City Council - Regular Meeting

which if it did happen, uh could result in this being a moot point and us not having to adopt any regulations. Uh we think that's the case because it's sort of inferred when they pulled the uh the lawsuit or they when they pulled that temporary restraining order uh back. They said based on the, you know, new federal administration, we believe maybe these regulations aren't in alignment with what the the new policies are are from the feds. Um, so it's it's an opportunity to we think might be might avail itself where we're able to not have to implement these in the future. And if that's the case, we definitely don't want to adopt anything and have to take them out of the code later. So for that reason, we're hope it's late wait and see what happens and I may have an update prior to July 14th. Otherwise, I want to make sure that we get a motion moving this item continuing until uh time certain July 14th at 7 o'clock for the public hearing. Okay. And at that time we'll be able to have public comment and absolutely regular public hearing discussion from the council. If anyone's listening they can always contact me and and any testimony that I get I provide directly to you all. So if it comes to me it comes to you as if they were here at the hearing. Thank you. Sure. So I will keep the public hearing uh open until July. Great. Um, can we get a formal motion um to continue to date certain July 14th, please? Oh, okay. I move to um let's see, how do I want to word this? Um um continue the discussion or continue the public hearing. Okay. Continue the public hearing until the uh July 14th meeting. Thank you. Second. Second. All in favor signify with an I. I I opposed.

Okay, now we're officially keeping it open. Thank you. Next up, we have uh general business. And first item is council bill 3282, which I'd like to have introduced, please. Like to introduce uh council bill number 3282. It's a resolution of the city of Woodburn, Oregon, Oregon, authorizing city administrator, mayor, and the city council legislative committee to initiate immediate action to address the city's dire lack of supply land available for housing, particularly affordable housing, and determine the most accurate population estimates for the city. Thank you. Council Bill 3282 has been duly introduced and as a resolution requires one reading normally by title only. Tonight I'm requesting that we read the uh the resolution in its entirety. Uh this is something that uh a lot of time has been put into and uh something that it strongly affects Woodburn and our future and state. So, with that, I ask our court or city recorder, I'm sorry, to uh read the resolution. Council bill number 3282, a resolution of the city of Woodburn, Oregon, authorizing the city administrator, mayor, and the city council legislative committee to initiate immediate action to address the city's dire lack of supply of land available for housing, particularly affordable housing, and to determine the most accurate population estimates for the city. Whereas on the governor's first full day in office, Tina Cotch signed executive order 23-04, which set a housing production goal of 36,000 homes per year for the state over

the next 20 years. And whereas the department of in administrative services produced the 2024 housing needs analysis report for Oregon which found that 29,500 new homes are required in the state each year for the next 20 years to meet expected demand. And whereas the 2024 Department of Administrative Services Oregon Housing Needs Analysis Methodology Report determined that the city would need to construct 3,295 homes over the next 20 years by the year 2045 to meet expected demand. And whereas the supply of available buildable residential land in Woodburn is expected to deplete within 24 months, bringing local housing production to a halt. And whereas the primary driver in determining a city's future housing needs is based on the official population estimates provided by Portland State University's Portland Research Center PRC in conjunction with the US Census Bureau. And whereas due to Woodburn's diverse demographics, which include the largest percentage of foreign language speakers of any city in the state with the population over 5,000, as well as the large portion of temporary farm workers residing in the city, it is the council's assertion that the surveying methods utilized by the PRC and the Census Bureau significantly undercount the city's population and the actual population is closer to 38,000. And whereas the official 2024 population estimate for the city from PRC is 29,455.

And whereas since 2022, the city has been the fastest growing of all cities in the state with populations over 5,000. And whereas the city was last able to complete a housing needs analysis HNA in 2019. And whereas the city has proactively implemented actions identified in our acknowledged HNA to address the shortage of housing opportunities and now finds itself with an extremely limited supply of residential land available to serve the needs of the residents. And whereas as of May of this year, the city had already permitted over 2,400 dwelling units since the adoption of the HNA. And whereas the principal means of adding to the supply of housing in the city would be an urban growth boundary adjustment, UGB. And whereas the existing UGB adjustment processes allowable under Oregon statutes, including land exchanges, are unpredictable, cost prohibitive, and take multiple years under the best of circumstances. And whereas the city has been informed by Department of Land Conservation and Development, DLCD, that it is not eligible under the existing statutory process available for cities to start the process of formally assessing our housing supply, known as housing capacity analysis. originally scheduled for update in 2027 until 2028 as DLCD works on new rule making. Whereas DLCD's new schedule essentially prohibits the city from establishing our

