I was watching Bloomberg last week and saw an interview with Palmer Lucky, the founder of Anduril, a defence technology company. Although Lucky is from California he said that California was not considered as a site for his five million square foot factory because of how difficult it is to do things in California. He said " there are some states that are really good at slowing you down and pushing you out and others are great at pulling you in and speeding things up," which is why he chose Ohio. Sadly, Oregon is too much like California in that it generally makes permitting for all manner of projects complicated, time consuming and expensive. In order to make progress on housing, or attract new business to the state, it would be much better off if it were able to change its bureaucratic culture to one that is much more proactive,helpful and dedicated to getting things done.
I can see a few ways to solve this issue and its an old idea. I live in Lakeview Oregon and we have only one person that does a multitude of land and housing duties. One way to solve this is to move some of the people to a central location that can do those duties from one central location. I have been in lakeview for 12 years and I can't remember how many building inspectors we have had in that time.
About that old idea:
In todays electronic information age, does a need exist for each small city or county to have on staff personal for these duties? No not any more. Plans can be reviewed remotely from almost any location. If a small group of people could be hired by a small amount of tax money being pooled to fund that group to review plans. This could make building codes more evenly applied across the state. Each person that needed plans reviewed could also pay a small fee to have the plans reviewed. I am sure that one Civil Engineer could oversee this group and if the need for a more in-depth review was needed and plans needed to be stamped by a Engineer that resource could be paid by the plan submitter. Most house plans do not need a stamp since they are all very straight forward. I am sure that the cost would be much less than having each small city and county having to pay for full time staff for this service. Having a centralized staff would also have the benefit of building a better depth of knowledge. If on site review was needed then I am sure that staff could plan for a batch of site visits once or twice a month.
As a note, most of the inspectors that we have had here don't want to stay because of the low pay and the remote locations here in eastern Oregon.
And I also wonder why we don't teach drafting and design like we did back in the 1970's and 80's here in Oregon High Schools. We need to invest in more into those old industrial art type classes. This may be one of the reasons that we can't get enough houses built here in this state.
You may even find some older folks that want to teach these basic industrial arts to the young among us. All it takes is getting the word out.
Great piece, really glad you are on the side of less regulation. I think you'll need to come to grips with the fact that local control of zoning and housing regulation has led to those restrictive zoning rules you are (rightly) opposed to.
Thank you Representative. A very well written piece. Some how, we need to get wages livable and housing prices down to affordable. Infrastructure is huge, before you can expand to new and affordable housing you must have an infrastructure that can handle it. I would hope that figures in at the beginning of the planning and opening up restrictions instead of put off until later. Also maybe cutting more trees, retooling the mills and producing lumber for building would be looked at as part of the plan as well. Thank you for your insights and I wish you the best in this new session.
The vast majority of housing I see being built in Portland is taxpayer funded low income housing. Portland then allows the units to be filled with active drug users. Is it any wonder they all turn into Buri Buildings? What a waste. And private developers have all but pulled out of the Portland market..due to permitting costs and delays. https://www.wweek.com/news/2023/06/07/a-28-million-low-income-apartment-complex-descends-into-chaos-in-just-two-and-a-half-years/
I was watching Bloomberg last week and saw an interview with Palmer Lucky, the founder of Anduril, a defence technology company. Although Lucky is from California he said that California was not considered as a site for his five million square foot factory because of how difficult it is to do things in California. He said " there are some states that are really good at slowing you down and pushing you out and others are great at pulling you in and speeding things up," which is why he chose Ohio. Sadly, Oregon is too much like California in that it generally makes permitting for all manner of projects complicated, time consuming and expensive. In order to make progress on housing, or attract new business to the state, it would be much better off if it were able to change its bureaucratic culture to one that is much more proactive,helpful and dedicated to getting things done.
I can see a few ways to solve this issue and its an old idea. I live in Lakeview Oregon and we have only one person that does a multitude of land and housing duties. One way to solve this is to move some of the people to a central location that can do those duties from one central location. I have been in lakeview for 12 years and I can't remember how many building inspectors we have had in that time.
About that old idea:
In todays electronic information age, does a need exist for each small city or county to have on staff personal for these duties? No not any more. Plans can be reviewed remotely from almost any location. If a small group of people could be hired by a small amount of tax money being pooled to fund that group to review plans. This could make building codes more evenly applied across the state. Each person that needed plans reviewed could also pay a small fee to have the plans reviewed. I am sure that one Civil Engineer could oversee this group and if the need for a more in-depth review was needed and plans needed to be stamped by a Engineer that resource could be paid by the plan submitter. Most house plans do not need a stamp since they are all very straight forward. I am sure that the cost would be much less than having each small city and county having to pay for full time staff for this service. Having a centralized staff would also have the benefit of building a better depth of knowledge. If on site review was needed then I am sure that staff could plan for a batch of site visits once or twice a month.
As a note, most of the inspectors that we have had here don't want to stay because of the low pay and the remote locations here in eastern Oregon.
And I also wonder why we don't teach drafting and design like we did back in the 1970's and 80's here in Oregon High Schools. We need to invest in more into those old industrial art type classes. This may be one of the reasons that we can't get enough houses built here in this state.
You may even find some older folks that want to teach these basic industrial arts to the young among us. All it takes is getting the word out.
Great piece, really glad you are on the side of less regulation. I think you'll need to come to grips with the fact that local control of zoning and housing regulation has led to those restrictive zoning rules you are (rightly) opposed to.
Bring in the Amish, provide them with the materials, put up tiny homes. Voila,
Thank you Representative. A very well written piece. Some how, we need to get wages livable and housing prices down to affordable. Infrastructure is huge, before you can expand to new and affordable housing you must have an infrastructure that can handle it. I would hope that figures in at the beginning of the planning and opening up restrictions instead of put off until later. Also maybe cutting more trees, retooling the mills and producing lumber for building would be looked at as part of the plan as well. Thank you for your insights and I wish you the best in this new session.
Ginny Van Loo