Date: March 13, 2017 <br />To: Mayor, City Council, Planning Commission and Staff <br />From: Michael Fifield, FAIA, AICP <br />Professor and Director, Housing Specialization Program <br />Department of Architecture, University of Oregon <br />Former Department Head, Former AIA-SWO President, Former Chair of AIA <br />Design Excellence Committee and Architects Building Community (ABC) <br />RE: Housing Issues associated with Envision Eugene <br />Speaking for myself and not in any official capacity (either with of my affiliation with both the <br />AIA and UO), I offer the following brief observations to consider. <br />"Middle Housing" is something that Eugene is desperately in need of. When I and Brook <br />Muller were hired by the City of Eugene to conduct a study on accessory dwelling units on <br />alley's in Eugene about ten years ago (working closely with Terri Harding), we also found in <br />our research an interesting statistic. This was about the time the City of Eugene was <br />receiving praise for being one of the most sustainable cities in the U.S. At the time we <br />thought the City was doing a great job in recycling, but perhaps not so in addressing energy <br />use in residential buildings. At the time, the median size for new single-family-detached <br />houses in the U.S. was about 2,400 sq.ft. However, in Eugene it was an astonishing 2,800 <br />sq.ft., almost 20% greater. The amount of embodied energy used in construction, the <br />amount of energy used in heating and cooling, are just a few of the factors affecting <br />environmental sustainability. In addition, low-density development contributes greatly to <br />transportation issues (e.g., energy use, pollution, infrastructure, time it takes to get to <br />services). In addition, community sustainability is challenged by limited opportunities for <br />meaningful housing, including aging in place. <br />In addition to any considerations that might be made for issues associated with expanding <br />the UGB, I would offer the following recommendations for housing: <br />1. Allow and encourage Secondary Dwelling Units in Eugene by relaxing SDCs (similar to <br />Portland). Develop a better method of encouraging good design and not simply using <br />prescriptive standards. Our recommendation ten years ago was to develop a set of design <br />principles for SDUs. That was never implemented. <br />2. Allow for more types of housing: specifically encourage Cottage Housing and Courtyard <br />Housing (if site planning is done appropriately, some of this can be "Fee Simple" and not <br />requiring Home Owner Associations which can be costly. Cottage Housing Ordinances are <br />being implemented in a variety of areas, especially near Seattle. They allow for both zoning <br />and building code relaxation of typical requirements. <br />Hopefully some of these comments are useful. <br />Michael Fifield <br />2660 Cresta de Ruta Street <br />Eugene, Oregon 97403 Email: mef@uoregon.edu Phone: 541.485.9248 <br />