TO: Mayor and City Council
THROUGH: Krishna Namburi, City Manager
FROM: Kristin Retherford, Community Planning and Development Department Director
SUBJECT:
title
Housing code project to identify potential zoning code revisions that encourage housing development
Ward(s): All Wards
Councilor(s): All Councilors
Neighborhood(s): All Neighborhoods
Result Area(s): Welcoming and Livable Community
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SUMMARY:
summary
The City adopted the Salem Housing Production Strategy (HPS) in May 2025. One of the 17 actions in the HPS is to revise the zoning code to support the development of housing. Staff has collaborated with the development community and others to identify potential zoning code revisions.
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ISSUE:
Information only.
RECOMMENDATION:
recommendation
Information only.
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FACTS AND FINDINGS:
The City kicked off a new project this summer - the Housing Code Project - to identify potential zoning code revisions that would promote housing development in Salem. The list of code revision ideas is included as Attachment 1. The ideas aim to help meet Salem’s housing needs by encouraging the development of a variety of housing types, promoting infill development, removing potential code barriers, and incentivizing accessible housing.
Staff has been collaborating with the development community, conducting research, and seeking input from neighborhoods and the public to develop and refine a list of code revision ideas. Outreach has included meetings with developers, architects, land use consultants and attorneys, engineers, homebuilders, and other members of the development community. Community Planning and Development staff also engaged neighborhood association chairs and land use chairs, held a public open house in October, conducted one-on-one interviews, and coordinated with staff across the City.
Revising the zoning code is one of the 17 actions listed in Salem’s first Housing Production Strategy (HPS). Implementation of that action will require a code amendment, which would go through the City’s public adoption process next year. That next step would include drafting proposed code amendment language, developing an ordinance, and conducting public hearings. The community would continue to have the opportunity to provide input into the proposed code revisions.
Housing Code Revision Ideas
The code revision ideas are explained in Attachment 1, which is called “Code Revision Ideas.” The document categorizes the code revision ideas by the type of housing that would be most impacted by the potential changes or by overall topic. For each issue identified by staff or the development community, the City’s current standard or regulation is provided as well as the code revision idea. The purpose and rationale for each code revision idea is also included in the document. Several of the ideas align and implement State rules and laws. The code revision ideas are summarized below.
1. Single Family and Middle Housing
The code revision ideas promote the development of single family and middle housing - two family, three family, four family, townhouses, and cottage clusters - by easing regulations for infill development. For example, the ideas include allowing more than four units to be served by a flag lot accessway, eliminating the requirement that an accessory dwelling unit be located to the side or rear of a main dwelling unit, allowing more cottages in a cottage cluster (up to 16 units), and allowing cottages in a cottage cluster to be attached as opposed to only detached.
2. Multifamily Housing
The code revision ideas encourage the development of multifamily housing by adding flexibility into the City’s multifamily design standards. For example, one idea is to apply fewer design standards to multifamily projects with up to 16 units. Currently, projects with up to 12 units are required to meet fewer standards than larger projects; the smaller projects, for example, do not need to meet articulation standards, have fewer landscaping requirements, and can provide less open space.
The code revision ideas also promote infill development on properties that are zoned Multiple Family Residential-II (RM-II). For example, one idea would make it easier to add dwelling units on smaller lots - those that are 0.25 acres or less in size - that already have a house on it. New units could be built on those lots without having to meet the minimum density in the zone, which is 15 units per acre.
3. Mixed Use
The code revision ideas aim to better facilitate ground-floor residential uses in the City’s Mixed Use-I (MU-I) zone. That zone was created to promote the development mixed-use projects, but it also allows fully residential development, which is largely being developed in that zone in Salem. Several of the MU-I standards are geared toward ground-floor commercial uses, such as the requirement for at least 14-foot ground floor heights and at least 65 percent ground floor window coverage. The code revision ideas would decrease the design standards for buildings with ground-floor residential uses in the MU-I zone (e.g., less windows, less awnings or canopies, lower ground-floor height, and a larger set back from the street).
4. Trees
The code revision ideas add flexibility in the City’s tree preservation regulations. For example, one idea is to allow significant trees to be removed for the development of single family or middle housing through a tree removal permit. Today, a significant tree can be removed for the development of multifamily housing or nonresidential use through a tree removal permit, which does not include public notice or a local appeal. However, to build a single-family home or middle housing (outside of a land division), a tree variance is required in most cases. A tree variance is considered a limited land use application, which includes public notice and the opportunity to appeal at the local level. If the City streamlines the tree removal process for single family and middle housing, staff would add replanting or mitigation requirements.
5. Other Land Use Standards
The code revision ideas aim to incentivize accessible housing. Specifically, one idea implements House Bill 2138 from the 2025 Legislative Session, which requires cities to provide a density bonus if a middle housing development includes an accessible housing unit. Another idea is to incentivize the development of accessible single family homes by allowing accessible units to cover more of a lot - up to 75 percent of a lot - and have smaller setbacks.
Other code revision ideas reduce the minimum bike parking requirements for multifamily developments in line with State rules. Today, the City requires 1 bike parking space per dwelling unit in a multifamily project, but the State only requires ½ bike parking space per dwelling unit, though the spaces must be covered. The City plans to do a more comprehensive update of the City’s bike parking requirements - both minimum space requirements and locational requirements - as part of a future code amendment.
6. Infrastructure Requirements
The code revision ideas promote infill housing development by easing regulations for middle housing. Specifically, one idea would be to allow middle housing to share a sewer system even if the property is divided so that each unit is on its own lots. The State previously required separate utilities if middle housing was divided through a middle housing land division, but the Legislature passed a bill in the 2025 Legislative Session that gives cities the option to allow shared utilities.
Another idea is to exempt middle housing projects with up to four units from the City’s boundary street requirements; the City requires most developments to dedicate and construct improvements to the street abutting their given property if that street does not meet the City’s street standards. Conversion of a single-family home into a duplex, triplex, or fourplex are already exempt, and the construction of a new single family or two family project are essentially exempt. The code revision idea would extend the exemption to the construction of new three and four family projects but not cottage clusters.
7. Review Authority and Procedures
The code revision ideas include changes to the review authority and procedures related to housing projects and other applications. In response to a City Council motion in 2024, the changes remove the option for City Council to call up applications for the development of new housing. Another change would shift the review authority of Conditional Use Permits and Historic Adaptive Reuse applications from the Hearings Officer to the Planning Commission; related appeals would go to the City Council.
BACKGROUND:
The City adopted its first Housing Production Strategy in May 2025. It includes 17 actions that the City plans to take to encourage housing development, preserve existing housing, and promote fair and equitable housing outcomes over the next six years. The City Council directed staff to make the housing code revision action a priority and report back by the end of the year with a list of potential code revision ideas. This report responds to that request. The State approved the City’s HPS in October 2025.
Eunice Kim
Long Range Planning Manager
Attachments:
1. List of Potential Zoning Code Revisions