Planning Commission

Draft PC Minutes were reviewed and approved at the July 9, 2025 PC Meeting. Wilsonville Planning Commission Regular Meeting Minutes June 11, 2025 Wilsonville City Hall & Remote Video Conferencing https://www.ci.wilsonville.or.us/meetings/pc CALL TO ORDER - ROLL CALL Chair Hendrix called the meeting to order at 6:00 pm. Present: Nicole Hendrix, Jennifer Willard, Andrew Karr, Sam Scull, and Matt Constantine. Excused: Ron Heberlein and Yana Semenova Staff Present: Daniel Pauly, Amanda Guile-Hinman, Miranda Bateschell, Sarah Pearlman, and Mandi Simmons PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE The Pledge of Allegiance was recited. CITIZEN INPUT There was none. ADMINISTRATIVE MATTERS 1. Consideration of the May 14, 2025 Planning Commission Minutes The May 14, 2025 Planning Commission minutes were accepted as presented. PUBLIC HEARING 2. CFEC Parking (Pauly) Chair Hendrix read the conduct of legislative hearing rules into the record and called the public hearing at 6:02 pm. Daniel Pauly, Planning Manager, announced that the criteria applicable to the application could be found in Attachment 2 to the Staff report, which had been entered into the record. Copies of the report were available on the side of the room and would be made available to the public as required. Planning Manager Pauly presented the Climate Friendly and Equitable Communities (CFEC) Parking Compliance and Reform Project Development Code Amendments via PowerPoint as follows: Planning Commission Meeting Minutes Page 1 June 11, 2025 • The primary driver of the proposed Code amendments was the State’s CFEC program issued via Executive Order by Governor Kate Brown in March 2022, directing State agencies to reduce climate pollution. While CFEC was much broader, tonight’s public hearing was focused on parking. The goal of the proposed amendments was to comply with State rules but also look for ways to encourage quality and functional development as parking is developed in Wilsonville. • He noted the purpose of the State rules, noting the State found that minimum parking requirements lead inefficient land use, less walkability, and more pollution from driving. (Slide 4) • As discussed in Planning Commission work sessions, Parking A, one of the two compliance parking reform phases, was already in effect and had superseded the City’s Code for some time. • Parking A limited minimum parking requirements for certain uses, particularly certain residential uses, and for Wilsonville, included the Transit proximity rule, which removes parking minimums for most of Wilsonville due to the proximity to frequent transit; however, Charbonneau, the western two-thirds of Villebois and a portion of the northwest industrial area were not impacted by the Parking A phase. Parking A also included specific Electric Vehicle Ready requirements. (Slides 6-7) • The proposed amendments would essentially make local Code align with the State rules. • Parking B must be complied with by the end of June and had two components: choosing one of three options to further reform parking minimums and then implementing some design standards reform for newly built parking. • After careful consideration by the Planning Commission and City Council, as well as public input, the City would proceed with Option 1 as it would remove parking minimums in the areas not covered with the Parking A phase, making parking standards consistent across the city and avoiding the added complexity and cost associated with implementing Options 2 or 3. Additionally, industrial areas were likely to provide ample parking, and applicable residential areas are not likely to add any develop in the foreseeable future. (Slide 9) • Currently, the City had two sets of Parking Lot Design Standards, depending on the size of parking lot. • One big change to the design standards was that the CFEC rules have a lower threshold for some of the Enhanced Design Requirements, starting at 40 parking spaces rather than the 200-space threshold in the existing Code. This change resulted in the new standards applying to three tiers of parking area based on size; parking areas with 40 or less parking spaces, 40 to 200 spaces, and more than 200 parking spaces. (Slides 10-11) • Another CFEC component was allowing developers to install solar panels in lieu of 25% of the required parking lot tree plantings, or 10% of the total tree canopy. • Under CFEC, parking areas with 40 or more spaces were required to have 40% parking lot tree canopy, while parking areas with less than 40 spaces must have 30% tree canopy. Planning Commission Meeting Minutes Page 2 June 11, 2025  • Solar panels could be installed in the parking area, on the roof, or elsewhere on the site. Solar panels have similar climate impacts to trees, so adding that flexibility made sense. • Staff’s recommended Code Amendments would create three tiers of Parking Area Design Standards as follows: • Parking areas with less than 40 parking spaces would continue adhering to the City’s existing general design standards which met CFEC requirements. • For parking areas with 40 to 200 parking spaces, the City’s existing design standards would apply as well as the CFEC required enhanced tree canopy and solar standards. • be amended to meet the CFEC rules. • For parking areas with more than 200 spaces, the City’s already rigorous design standards also met CFEC requirements and would still apply as well as optional CFEC solar standards. • Two updates were included in the amendments based on the Planning Commission’s comments