future housing production target targets and strategies, equity indicators and/or assessment and residential land land needs including potential UGB expansion until 2030. And whereas the existing state processes and time frame are wholly inadequate to address the immediate needs of the city to increase its housing supply. And whereas the city council of Woodburn supports taking immediate action to address the city's severe lack of residential land, including but not limited to a UGB adjustment. Now, therefore, the city of Woodburn reserves as follows. Section one, all of the above recital are true and correct and incorporated herein by reference. Section two, the city council hereby authorize authorizes the city administrator, mayor, and city council legislative committee to pursue and work with willing property owners and developers to identify land that could be efficiently and quickly developed to provide needed housing for city residents at all income levels. Speak with state legislators, the governor, the governor's staff, or other state government officials in support of a plan for an expedited urban growth boundary adjustment process through the Oregon legislative process for a site that meets the housing needs of the city. direct staff in conjunction with any outside consultant if necessary to review and assess the data collection processes and methodology used by the PRC and US Census Bureau to determine their accuracy and to take any actions or appeals necessary to establish the most accurate population count for the city. Provide testimony testimony either written or verbal to the Oregon legislature in support of this process.

in section three. Uh this resolution will take effect upon adoption. Very good. Thank you, Heather. Any comment from Yeah, thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thanks to the city recorder for reading that. Um as you were doing that, I was really pleased that I wasn't the one that had to read through all that. So, well done. Uh Mr. Mr. Mayor, uh staff has been tracking for some time the rate of housing development in Woodburn, uh over multiple years with the eye on the city council's goal of ensuring that we have available housing that serves our community. Not only will our community and its unique needs for housing, you know, the city council has recognized that available housing and providing housing equity as a financial instrument for many of our community members is the first step in creating inheritable wealth and wealth as an instrument. uh that wealth has been denied to been denied to many people in our community and that housing ownership is proving to serve our community very well as we move uh move to achieve those goals. Affordable housing has also been a priority. The city council is aware of our affordable housing efforts and our partnerships with FHDC with the most recent project on Young Street that uh we hope will produce somewhere between 80 to 100 units of affordable housing um in collaboration with that organization and uh we like to see private sector solutions as well. That private sector investment that serves uh housing across a spectrum of where the market demand is uh is very good particularly for competition. Uh we think that helps drive down housing if there's housing available and and people want to buy that housing. Um there are some anecdotal evidence to suggest that much of the housing in Woodburn has gone to serve people who have lived in Woodburn. Um and I'd just like to also point out that um the school district has told us that uh they're not seeing detrimental

impacts of school capacity based on the growth in Woodburn, which is one of the indicators we we have about who's buying these homes in the community. Uh now having said all that um the community development director has told me that based on the current rate of growth we expect that all of our buildable lands for residential properties will be depleted within 24 months at the current rate of housing development and that housing uh will come to this this housing growth will come to an end. Uh we will run out of space for houses and we will stop our housing supply that's been serving our community in a pretty successful way. So, the goal here tonight is to have the council delegate some authority uh for the staff to speak and and the legislative committee to represent the city on potential legisl legislative solutions. either that or working with state agencies to develop solutions so that we can avail ourselves of the housing production strategy when it comes online in whenever 3 years whatever however long it's going to take so that we do not have to stop um creating those opportunities for people to access housing either affordable or market rate housing in Woodburn. Um that's really what we're trying to do is to find a bridge from where we uh are where we we will stop to when we can avail ourselves of whatever process uh the state will provide to the city to under undertake. And so we we will do that. Um but in the meantime we would like to continue to provide these opportunities for our community and it would require some effort. I think we've we've talked with the legislative committee last week about this and uh the legis legislative committee adopted this resolution and forwarded to the city council for consideration. The legislative committee being uh councelor Sha and uh councelor Wilk. So they have if they want to weigh in they certainly can but this is really

