinance), which amended both the City’s land use code and the Eugene-Springfield Metropolitan Area Regional Plan (Metro Plan). The 2022 Middle Housing Ordinance allowed for the construction of middle housing in the City and in some respects went beyond the requirements of Oregon’s Middle Housing Laws; for example, by allowing detached as well as attached middle housing and by eliminating certain off-street parking requirements. The 2022 Middle Housing Ordinance was appealed to the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA) on a number of different bases, including claims that the ordinance was inconsistent with Statewide Planning Goals 11 (Public Facilities and Services) and 15 (Willamette River Greenway), and claims that certain approval criteria included in the ordinance were not clear and objective. LUBA upheld the City’s ordinance on all counts. LUBA’s decision was then appealed to the Oregon Court of Appeals, who disagreed with LUBA on one issue. In their decision, the Court of Appeals opined that the City Council’s findings were not robust enough on the issue of the 2022 Middle Housing Ordinance’s compliance with Goal 11. Following the Court of Appeals’ decision, on October 12, 2023, LUBA remanded the 2022 Middle Housing Ordinance back to the City to allow the City Council to address the ordinance’s compliance with Goal 11 (Public Facilities and Services). LUBA’s October 12, 2023 remand rendered the City’s 2022 Middle Housing Ordinance ineffective, and since October 12, the City has been required to apply the State’s Large Cities Middle Housing Model Code adopted by the Oregon Land Conservation and Development Commission (the Model Code) rather than the 2022 Middle Housing Ordinance. The City must continue to apply the Model Code unless and until the Council adopts a new Middle Housing ordinance. While the Model Code continues to allow middle housing development in Eugene, application of the Model Code has created confusion due to the differences between the Model Code and Eugene’s middle housing code. Additionally, without Eugene’s adopted code provisions, which included increased flexibility and incentives, applicants who would prefer to use the City’s middle housing regulations instead of the Model Code are faced with uncertainty around their planned middle housing projects in light of the remand. A proposed ordinance to address the remand (the 2024 Remand Ordinance) is attached as Attachment A to this AIS and was the subject of the Council’s public hearing on February 20, 2024. The text of the 2024 Remand Ordinance is identical to the text of the 2022 Middle Housing Ordinance, except that the 2024 Remand Ordinance corrects some scrivener errors from the 2022 Middle Housing Ordinance, incorporates updates to the land use code that have occurred since the 2022 Middle Housing Ordinance was adopted (for example, the changes made by the Clear and Objective Code Update, the Willamette Greenway Clear and Objective Standards, the Climate Friendly and Equitable Communities Parking Ordinance), and incorporates two small changes to ensure consistency with statutory requirements. The findings attached to the 2024 Remand Ordinance have been updated to further clarify the findings made in response to the remand and to address public testimony; in particular, public comment submitted to Council concerning compliance with Statewide Planning Goal 11. <br />CC Agenda Page 49