Union County passes second reading of Ordinance 2024-03, allowing construction of additional dwelling units on rural properties
By Garrett Christensen on Friday, August 23rd, 2024 in More Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News
UNION COUNTY – During the regular commission meeting on August 21, the Union County Board of Commissioners officially passed the second reading of Ordinance 2024-03 following its second reading. This ordinance makes amendments to several rural subdivisions and partitions in the county, allowing rural landowners to construct Additional Dwelling Units (ADUs) following conditional use review by the county. The full title of the measure is as follows:
“In the matter of an ordinance amending the Union County Zoning partition and subdivision ordinance allowing for the establishment of additional dwelling units in the county’s R-1 Rural Center Zone, R-2 Rural Residential Zone, R-3 Farm Residential Zone, and R-4 Forest Residential Zone as a conditional use review.”
Note that this ordinance does not allow for the free or unsupervised construction of ADU’s. In essence, the measure allows landowners to submit proposals for ADU construction to the county planning commission for conditional use review. Each proposal will be reviewed by the commission on a case-by-case basis, with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality also reviewing the proposals as needed to ensure environmental regulations are not breached.
Other caveats for the ordinance include:
- ADUs cannot be used for short term or vacation rentals.
- ADUs can be used for long term rentals or to house family members of the property owners. ADUs may also be used to house traveling/visiting medical personnel.
- The Medical Springs and Pondosa area is uniquely zoned and does not fall under the jurisdiction of the ordinance. ADUs cannot be constructed on properties in this area.
- ADUs are limited to a maximum of 900 square feet.
- ADUs cannot be constructed without a primary dwelling already established on the property in question.
Concerns brought up by both commissioners and community members during the previous meeting in July include water table capacity/access, increased traffic on low-capacity roads, fire hazards, excess trash/waste from poorly maintained ADUs, and overcrowding of low population/unincorporated communities.
The measure passed with two commissioners in favor, and one against.