the city starting to tee up an effort to represent the housing interest of Woodburn moving forward both in affordable housing capacity in a market rate housing capacity and ensure that you know we we don't have to stop providing these opportunities while the market is there for them particularly. Thank you Scott. I agree with you 100% that um uh Scott, could I ask you to just talk a little bit about the additional piece of this resolution which would um ask us to look to Portland State explanation of why we're so significantly undercounted. Thank you for that. Um I think thanks for bringing that up. Yes. Yes, you did. And I'm happy to do that. So for for the longest time um we've been very suspicious of the census statistics for Woodburn and have always believed based on service levels, call for service, the volume of of infrastructures needed to make our community work that our population was much greater than what the census was providing us. And particularly the last census count, it was pretty apparent that the census instrument was incompatible with cultural norms and understandings of how to engage in that process in our in our community, resulting in, you know, a gross undercount of the population that we have in Woodburn. And we it is detrimental to Woodburn for a variety of reasons. The financially the city is missing out on a significant amount of state shared revenue that's based on population. that money goes to serve the residents of our community who work and pay taxes in our community and should be counted and allocated that share of revenue uh for services in Woodburn. So, we'd like to address that. The other the

other point, too, is that trying to look 20 years down the road to maintain a supply of available housing lands is based on population projections. And if you're starting with a number that's not accurate, then your projections are going to be skewed and you're never going to be able to meet the housing needs of your community because the numbers are wrong right out of the gate. So, we there there's a real motivation for the city to try to grapple with this. Um, and I would like to say that, you know, there's been some I would say informal analysis. It's a little more than anecdotal that really suggests that this is worth pursuing and that in this in this um resolution there's a number 38,000. There's really some reason to think that that number is not too far off as compared to the 29,000 that uh census uh and Portland State currently has us at. Uh so it is worthwhile. If anything, it's the truth. We we just want the truth and we want our community to be represented based on who we are and and the people who live in our community. Will there be any costs involved if you have to seek outside counsel to help with work on counting those numbers? Um well the efforts to try to resolve land availability uh probably I would I don't see that being a bunch of new cost. I mean, we are already uh have staff working on this. Um, in terms of the trying to get a a more accurate count of residents there could be um, you know, I've asked staff to to look at the process and to try to come up with a methodology or how to develop a methodology to engage with Portland State to try to get a better a better number. uh if we have to if we decide that city decides that we want to just go rogue and and try to do a count outside of the census um you know which pro which

probably they would not acknowledge but uh that that could could have expense to it as well um I don't really know how much or how to do that we still have to try to figure out how we're going to tackle the issue any other questions comments I I was just curious about what area of what area are we looking at expanding? What part? Well, it's a good question. Um I mean there are some areas that have been um identified by the city long term. I mean for many years ago that you know potentially could could be looked at um again. Uh so part part of the work here I think we want to do is to try to identify the viability of what's out there and available. Now this one is a little hard for me for a couple of reasons. One because I always hear like when is the housing development going to stop in town you know and with all the current regulations we need people up there telling them we need more than one parking spot. We knew we need the legislative committee to do some work for us because I know the current ones are really a struggle. Um, and so and housing I know is a need and I see that it's it's a goal for all income levels and prioritizing affordable housing would be would make it easier for me because I think that that's still a desperate need for the for that more so than just all levels. and getting affordable housing balanced throughout the community, not just in one ward or one area of town, but that if this resolution would help us to figure out a way where we could put spread out more affordable housing throughout the community and not just in one area. I would hope that that would happen. Affordable housing is really important. It's also housing generally is a function of the private market.

However, and the what we'd like to see is a type investment in Woodburn that serves all levels of where the market demand is and to try to create incentives for that to happen. One of the things that uh is likely to discourage that would be to have no land supply available and to have higher costs associated with density and the cost of infrastructure and the impacts there. Uh I think we've done a pretty pretty good job. Um we've had a pretty good mix of highdensity residential with single family. Um for those of uh you who are around during our settlement agree uh discussions on our last UGB expansion, this was a hot topic. We wanted to have more uh single family home ownership opportunities because we were hearing from the community that large sections of our community have been denied access to capital mortgages for home purchases and that there was a very you know a real pent-up need for that. Um and the benefits of home ownership too to our community have been largely in serve with that those opportunities for decades. Uh the rate of housing um in Woodburn is reflective of the pent-up demand that we have and the years of under service to our community in terms of housing availability in my opinion. And we would certainly like to see, you know, housing available. We like the market to work correctly in Woodburn and we would like to create incentives for developers to work and collaborate with the city and our partners to see affordable housing components to what they're doing. The other concern that I have is that um I understand that the Woodburn school district has informed us that they feel that you know affordable housing and the increase of their population that they have the capacity to do that. I'm and I'm wondering maybe down the road we might be able to hear more formally from them because I I'm concerned not only about the the the fact that they have the capacity but do they have the FTE

