Through the City Council’s approval of an ordinance at its Dec. 9 meeting, Philomath became the first community in Oregon to meet the state’s standards for climate-friendly areas, a piece of the state’s Climate-Friendly and Equitable Communities program.
The program is an initiative of the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development, the state’s land-use planning agency. The program aims to boost housing production and affordability while increasing transportation options. It requires communities in Oregon’s urban locations to designate, zone and plan areas where residents can get around without depending on long car trips to meet their daily needs, saving residents money.
“It’s not its own zone in and of itself but it’s an overlay overall of the zones that are within that boundary,” Philomath City Manager Chris Workman explained. “So within the boundary of the climate-friendly area, there’s a lot more allowances of things for what you think of as a walkable downtown, pedestrian-friendly area.”
Per state standards, the climate-friendly areas are required to be a minimum of 25 acres in size and have a minimum width of 750 feet.
“It’s not a very large area of our downtown that’s impacted by it but within that area, there’s just more flexibility for housing, specifically high-density housing,” Workman said. Some of that downtown core is commercial, some of it’s currently office residential, some of it’s downtown commercial … so there’s a mix of zoning in that area that all gets treated the same with these new state standards.”
The zoning change helps make it easier for residents and employees in the area to meet more daily needs without vehicle trips.
“We’re glad to be providing leadership towards making Philomath more walkable,” Philomath Mayor Christopher McMorran said through a news release. “This increased development in walkable areas in downtown means Philomath residents will have more housing opportunities while saving money on transportation. Future residents, and future generations, will appreciate these long-term investments in creating great communities.”
The Climate-Friendly and Equitable Communities program requires cities in Oregon’s urban regions with more than 50,000 people to designate walkable, “climate-friendly” areas. It aims to have those areas serve 30% of city populations in the future. While cities already have some zoning that encourages walkable, mixed-use centers, the program requires cities to strengthen their codes to be even more effective.
“People living in these climate-friendly areas will find it easier to drive less, reduce climate pollution, and help Oregon meet its goal to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 75% by 2050,” said Kevin Young, senior urban planner at the department.
Fourteen other communities will complete their zoning work by 2028: Albany, Ashland, Bend, Central Point, Corvallis, Eagle Point, Eugene, Grants Pass, Keizer, Marion County, Medford, Salem, Springfield and Talent.
Workman found it interesting that Philomath turned out to be the first city in the state to comply with the climate-friendly area standards.
“Every city within a metropolitan area was required to have it done by the end of 2024,” Workman said, adding that cities not able to get the requirement in place could request extensions. “Ours is a little simplified because we’re a city under 10,000 so there were certain provisions that we weren’t required to do.”
Workman said larger cities are required to complete more in-depth studies, for example, how the change wouldn’t negatively affect existing residents within those areas.
“They want to make sure that the gentrification that sometimes can happen with these larger residential or commercial projects didn’t happen to people that are most vulnerable,” he said.
Workman gives credit to the Planning Commission for its work.
“I do want to give our Planning Commission credit, I mean, they took this seriously,” Workman said. “They spent extra time, we had the public hearings and we got through our public process relatively quickly because they were willing to meet more often.”
