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Portland City Council this week unanimously approved zoning code amendments intended to allow greater housing diversity in the city鈥檚 residential neighborhoods.

Wednesday鈥檚 vote was for an addition to the Residential Infill Project that took effect last year and allows for duplexes, triplexes and similar housing structures to be developed in a single-dwelling zone. Those sites were previously reserved only for single homes 鈥� except duplexes on corner lots.

The Residential Infill Project 鈥� Part 2 (RIP2) addresses outstanding mandates in Oregon House Bill 2001. It requires metro-area cities to allow duplexes on all lots where single homes are allowed, as well as triplexes, fourplexes, attached houses and cottage clusters.

Before the vote was called, Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty acknowledged Commissioner Carmen Rubio for listening to community concerns about the need for more housing and ensuring 鈥渨e have the flexibility necessary and the policies in place to 鈥� do so in a way that fits our environmental, climate and racial justice goals.鈥�

Key items in RIP2 include:

• lower density single-dwelling residential zones, including larger lots in outlying areas (R10 and R20) that were not part of RIP1, are now included as part of RIP2;
• new land division rules for attached houses are added to increase the number of lots that can be created for homeownership;
• new cottage cluster rules are included that will permit up to 16 smaller detached homes that are oriented to common shared open space;
• flexibility for affordable housing will enable townhouse style, side-by-side units by offering more building coverage in exchange for lower building heights; and
• more options are included to incorporate existing houses in middle housing projects with detached-unit duplexes.

New middle housing land division rules were added to bring Portland into compliance with Senate Bill 458, which requires cities to allow middle housing units, like duplexes and triplexes, to be divided so each is on its own lot and can be owned separately.

Before casting the final vote on Wednesday, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler stated that RIP2 鈥溾�� will actually shape the physical direction of this city for decades to come. I鈥檓 very confident that this was the exact right strategy for us to pursue as a community.鈥