teaching equivalent? you know, how big are the, you know, the elementary schools most likely are bigger than what the high school is, and maybe the high school does in fact have more capacity than the elementary. It's just uh just a concern and um I it would be good every once in a while to just kind of hear from them uh in person about that, how they how they're doing. councelor. One of my one of my goals is to have a especially they have a new uh school council coming on board, school board coming on. Um and I'd like to have a workshop with them at some point after they they're on. So, I'd say maybe this fall or later. I think that that would be important, too. You know, I mean, there's just a lot of little I do believe we need to get a true reflection of our numbers and, you know, I do would love to see affordable housing spread out throughout the community, but I know we don't control that because it's a private for profit more than anything. But those are just some of the things that are going through my mind right now as we go through discussing housing. councelor. It's a really um it's a really frequent question that we hear at the city is the impact of growth in the schools. It's probably one of the most frequent questions I'm asked right out in the community. And I want to be really clear, I do not speak for the school district. Like they're very smart and they they have people who know how to run schools better than I do. Uh but I will say that we do we do have the school district come from time to time to talk about this and we do have staff as part of their school planning their facility planning committee and they have hired consultants that have projected out their need and impact based on growth and available growth in Woodbor based on our plans and um both of the last two studies I don't know if there's been one since the last one but uh the projected for school impact is that no no new school will be needed for something like 13 years and in fact um I you know there was been concern about

declining enrollment uh over time even in the face of growth and that is consistent with national trends of uh basically people not having children that population is decreasing yeah that the population curve is decreasing and that's reflected in school enrollments in fact I I don't know if it was this year or last year there were fewer kids in the high school than there were in in in the prior year even with like Smith edition being constructed so it's very counterintuitive you know, you see the growth and you think we're going to need more schools, but it's a little more complex than that. Um, it was explained to me that schools are are kind of like a river. You know, kids flow in and then they flow out and that they manage the capacity of that. And so, it's, you know, they're looking down the road and trying to anticipate what that what that river is going to look like and what their capacity to manage it is going to be. And, uh, you know, they I know that they care about it and we we we talk about it. And the school district also looks at all of the new subdivisions that come in as well. Yeah. Well, I look forward to that meeting, mayor. Thank you. Yeah. Any other questions, comments? All I can say as a member of this legislative committee. I am just so pleased with this resolution and I think it's just the first step and something that needed to be done. Thank you. It's good discussion. So, with that, can we have a roll call vote, please? Councelor Cornwell. Yes. Councelor Behalda. Yes, councelor Shab. Yes, councelor Kentu. Yes, councelor Wilk. Yes, council bill 32 has been duly passed unanimously. Thank you. So that was the only general business item we had. So moving on, there is one item under planning commission uh a uh street adjustment on oh actually a preliminary partition street adjustment along Hay Street. Does anyone have any questions? Care to call that up?

Then we will not do it. Then we'll move on to our city administrator's report. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just like to say that Evergreen and Par Road intersection will be opened tomorrow at noon. uh brand new intersection in our community and um it's all part of the infrastructure development associated with growth to help control traffic and it's also going to contribute towards the southwest uh industrial area that the city continues to work on as part of a greater plan. So that's pretty exciting. Uh I think it's open at noon tomorrow. So at noon uh 12:01 I'm going to try to drive right right across it slowly. Slowly. Yes. During your lunch break. Yeah. And the other thing I would just like to tell city council is that we're all very excited for Fiesta this year. We've had a lot of conversations about Fiesta. Um we're looking forward to a safe a safe and uh successful event and I hope to to see you all there. It's coming up in August. I know this is a little early to be plugging it, but I want you to know that we think it's going to be one of the better ones. Thank you. Um I see our city attorney is back. Do you have anything to add? uh your position was well preserved, represented by your assistant while you were gone. It's good to see you. Thank you. Nothing to add this evening. Moving on to city council reports. Councelor Shod, you have start with you. Okay. Um one of the things that um the mayor had um mentioned was this letter from um Vernon um Birdart and how um Mr. Mr. Bhart was um commending the Portland police also in this letter. Um and I I'm sorry if I murdered your name here. It's terrible. No, you said Wood. You said Portland police was police. Oh, it's Woodburn. I'm Oh, I'm sorry, Chief. Will you please forgive me?

