Councilor Robert Liberty had hoped to get affordable housing provisions into Title 11 by his last day on the council, Jan. 15.
He may or may not get that. But a broader discussion about affordable housing in the Metro region won the endorsement from regional leaders at a Tuesday meeting of the Metro Policy Advisory Committee's housing subcommittee.
Title 11 of the Metro Urban Growth Management Functional Plan sets the standards by which cities and counties have to plan for areas they want included in any urban growth boundary expansion. Liberty had been pushing for those standards to include plans for affordable housing for families making certain percentages of the median income.
One proposal made its way onto December's proposed Capacity Ordinance. But the Portland Metropolitan Association of Realtors and the Home Builders Association of Metropolitan Portland lobbied to have the Title 11 changes removed from the ordinance; a delay in posting the proposal to Metro's website caused the council to postpone discussion of the provisions.
At Tuesday's MPAC subcommittee meeting, Beaverton community development director Don Mazziotti said the Title 11 proposal should instead require cities – and really, the whole region – to plan for affordable housing somewhere, not necessarily in urban growth boundary expansion areas.
A proposed expansion area near Beaverton, Mazziotti said, has no transit service, nor any of the social services that are likely to be used by residents below median income.
Meanwhile, several affordable housing projects are underway in Beaverton's core, Mazziotti said.
"We are planning to put those close to the central district, where they're close to the post office and the Social Security office and other social services such as transit, because that's what they need," he said. "We think affordable housing is a big issue, and one that needs to be addressed. We think Metro can contribute in many ways to the solution."
Metro Chief Operating Officer Michael Jordan suggested the Title 11 rules could be a little broader.
"Maybe it's just as simple as saying, in the first line, 'A local government, in creating a concept plan to comply with this title, shall consider options necessary to achieve these outcomes,'" Jordan suggested.
Mazziotti said his main concern was making sure there was clarity in the review process by Metro. But Liberty reminded Mazziotti that the Metro Council might have choices in where, or if, it makes an urban growth boundary expansion.
"I would hope my soon-to-be ex-colleagues would say, 'You haven't really told us any of these things, and we're reluctant to expand in an area where we don't know what the result's going to be,'" Liberty said.
Still, many of the representatives at the table – most of whom were from suburban areas – wanted to see a regional approach to housing issues.
And because only edge communities would be subject to the planning rules, said Hillsboro Mayor Jerry Willey, putting affordable housing provisions in Title 11 wouldn't truly be a regional mandate.
"We all agree regionally it would be best if we had some sort of agreement, or policy or something, that we all said we needed to have affordable housing in our communities because we need to have a variety of housing opportunities in all of our communities," Willey said. "We need to do that. We need to focus on that. We need to have zoning that encourages that."
Clackamas County Commissioner Charlotte Lehan, attending the meeting via phone after recovering from surgery, defended the placement of the affordable housing planning provisions in Title 11.
"There aren't any mandates or 'shalls' in here about what you 'shall' do. It's just about what the concept plan 'shall' show, and then it's about how it will achieve or contribute to the achievement of," she said. "It's exactly the same language here on proximity to transportation facilities, pedestrian and bike travel, stormwater, all of those things – you have to show these things in your concept plan. It doesn't say how far you have to be from the transit stop."
But she emphasized she supported a commitment to addressing affordable housing on a comprehensive, regional scale.
After more than an hour of discussion, the subcommittee members said they felt like they could go to Wednesday night's Metro Policy Advisory Committee meeting with a recommendation. That recommendation will be an important factor in whether the Metro Council supports the Title 11 changes at its Thursday meeting.
But after Tuesday's subcommittee meeting, Willey, who is chairing Wednesday night's MPAC meeting, said he still isn't ready to see the planning provisions put into place.
"Are we comfortable enough with it to encourage the Metro Council to actually adopt it – I don't think we're there yet," Willey said after talking with Portland Metropolitan Association of Realtors lobbyist Jane Leo.
Leo said the language continues to get better, but also said attorneys she's consulted say requirements to plan housing for residents making 30, 50 and 80 percent of the median income violate state bans on so-called inclusionary zoning.
"That issue has to be resolved before it boxes in a municipality to specifically say in their comprehensive plan, 'We met 30 percent of median family income,'" she said. "Prolonging the conversation, and prolonging the adoption of this – no one wants to keep doing the same old, same old. We get a better product that impacts the entire region, not just the new lands."
On that, Liberty seemed to agree.
"(Beaverton) Mayor (Denny) Doyle made a comment to me in parting. He said the silver lining is we've raised the broader issue about the regional approach," Liberty said at Tuesday afternoon's council worksession. "I said 'Denny, I don't think that's a silver lining. That's the core of the effort.'"