Ordinance No. 19777 - Laserfiche WebLink

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According to the latest 1991 drafts of tl~e Metro Area's industrial lands study and residential lands study, medium density residential land allocations are extremely tight, especially when contrasted with industrial land allocations. The draft residential lands study shoves a projected medium density residential demand of 1340- 144D buildable acres aver the long-term planning period. The long-term, unadjusted gross supply of land designated either in tl~e plan or on a zoning map, is 1,339 acres, less than the lower of the two projected figures. The actual supply. of medium density land not subject to physical constraints, such as wetlands, flood plains, and severe slopes, is~~87, or less than 25 percent of the designated land. A further description of the inventory is provided by land use consultant Jim Saul, which confirms that the supply is indeed very tight. By contrast, the draft study on Industrial Land supply and demand shows that the chart-term supply exceeds both short-term and long-term demand. Sl~ort-term supply is 1,947 acres. Short- term demand is 22S to 41o acres. Long-term demand is b5o to 1,17o acres. ~ The gross supply of industrial land is 4,039 acres. The long-term buildable supply is 3,bfl4 acres.. Currently constraint-free land is l,b$$ acres. This short-fall in the area's mufti-family inventory does not help what has become a signif cant problem: affordable housing. During the to years since the Metro Plan was acknowledged, the lack of affordable housing has grown steadily worse, both nationally and here in central Lane County. Documentation of this situation nationally, is found in the National Housing Task Force report, State of the Nation'sHousin~. Locally, a variety of studies have made similar f ndings. Among them are these: The 19$9 Lane County Task Force on Homelessness and Affordable Housing reported that "the only residential housing construction that has occurred since 1979 "has been planned and designed for the higher income sector." The rental vacancy rate in Lane County has declined markedly since the mid-eighties, while rents have steadily increased at rates substantially greater than average median incomes. Little new rental construction has occurred since 1979, and "what there is has been planned and designed, for the higher income sector." In July, l9$9, for example, a description of recently proposed rental projects in Eugene projected the lowest rent for atwo-bedroom apartment at $5~5 a rrtonth. Approximately 2$,00o Lane County households are considered low-income, meaning those having incomes of less than half the median ~$14,750~ family incame far a family of four.