included adjusting the City’s existing requirement that 25% of trees be interior to the parking area to only apply to parking areas with 200+ parking spaces, which was consistent with the current Code, while removing the requirement for 40- to 200-space parking lots. • Secondly, in the 200+ parking space tier, “front entrance” was changed to “main entrance” with regard to internal walkways since in some cases, the front entrance may be on a sidewalk facing the street, while the intention was to access the main entrance from the parking lot. • Staff’s recommendation was to adopt the resolution recommending that City Council adopt the proposed Development Code amendments. Brian Davis, Consultant, Studio Davis, stated he was available for questions. Chair Hendrix confirmed there were no questions from the Commission, no public testimony, and no further discussion from the Commission. She closed the public hearing at 6:17 pm. Commissioner Willard moved to approve Resolution No. LP25-0002 as written. Commissioner Karr seconded the motion. Chair Hendrix thanked Staff for their help in navigating a complex issue. She appreciated the effort to align with other City practices and to navigate the State requirements. Commissioner Karr thanked the Staff for their patience as the Planning Commission worked to understand the intent behind the CFEC parking rules. Commissioner Scull echoed other Commissioner comments, adding he had a new appreciation for parking spaces. The motion passed 5 to 0. (Ayes: Willard, Karr, Scull, Constantine, Hendrix. Nays: None.) Planning Commission Meeting Minutes Page 3 June 11, 2025 INFORMATIONAL 3. Annual Housing Report (Pearlman) Planning Director Bateschell introduced the topic, highlighting the history of how the City began tracking housing permit data, housing activity, and development approvals to better understand Wilsonville’s housing growth compared to regional assumptions. This year marked the 10-year anniversary of the City’s Housing Report, which had evolved in response to ongoing questions about affordability and housing types. She thanked Planning Department staff members for their assistance over the years in developing the report and commended Assistant Planner Sarah Pearlman for her work in producing this year’s Annual Housing Report. Assistant Planner Pearlman presented the 2024 Wilsonville Annual Housing Report via StoryMaps, providing an overview of activity over the past year and steps the City had taken to enable development throughout Wilsonville. While there was clearly a downturn in production activities due to market fluctuations and uncertainties, the City was laying groundwork for more development to ensure that the housing built in the near future met a variety of needs and desires for Wilsonville residents. The presentation reviewed housing inventory, permitting, population and development trends, affordability and overall cost burdens of ownership and renting, as well as a high-level comparison to the affordability and growth trends in similar communities. Comments from the Commission were as follows with responses to Commissioner questions as noted: • Comments were made about the population increase in 2020 and the cost of housing and rent spiking in 2021, which may have been due to COVID-19. • The City’s Housing Report went way beyond anything that could be found for West Linn or other cities in the local area. Staff was commended for their great work. • Having seen the Housing Report for the last several years, the report felt familiar, was easily consumed and very consistent with the Housing Needs Analysis. • Adding information to one of the City’s compatible reports was suggested to show how long it takes to actually get housing produced in Wilsonville; from the urban growth boundary to approval to permitting and tracking that data over time. • Planning Director Bateschell explained a combination of factors had led to high rent increases. State-level restrictions had capped rent increases during COVID, and once those were lifted, rents increased substantially across the region and statewide. It had also been several years since new multi-family residential had been constructed, so the supply of rental units was not growing as much. In addition, a couple major apartment projects had recently been purchased and often those acquisitions came with improvements to facilities that increased rents. Finally, though the City had entitled a few multifamily projects with hundreds of units in recent years, financing was tight, as well as the market, which had delayed groundbreaking. Unlocking these barriers would increase supply and ease pressure on rental price points. Planning Commission Meeting Minutes Page 4 June 11, 2025 • Staff would check with ECONorthwest and report back to the Planning Commission about what the CoStar data source tracked and if both single and multifamily residential were including in the rental statistics. • Including a summary at the end of the Housing Report was suggested explaining how the City was helping to move the needle on some items or that tied the information into work the City was doing, such as the work and implementation actions of the Housing Our Future project. 4. City Council Action Minutes (May 5 & 19, 2025) (No staff presentation) 5. 2025 PC Work Program (No staff presentation) Chair Hendrix noted she would not be able to attend the July Planning Commission meeting. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 6:45 p.m. Planning Commission Meeting Minutes Page 5 June 11, 2025