Evidentiary Technical Support Items for Residential (July Supplemental) - Response to Home Builders Association Letter

4-0h., WCity Attorney's Office Date: July 5, 2017 To: Mayor and City Council From: Emily N. Jerome, Assistant City Attorney Memorandum Subject: Residential Land Ordinance State Law Requirements and Response to Home Builders Association ("HBA") Letter dated June 8, 2017 The HBA has made it clear that it intends to challenge the City's adoption of the proposed residential ordinance. The findings attached to that ordinance demonstrate that it is consistent with applicable legal requirements. This memo provides a more direct response to HBA's June 8, 2017, letter. The primary action in the proposed residential ordinance is the adoption of a Eugene-only Residential Land Supply Study. The final Chapter I Part V of the "Residential Land Supply Study" is the City's Buildable Lands Inventory for the 2012-2032 planning period (`BLI"). The BLI includes maps that identify the City's supply of vacant and partially vacant residential land, and tables that show the City's assumptions for the capacity of that land for residential development. See Attachments A (the textual portion of the BLI) and B (one of the 42 area maps that make up the map portion of the BLI) to this memo. The issues raised in HBA's June 8 letter relate to the BLI. The residential BLI is the product of intense analysis by numerous groups and people from different backgrounds and disciplines, and with different agendas. It has been heavily scrutinized since work on it began, shortly after the 2007 legislature ordered Eugene and Springfield to replace their joint residential BLI with separate BLIs. The entire project and body of work referred to as "ECLA" (Eugene Comprehensive Land Assessment) was devoted to the BLI's initial development, and wort on the BLI has continued through analysis by the Technical Resource Group, ECONorthwest, the Eugene Planning Commission, and the Eugene City Council. All along, attention has been paid to the State laws that govern the work. There are very few provisions of State law that direct the BLI's preparation. All of them are discussed below and all of them are addressed in Eugene's BLI work. As required, the BLI is based on data derived from development that has actually occurred and on reasonable forecasts about where and how additional development will occur. It was clear from the beginning of the work that, for Eugene, it would not be satisfactory to develop a BLI that mechanically addresses only the minimum requirements of State law. As such, Eugene's BLI is the result of an assessment of the City's land supply at a much more detailed level than is required by State law or performed by other cities. To address the desire for extreme accuracy requested by stakeholders along the City of Eugene • 125 E. 8th Ave. . Eugene, OR 97401 + 541-682-8447 • 541-682-5414 Fax www.eugene-or.gov {00248692;1 }