New Climate-Friendly & Equitable Communities Rules
The State of Oregon is off track in meeting its statutory goals and policies to reduce climate pollution, particularly pollution from transportation which accounts for at least 38 percent of Oregon’s greenhouse gas emissions. To make a course correction, the Oregon Land Conservation & Development Commission has updated the state’s transportation planning rules and adopted new “Climate-Friendly & Equitable Communities” planning rules. These new rules will strengthen Oregon's transportation and housing planning in those areas with populations over 50,000 people, including Albany, Bend, Corvallis, Eugene/Springfield, Grants Pass, Medford/Ashland, Portland Metro, and Salem/Keizer.
In seeking to meet the state’s climate reduction goals, these new state rules reduce cities’ ability to mandate parking and will require more development to occur in urban areas where residents, workers, and visitors can be less dependent upon automobile trips. These new “Climate-Friendly Areas” are intended to be places where people can meet most of their daily needs without having to drive by having housing located near jobs, businesses, and services. Some changes related to parking have already occurred (see here). The next phase in implementing the new rules is a study to determine potential locations of Climate-Friendly Areas (CFAs) in each city, to be completed by the end of 2023. Once potential CFA’s are identified, the next phase will be to amend zoning maps to adopt CFAs and create new development standards for these areas by the end of 2024.
The Climate-Friendly & Equitable Communities process requires the consideration of voices of underserved populations in working towards equitable outcomes, and state standards require specific analyses of this issue and adoption of anti-displacement measures in conjunction with the initial CFA studies.
More information on the new rules and their implementation is available on the state’s Climate Friendly & Equitable Communities webpage at:
For information on Ashland’s implementation of the new rules, please contact Senior Planner Derek Severson, the assigned project planner for the rule implementation. He can be reached via e-mail to derek.severson@ashland.or.us or by phone at (541) 552-2040. MEETINGS:
April 13, 2023 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Southern Rogue Valley Climate Friendly Area Public Meeting
At the Talent Community Center, 104 East Main Street, Talent
The cities of Ashland, Medford, and Talent in partnership with the Rogue Valley Council of Governments (RVCOG), are hosting a public meeting to present potential Climate Friendly Area locations in all three communities. This meeting will consist of a presentation on the proposed climate friendly areas from RVCOG representatives and a public input forum to gather community feedback on the potential sites for each community.
February 2, 2023 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Virtual Public Meeting to Introduce New ‘Climate-Friendly Area’ Rules
The cities of Ashland, Medford, and Talent, in partnership with the Rogue Valley Council of Governments and Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development are hosting this virtual public meeting to introduce new state requirements regarding “Climate-Friendly Areas.” The meeting will include a presentation on the new rules from DLCD representatives and breakout sessions to learn about what each city will be doing to implement the rules.