Thank you. Anyway, um in this letter he also mentioned that um to his rescue um Eminem Towing came out and um really um did a fantastic job for him. And so I'm really pleased that um you know businesses in Oregon just come and take care of our senior citizens. That's all I have to say. And also everybody come out to the breakfast on um July 4th. Um check wagon breakfast. Check. Yes. I forgot that. Very good. And um and have a safe um fourth Legion Park starts at 7 o'clock. 7 o'clock, I think. Yeah. I've been there every year. You got to come out. It's fun. Put on by the Quanas. The morning morning. So yeah, it's been going on for 60 years. Yeah. I I understand they'll actually have some live entertainment there. Counselor Wilk will be flipping pancakes at the That is very live at the event. Well, that's it. Thank you, Councelor Cornwell. No, you have nothing. Councelor Wilson, just want to say what a great community we live in and we all work together and that's the way it should be. So, thank you for delivering. Council Can um I was just going to add about the chamber soccer tournament. Just thank you to all the volunteers because we were out there in the pouring down rain and apparently card readers don't work when they're wet. So, we figured it out. Yeah. Problematic at times, right? Um, and then I also was able to utilize the city's 5050 sidewalk program at my house. And I just wanted

to say thank you to staff. They did a good job. It was fairly seamless. You planted a tree that you shouldn't have. The developers did. So thankfully the city is there to half save the day. It is a good program. Yes. So, we did have some sidewalk panels that were my neighbors were not happy walking over. So, we've now fixed that with the help of the city. So, thank you. Thank you. On behalf of the city, thank you for taking care of your sidewalk. Yes, councelor. Okay. Couple of just one question. One of the goals that we've been working on uh Scott, for a long time has been this whole issue of the speeding and the signage and improving and those kinds of things. I know it is short notice, but maybe for the one of the meetings in July or August, we could get a report on uh how the staff are doing because I know a lot of materials were backordered. it was hard to get stuff but just to just to have a a an opportunity to see how that how that work is doing how they're where they are in the process of collecting the data because as I keep getting letting my people know that we are collecting data we are looking at researching things but maybe by then we would have a little something more you know yeah I'm hap sure that's that's a great idea I'm happy to to do that um I can tell the city council that um and we can talk more about at a council meeting the more more of a presentation. We're talking about a pretty holistic approach to trying to identify areas that are data supported and then what types of alternatives um can be employed from things that are attainable to things that are too expensive. But trying to prioritize to look at where we can make the biggest impact with our resources. And we're looking kind of citywide. We have some ideas um both through the train safety. We've talked about um the fencing and the partnership now with the railroad and how that's going to uh flush out, but we're also looking at the the the

street system, too. So, yeah, I think it's great. Yeah, a formal presentation would be nice in one of our meetings. Sure. In the future. Sure. And then, um I had my water tested. I did. And I learned that my house was built in 1977. Thank you very much. Water department. That was a great year. It was a great year, but it explains why I don't have sidewalks. You know, I have this. I don't have that because it was developed way back. Things are so different. So anyway, thank you again because we had good staff, you know, staff that you can say come on in because we just figuring this out how to get the water in. Well, you know, I'm going to stay up tonight, counselor, wondering how how did the test turn out. Well, the thing is I couldn't understand the letter. Uh, so I didn't want to say that, but uh I'm going to have to call the water department. I'm sure it's fine to please explain to me. But you know, the thing is that um it does correspond. We had some remodeling done in one of the bathrooms and you could tell that my pipes are still the original. So, and then with the testing just confirmed that even more. So, I'm going uh oh. But I don't know if that's good or bad news, but either way, it's the courteous of the staff that you can you can trust. You can you know this young man comes to the door, you go, "Oh, yeah. Come on in. You get the water." You know, that kind of thing. Did you have him test the water? Drink the water. Yeah. He he well B and I were at the boss of trying to figure out cuz you had to undo unscrew something so the water and we couldn't you know so the young man just comes in and just I got this. Okay, thank you. Hi. So it was good. It was it was it was good to know but I will need an interpreter for that. We probably could do that for you for that letter. Thank you. So all I have is uh really nothing. I wish everybody a happy safe 4th of July and remember you cannot fire any fireworks in the air. I will entertain a motion to endure. So moved. Second. Moved and second. All in favor sign I. I. We're out of here. Thank you. So frank