Overview
Project Overview
The Albany City Council adopted the Housing Implementation Plan (HIP) in June of 2023. The HIP evaluated policies and strategies that the City can employ to address Albany’s current and future housing needs, as identified in the City’s 2020 Housing Needs Analysis (HNA). The HIP built upon community conversations and support around the Expanding Housing Options project that updated the City’s development code and comprehensive plan to allow middle housing types where single dwelling units were allowed.
The HIP outlines priority implementation steps the City can take to encourage the production of needed housing. The City is currently working on the implementation of several of these strategies, policies, and incentives summarized below. More information about these strategies is contained in the Housing Policies Options Background Report.
Albany Development Code Changes:
The City is pursuing a variety of changes to the development code that would reduce barriers to creating needed housing in Albany, such as incentivizing smaller houses with reduced lot sizes.
Surplus Property Policy:
This strategy involves selling or leasing City-owned surplus property to developers to use for an agreed upon needed housing development. This may include affordable housing or other needed housing types. This strategy allows the City to provide a financial incentive and maintain control over the type of development on the property without costing the City money.
Tax Abatement Programs:
Multi-Unit Property Tax Exemption (MUPTE). This strategy allows the City to provide a tax abatement for multi-unit developments in transit supported areas in exchange for public benefits. This may be strictly residential or be in a mixed-use building. The tax abatement can be provided for up to 10 years and applies only to new residential construction. This strategy increases the feasibility of a project by lowering the initial operating costs.
Low-Income Rental Housing. This tax abatement program allows the City to provide a 20-year tax abatement for affordable housing. This program can be utilized by nonprofit or for-profit developers on eligible properties. To be eligible, a property must offer rent to low-income residents (at or below 60% of the area median income) or be held for the purpose of developing low-income rental housing. Presently the City offers a tax abatement for low-income rental properties owned by nonprofits and requires an annual renewal.
Construction Excise Tax (CET):
This policy creates a revenue source to enable the city to support affordable housing projects and programs through a one-time tax on construction projects. The City may levy a CET on residential construction for up to 1% of the permit value, or on commercial and industrial construction, with no cap on the rate of the CET. The revenue of this tax is used to support affordable housing developments and can help leverage crucial other funding for these projects.
Participation
Participation
During August and September 2024, there were a range of opportunities for stakeholders and community members to participate in providing input on the current strategies. These included 6 focus groups, open office hours, and a survey.
Development Code Proposals
The following code amendments had widespread support among those who provided input during the public engagement efforts:
- Allow smaller lots for smaller homes,
- More flexibility with ADU size,
- Reducing front yard setbacks and increasing back yard setbacks,
- Encourage rear loaded development and increase street parking,
- Reducing barriers to cottage clusters,
- Reduced private open space requirements for multi dwelling unit developments, and
- Required green space in subdivisions.
While no proposed strategies received overwhelming opposition, there were a few proposals that received mixed feedback.
The proposal to remove barriers to smaller houses by reducing side yard setbacks only for small houses or townhouse lots received a mix of feedback. Focus group participants were widely supportive of this proposal, but a little over half of survey respondents were opposed. In aggregate, there is support for this strategy, but it is also clear there are some concerns.
Similarly, setting a minimum density in residential zones intended for medium density had mixed feedback. In total, there was more support than opposition. The focus groups widely supported this proposal and survey respondents were nearly evenly split on the idea with 39% supporting and 42% opposing.
Additionally, there is a proposal to remove the maximum density cap in residential zones intended for medium or high density development and allow the height and lot coverage standards determine development scale. Again, this proposal received varied feedback with broad support from focus groups and a majority (54%) of survey respondents in opposition.
Housing Policies
Construction Excise Tax (CET)
Low Income Rental Housing Tax Exemption
Multi-Unit Property Tax Exemption (MUPTE)
City Owned Surplus Land Policy
Updates
This website will be periodically updated when new materials are available and when opportunities to participate are announced. The City will also post announcements to its social media pages.
Contact
Contact the City’s project manager to comment, ask questions, or to join the project email list to stay engaged and informed about the project’s progress, or to sign up for a stakeholder or community group meeting.
Beth Freelander, Planner II
City of Albany Community Development
333 Broadalbin Street SW
Albany, Oregon 97321
Documents
Documents
Housing Policy Options Background Report
The following report outlines three policy options the City may pursue to support the creation of needed housing in Albany. These policies came out of the Housing Implementation Plan and required a more in-depth exploration of the set of choices for how to design and implement the policies to produce the desired outcomes. The background report covers the key considerations and options for implementation of these policies.
