‘Beginning of our renaissance’: Mayor Wilson, Gov. Kotek propose waiving fees to grow Portland housing

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – Portland Mayor Keith Wilson and Oregon Governor Tina Kotek brought a proposal forward to waive fees to build in hopes of spurring new housing in the city.

Developers pay one-time fees, system development charges or SDCs, when building, that go toward water, sewer, parks, and roads. If this proposal is passed, they would be waived in the city until 5,000 new units are built, or three years have passed.

This is still just a proposal and would require the City Council to pass it. But it is all part of the mayor and governor’s goal to make it easier to build, boost the housing supply, and make housing more affordable. Wilson said waiving these fees can cut thousands off the cost of building homes, and they need to set developers up to build in Portland.

“Investing in housing isn’t just about roofs and walls,” he said. “It’s about economic growth, opportunity and stability. And we have everything we need to do that here in Portland. We have and are blessed with skilled labor and lumber and land.”

Kotek said waiving the fees will make the building process easier.

“We have a lot of projects in the permitting pipeline here in Portland, and we just need to get them over the hump,” she said. “There’s really no time to waste. We need more housing supply. Housing supply, more supply will reduce the cost of housing, which we know from an affordability standpoint is very significant.”

The governor acknowledged this is a tough budget time, but also called it a time for bold ideas. Wilson said that fee money going towards water and roads is important. But he said that activity is so low that revenue is not coming in anyway, so waiving fees is about the opportunity cost.

“Are we willing to wait and hope to turn the city around, or are we ready to take charge and actually partner with the public-private partnerships to bring it back? And then on the flip side, we have more ratepayers, we have more activity downstream,” he said. “This is the beginning of our renaissance.”

Wilson said they have been working with developers to learn if this move will kick-start their projects. He said Deputy City Administrator Donnie Oliveira has already made commitments.

“There are possibly thousands of units that will immediately begin that process of coming out of the permit department, pulling their permits and getting ready to build,” he said.

Wilson said they will spend the next several weeks working out the details of the proposal to bring it to the council.