This project has entered the Adoption Phase! For complete project information, including meeting materials, project documents, and more, please visit the project webpage.
Project Background
Eighty percent of residential zoning in Eugene is designated for single-family homes, yet young adults, smaller families, and the growing population of elderly need housing options that increase access to public transportation and services reduce maintenance costs and provide more social opportunities. The Eugene Middle Housing Project will revise the Land Use Code to improve housing choices in the short term and affordability in the long term for Eugene residents.
In 2019, the OregonContinue reading
This project has entered the Adoption Phase! For complete project information, including meeting materials, project documents, and more, please visit the project webpage.
Project Background
Eighty percent of residential zoning in Eugene is designated for single-family homes, yet young adults, smaller families, and the growing population of elderly need housing options that increase access to public transportation and services reduce maintenance costs and provide more social opportunities. The Eugene Middle Housing Project will revise the Land Use Code to improve housing choices in the short term and affordability in the long term for Eugene residents.
In 2019, the Oregon Legislature passed House Bill 2001, requiring cities to allow more types of housing in residential areas, particularly in more traditionally single-family neighborhoods where housing choices are limited. Revising Eugene’s Land Use Code to comply with House Bill 2001 will shape how our community develops and expand opportunities for where people can choose to live and what type of home they live in, and we want to hear from you! The Land Use Code will be amended to allow middle housing in residential areas by June 2022.
What is “middle” housing?
Middle housing refers to a range of smaller attached or clustered housing types that are typically built at a similar scale as single-family detached houses. The term “missing middle” housing was coined by urban planner Daniel Parolek to refer to housing that fits in-between single-family homes and larger apartment buildings but that’s largely been missing from most cities’ neighborhood patterns for the last 70 years. Middle housing can include duplexes, triplexes, quadplexes, townhouses, cottage clusters, accessory dwelling units (ADUs), courtyard apartments, and other similar housing.
 A Eugene Duplex
|  A Eugene Triplex
|  A Eugene Quadplex
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Why is it missing?
Middle housing is considered “missing” because relatively little of this housing has been built since the 1940s. Middle housing was common in neighborhoods in most communities prior to World War II. There are many local examples of middle housing in Eugene’s prewar neighborhoods. "Redlining” and other discriminatory lending practices were used to exclude non-white residents from many of these neighborhoods. Post-war prosperity and federal policies led to a building boom that ushered in an age of auto-dependent suburban development with large areas devoted to only single-family homes on large lots. Middle housing types were prohibited or significantly limited in single-family neighborhoods through zoning codes that categorized them as “multifamily housing”. Even today, a large percentage of Eugene’s neighborhoods do not allow most middle housing as an outright use. Meanwhile, in multifamily areas, developers generally build larger and denser housing such as apartment complexes. As a result, currently, most residents must choose between detached single-family homes or apartments.
For more information about House Bill 2001, check out the HB 2001 Fact Sheets or visit the project webpage.
We Want To Know What You Think!
Visit the "Project Updates" tool for up-to-date project happenings!
You will be asked to register or log in to your user account before providing your feedback. If you need some help with the registration process please read this guide
In mid-October, 7,500 households in Eugene received a letter inviting them to be a part of our first-ever lottery selected Planning Review Panel, a partnership with Portland-based nonprofit Healthy Democracy. On November 1st, the EUGPlanning Facebook page hosted a Facebook Live event where the 30 panelists were chosen. The panelists will meet 14 times through spring 2021 and will provide a truly democratic lens to the project. The panel will begin meeting the week of November 9th and all meetings will be available to watch live- links are posted below the "Key Dates" section on this page.
