On Wednesday, September 16th, Bend’s city council voted unanimously to pass a first reading of the HB2001 code changes. Final approval was given on October 6th.
In practice, that means that Bend will soon allow a variety of “middle housing” types – including 4-plexes and “cottage clusters”. With our ongoing housing crisis, we desperately need the variety that this provides.
HB2001 has been a long time in the making. Our YIMBY group started advocating for it when we met with then state representative Cheri Helt back in early 2019. There is a long list of people to thank:
- Tina Kotek for sponsoring it.
- Cheri Helt and Tim Knopp for voting in favor.
- Kate Brown for signing it.
- Bend’s Stakeholder Advisory Committee for hammering out various compromises to the code detail. In particular, Katherine Austin and Scott Winters.
- Pauline Hardie from the city of Bend for shepherding the extensive changes through the process.
- Lynne McConnell from the city of Bend for explaining so succinctly and powerfully why this legislation was necessary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4dC1NAldzY&t=786s
- Bend’s city council for approving these changes. Councilor Melanie Kebler wrote a great piece for the Bulletin: Bend code changes will all people of all incomes to live together
This isn’t going to fix all Bend’s housing problems, but it’s a start at allowing more a larger variety of homes to be built throughout town.
Bend YIMBY 