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On Earth Day 1971, cartoonist parodied a famous quote as a moment of self-reflection on the human relationship with the environment. His famous character, Pogo the Opossum, surveyed the polluted Okefenokee Swamp, where he and his fellow characters lived, and observed, 鈥淲e have met the enemy and he is us.鈥�

Another opportunity for that reflection came with former Gov. Kate Brown’s executive order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as well as the state’s legislative goal and policy of reducing greenhouse gas levels to at least 75 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. While such goals are nice, implementation is necessary, despite the changes they demand. While previous land use and transportation policies made some advances in the effort to address climate destruction, Oregon has taken a more significant step in the adoption by the Land Conservation and Development Commission (LCDC) of its 鈥淐limate-Friendly and Equitable Communities鈥� (CFEC) rules last summer.

Besides the metrics of these legislative and gubernatorial expectations, the CFEC rules, developed over a two-year period with the assistance of a diverse advisory committee, aim to reduce pollution by promoting denser development and less auto-dependent transportation usage in the eight largest urban areas of the state. They seek to reduce the number and length of auto trips, promote biking, walking, and transit use, and reduce air pollution by increasing housing density and proximity of housing to commercial, recreational, and employment uses.

The Portland region since 2010 has been obliged to revise local comprehensive plans and land use regulations to reduce significant pollution from light-duty vehicles by preparing land use and transportation 鈥渟cenarios鈥� and adopt a preferred scenario, along with performance metrics to track progress, and avoid or mitigate inequities to underserved communities to implement a 20 percent reduction in greenhouse gases by 2035, rising to 35 percent in 2050. Metro is implementing LCDC rules most recently revised in 2022. In Oregon, 38 percent of greenhouse gases come from transportation sources 鈥� the focus of the CFEC rules. And it is those metropolitan areas that form the greatest incidence of those transportation emissions.

The CFEC rules extend use of scenario planning to the next two largest regions (Salem-Keizer and Eugene-Springfield), and require 11 communities with populations exceeding 10,000 to designate 鈥渃limate-friendly鈥� areas sufficient to accommodate at least 30 percent of their total housing needs. Four cities with populations of 5,000-10,000 must zone at least 25 acres to allow climate-friendly development. In doing so, cities must consider displacement of existing residents who are in a protected class category and take measures to mitigate or avoid such displacement. While about 72 percent of white families can make intergenerational transfers of wealth thorough their homes, only about 42 percent of black families are so situated and the difference is headed in the wrong direction.

In those designated climate-friendly areas, the local government must allow outright at least attached single-family and multifamily residential uses, office-type uses, non-auto dependent retail, services and other commercial uses, as well as certain public uses. Additionally, local governments must prioritize public facilities that directly provide public services within the designated climate-friendly areas in terms of parks, open space, and similar amenities if these facilities are insufficient. Other provisions encourage mixed-use developments (for example, mixing first-floor retail uses in an otherwise-residential building), encourage bicycle parking and alternative limitations on auto parking minimums 鈥� from none at all to a maximum of one space per housing unit. These tools will become part of local comprehensive plans and land use regulations so that more compact urban areas that reduce greenhouse gases will result.

In addition to the climate-friendly area land use changes, the rules require more new residential buildings to be ready for electric-vehicle charging, as well as prohibit local governments from mandating the provision of off-street parking (as the effect on housing prices is an additional $5,000 per parking space in construction 鈥� money that might be better spent on providing housing instead). In addition, parking consumes huge amounts of land that might be used for housing, causing certain developments to not pencil out profitably in the first place.

As for transportation, the rules look to increased use of walking, cycling, and public transit, moving away from congestion standards as the sole means of evaluating transportation impacts, and support of those projects that have both less pollutants in the air and equity in their operation. According to the Department of Land Conservation and Development, the rules will be deemed successful if at least 30 percent of housing in cities with populations of 10,000 or more is located within climate-friendly areas, although the rules allow for alternative means for achieving greenhouse gas reductions.

The brave new world of the Oregon land use and transportation response to climate change that provides for direct limitations on greenhouse gas emissions is a radical change from most previous plans and land use regulations, which have historically been the province of local governments. It has clear policies and metrics for evaluation. But the changes pose practical problems for those urban areas that must implement them with, thus far, only modest assured financial contributions from the state.

This concern, along with the short timelines to roll out local regulations, have led 13 cities and one county affected to challenge the rules in the Oregon Court of Appeals on various grounds. The Oregon Court of Appeals has denied a stay on the operation of the rules, but has ordered an expedited briefing schedule for an argument on the merits. This challenge illustrates the difficulty of meeting environmental challenges by adopting uniform statewide land use obligations without first securing buy-in from those responsible for implementing them.

Edward Sullivan is a retired practitioner of land use and municipal law with more than 50 years of experience. Contact him at [email protected].

Carrie Richter is an attorney specializing in land use and municipal law at Bateman Seidel. Contact her at 503-972-9903 or [email protected].

The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed in the preceding commentary are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the Daily Journal of Commerce or its editors. Neither author nor the 91视频 guarantees the accuracy or completeness of any information published herein.