ENTERPRISE — Enterprise residents and public officials put their heads together Wednesday, Oct. 19, to try to solve a longtime problem: the town’s housing shortage.

About 50 people attended the town hall-style meeting in person, with another 10 or so online. It was hosted by Autumn Wilburn, who chairs the city planning commission, along with Mayor Ashley Sullivan and City Administrator Lacey McQuead.

They were joined by Patrick Wingard and Dawn Hert, regional representatives of the state Department of Land Conservation and Development (DLCD), and Tim Wood, of the FCS Group, a consulting firm with an office in Lake Oswego. Wood provided much of the data in a slide show for the forum.

A number of issues were raised at the forum about what is hindering the creation of affordable homes.

Wood presented maps showing where developed lots in the city are located, where lots are available for development and areas not available.

“There’s quite a bit of land available,” he said.

Wood also showed slides that indicated likely growth for Enterprise in comparison with other cities in the county and outside the county.

One issue that raised concern was Wood’s report, based on a Portland State University prediction of population growth, that Enterprise will add only 129 people over the next 20 years.

Resident Paul Pelley spoke up to say he doubts the city will grow by such a small number. (The U.S. Census reported that Enterprise’s population in 2020 was 2,181.)

Wingard said the number sounds small, but pointed to population trends in Oregon in which more people are dying than are being born in the state; in those conditions, any increase will have to come from people moving into the area. He also noted that PSU frequently updates its predictions. McQuead said a new estimate is to be made next year and the city does its own annually.

Another resident, Dawn Haskett, said she’s surprised there’s not more being done to build and rehabilitate rental units. She suggested reaching out to the state and to professional groups to get them involved. However, others noted that property owners are unlikely to want the state getting involved in their personal business.

Still, the poor condition of many rentals keeps many of them unoccupied.

Realtor Anette Christoffersen said she sees that regularly.

“A lot of the rental homes are in very bad shape,” she said, adding that they need rehabilitation.

Wingard said the city could press for rehabilitation, but that again raises the issue of government getting involved in private business.

Another issue raised was the number of vacation homes that are not occupied year around and bed-and-breakfasts in town. McQuead said that issue has come before the city council previously and at present, there are only 11 bed-and-breakfasts in Enterprise.

The cost of homes also was raised, as inflation has driven up home prices. Wood showed a slide that confirmed the rapid increase of housing and rental prices compared to incomes. According to an analysis by Zillow.com Wood presented, the median home price is has increased by about $90,000 over the past two years to more than $360,000 in Enterprise, $265,000 in Wallowa and $470,000 in Joseph.

Solutions

One solution the city could come up with would be to expand its urban growth boundary, although that option was not considered likely.

McQuead said that property owners in unincorporated areas that could be considered for inclusion within the urban growth boundary often don’t want to sell because they prefer the rural nature of their land.

An urban growth boundary is a line drawn between urban and rural lands defining the limits to which the urban area will grow. Oregon, Washington and Tennessee mandate their use; Florida encourages them and Maryland and California have been using them for decades.

Pointing to a map on display, Wingard said, “This buildable land inventory — this really complicated map — is being done because the state is requiring the city to do this. The city really doesn’t have to go to this level of detail but for the urban growth boundary policies. If the city wants to expand its urban growth boundaries, it would have to demonstrate that it doesn’t have a 20-year supply of land within the boundary.”

Another potential solution Wingard discussed involved grants through the state Department of Land Conservation and Development that could assist the city. He said such grants don’t require matching funds from cities.

The program is set up for cities that want to work with the department through citizen engagement, public involvement “and then you go to your planning commission said he’s always eager to see grants go to Eastern Oregon communities.

“Some of our grant goes to pay our consultants — the certified smart people — who do this work so that Dawn and I, more of the people people, can come out and work with you all and try to achieve some of those outcomes. So that’s what this grant program is about, helping that growth process move along,” he said. “Every time we get a grant application from Eastern Oregon, we want to fund it.”

https://tinyurl.com/housingneedsanalysis