Voice of the Chieftain: Housing meeting shows real promise

There’s no illusion the proposals will fix Enterprise’s housing issues in one swoop. The lack of suitable housing in Wallowa County — and, of course, the state of Oregon — won’t be fixed overnight. And city officials might well decide, and with good cause, that not all of the suggested strategies are good fits now or might be best worked on in the future.

But it looks like the city’s plan is to get momentum on the issue by claiming some relatively quick victories and to build on those.

If that sounds familiar, it’s essentially the same strategy envisioned by Working Homes, the subsidiary of the nonprofit organization Wallowa Resources, which was set up earlier this year to also work on housing issues. And it’s a sound strategy; the problem has become so large across the state, with so many connected tendrils, that it’s easy to get overwhelmed. But you can make progress step by step, even if those first steps are relatively small.

The city of Enterprise got a head start on the issue by commissioning what’s known as a housing needs analysis — essentially, an estimate of how many housing units will be needed over the next 20 years due to population growth. At last week’s meeting (which you can read more about in this issue of the Chieftain) the people working on the assessment suggested six strategies for the city to consider.

There will be plenty of time to dig into the strategies themselves — and we’ll do a little bit of that later in this editorial. But here’s the thing that struck us about last week’s meeting: After the strategies were presented, the members of the community who braved slick roads to attend (along with some folks online) had a serious, sober and positive discussion about the strategies and the issue in general. For an issue that’s generated so much heat (and, too often, so little light), this was not just encouraging. It was astonishing.

Some of the discussion at the meeting focused on just a couple of the strategies: revising the city’s development code to allow duplexes in areas now zoned for single-family dwellings and encouraging so-called “cottage developments,” which feature small homes built around common amenities such as open space. On a somewhat related note, Lacey McQuead, the city administrator, said she’s received inquiries about accessory dwelling units, small houses built on lots that already have an occupied home.

All the strategies face potential obstacles: McQuead noted, for example, that although the city appears to have adequate land to build housing, all of that land is privately owned. Other concerns were raised about flood-plain issues.

The city has big advantages as well: For example, McQuead said, the city has plenty of infrastructure capacity to handle additional housing.

But the biggest advantage the city might have was demonstrated was on view at last week’s meeting: The people who attended made it clear that they’re ready to address the housing crunch, and the sooner work starts, the better. It’s an opportunity to take fast steps on a tough issue — and perhaps to show other communities how to get it done.