Albany Market Feasibility Study
The market feasibility study was completed as one component of the City of Albany Housing Implementation Project. The purpose of this study is to assess the feasibility of mixed use (MU) development forms in the City’s six potential climate-friendly areas (CFAs). CFAs are a requirement of the state Climate Friendly and Equitable Communities rule (CFEC) which requires cities with a population greater than 25,000 residents to designate and plan CFAs to be future areas where greater housing capacity, commercial options, and transit access will allow residents to meet most of their daily needs without the need for a car. The CFAs, therefore, need to allow more flexibility in housing types, density and mix of uses. These development forms can be more expensive and complicated to develop than lower-density construction, meaning that they will not be feasible in all areas immediately. However, the right combination of incentives and positive amenities can help bridge the feasibility gap to achieve these goals. This study summarizes local market conditions for residential and commercial real estate. The study identifies gaps in feasibility and proposes strategies and tools for addressing these gaps.
Housing Implementation Plan Documents
The City of Albany prepared the Housing Implementation Plan (HIP) to identify actions the City can take to help increase housing options that create more housing for more people. The HIP prioritizes current and future housing needs and outlines equitable and actionable policies, strategies, and implementation steps needed to encourage the production of housing that is needed in the Albany community. The HIP summarizes recommendations for adoption of a range of housing strategies or tools to study further—these include regulatory changes, incentives, funding sources, programs, and partnerships.
- Housing Implementation Plan
- Appendix A - Part 1 Background Report
- Appendix A - Part 2 Background Report
- Appendix B Focus Groups Summary
- Appendix C Survey Summary
- Appendix D Housing Strategies Menu
Background Materials
- 2020 Housing and Residential Lands Needs Analysis
- 2020 Albany Housing Strategies Report – This 2020 document pre-dates the middle housing code updates and this project.
- Accessibility Requirements and Data
- Albany Data and Stats
Other Documents
Project memos, reports, and other work products will be posted here throughout the process.
- Round One Focus Groups Summary
- DRAFT Housing Strategies Menu v1
- Table of Proposed Albany Development Code Changes
Links to meeting materials will be posted here as they are available.
FAQs
FAQs
The HIP will guide a work program that will be implemented over many years. The HIP will identify priority actions and potential funding sources (where needed), necessary partnerships to carry out strategies, and an expected timeline for when actions will be complete.
No, the City is voluntarily electing to create a Housing Implementation Plan to help meet the community’s housing needs. However, in the future, the City will be required to adopt a “Housing Production Strategy” in conjunction with a future update to its Housing Needs Analysis. House Bill 2003, adopted in 2019, requires Oregon cities with populations over 10,000 to develop Housing Production Strategies (HPS), which include a list of specific actions that the city will undertake to address housing needs identified in their HNA. The City of Albany will not be required to adopt an HPS until the year 2028. However, the City intends to incorporate ideas and resources provided by the state of Oregon for HPS’s into its voluntary Housing Implementation Plan.
The 2020 HNA found that there is significant need for new medium- and high-density housing to meet the City’s 20-year housing needs. This includes multi-family housing and “missing middle housing” such as duplexes, triplexes, quadplexes, and townhomes. The analysis also found both existing and future needs for housing affordable to low-income households (defined as households earning 80% or less of area median income). In particular, the HNA identified a shortage of rental units at the lowest pricing levels that would be affordable to the lowest-income households. Residents, realtors, the housing authority, and developers have also indicated a need for one-bedroom dwellings, accessible housing of all shapes and sizes, smaller one-story housing for residents wishing to downsize or buy their first home, and narrow lot housing. These gaps will be a focus of the City’s Housing Implementation Plan.
Albany’s Housing Implementation Plan (HIP) will identify a set of policies and tools that the City can implement to facilitate housing development that meets the needs of the community. The HIP will prioritize strategies that promote fair and equitable housing choices for all residents, especially residents especially residents of protected classes and those experiencing housing insecurity.
The HIP may include strategies in the following categories:
- Zoning and development code changes
- Reducing regulatory or process barriers to housing
- Financial incentives (such as tax abatements or system development charge reductions)
- Funding sources (such as a Construction Excise Tax)
- Land, acquisition, lease, and partnerships with housing providers and other community organizations
An exhaustive list of potential tools, actions, and policies that cities can implement to promote housing development was assembled by DLCD and can be found here.
The HIP was adopted in June 2023.
