Eugene Hearing Official <br />August 21, 2024 <br />Page 2 <br /> <br />• The right to clear and objective standards has been around for a long time. The current <br />location of that guarantee is in ORS 197.307(4). Even with that guarantee, local <br />governments adopt and apply standards that flunk the statutory test. E.g. Home Builders <br />Assn of Lane County v. City of Eugene, 41 or LUBA 370 (2002); or they deny based on <br />standards that are supposed to be clear and objective but are not. E.g. Walter v. City of <br />Eugene, 73 Or LUBA 356 (2016), aff’d without opinion 281 Or App 461, 383 P3d 1009 <br />(2016). <br /> <br />• Clear and objective standards must be clear and objective on their face. ORS 227.173(2). <br /> <br />• If an application for housing can be approved with reasonable conditions, the conditions <br />must be applied. ORS 197.522(4). <br /> <br />• If an application for housing needs to be amended in order to be approvable, the applicant <br />is entitled to amend it on the fly, including with new evidence and reasonable conditions, <br />and that right applies even in the context of a local, on the record appeal. ORS <br />197.522(2)-(3). <br /> <br />• In 2017 the legislature enacted the Accessory Dwelling Unit statute, allowing an ADU <br />for each single-family dwelling on a lot. See ORS 197.312(5); Kamps-Hughes v. City of <br />Eugene, (Kamps-Hughes III), 305 Or App 224 (2020). It took five LUBA appeals to get <br />Eugene in compliance with that statute.1 <br /> <br />• In 2019 the legislature enacted the Middle Housing Statute, which is really the ADU <br />statute writ large. The statute and rule apply directly, and the City has failed twice in <br />defending its local implementing ordinance. As a result, the statute, rule and Large City <br />Model Code are in effect. The statute requires the City to allow “all middle housing <br />types in areas zoned for residential use that allow for the development of detached single- <br />family dwellings.” As briefed in our second open record submittal, this means the City <br />may not close off R-1 land to housing using its /PD overlay zone, as it is attempting to do <br />here. <br /> <br />• Beginning on January 1, 2025, if LUBA affirms an application for housing inside a UGB, <br />attorney fees are mandatory in favor of the applicant and the local government that <br />approved. See SB 1537 §10 (2024). <br /> <br /> <br />1 The three Kamps-Hughes LUBA decisions were appeals of site-specific ADU zone verification <br />decisions, summarized in our second open record submittal. There were also two challenges to <br />the local ADU implementation ordinance – one remanding and a second affirming. See Home <br />Builders Assn. of Lane County v. City of Eugene, 78 Or LUBA 441 (2018), and Conte v. City of <br />Eugene, __ Or LUBA __ (No. 2021-092, May 9, 2022). <br />