We have formed the Responsible Land Use Alliance (RLUA) to advocate for a standard and transparent, due diligence process for the County to use to ensure that quality housing can and will be built where it will have the maximum social benefit.
The Standard, Transparent, Due Diligence Process should:
1) Confirm that the location has social benefit to the occupants and the County,
2) Confirm that the land is environmentally suitable for housing,
3) Confirm the developer’s qualifications
4) Confirm that the design, build and operations plan is consistent with County requirements (e.g. zoning, conditional use, completion timeframe, property management, duration of use, reversion clause, etc.)
5) Confirm the plan’s financial viability
We discovered that in June 2021, the Clatsop County Manager presented to the Board of Commissioners about ‘a set of high priority concrete actions that Clatsop County as an organization could engage in and support to help address housing needs throughout the County’ and they ‘identified five (5) recommendations for the County that would help play an important role in supporting future projects’.
On February 1, 2023, the Clatsop County Manager presented two recommendations to the Board of Commissioners (specifics contained in pages 6-7 in the document below).
1. Develop a formal criteria-based process to evaluate and categorize properties, and then reevaluate the current inventory by applying this criteria.
2. Develop a policy for the transfer of County-owned property for affordable housing that includes a detailed due diligence process and defined conditions for the timing of any transfer.
The County Manager also stressed the importance of maintaining trust. “Having trust in government is really paramount and certainly for local governments it is something that is an imperative for us to actual execute the mission and to serve.”
Click here to contact us at info@responsiblelandusealliance.org
Responsible Land Use Alliance 