Senate Bill 1537

SB 1537 requires local governments grant adjustments to specific development and design standards applied to the development of housing if the application meets certain conditions. The City of Happy Valley submitted an exemption request to the Housing Accountability and Production office (HAPO) on December 23, 2024. During review of the City’s application, the mandatory adjustment provisions of Senate Bill 1537 (2024 Session) does not apply until the HAPO issues a final decision, which must be issued within 120 days or by April 22, 2025. Interested parties may sign up to receive public notice for the city’s application on DLCD’s Housing GovDelivery, including a 45-day opportunity to submit public comments during the 120-day review period.

The City will apply a local process to review adjustment requests in lieu of the mandatory adjustment provision of SB 1537. The local process to review adjustments may be found here. The requests are processed through a Type II application as described in the Land Development Code section 16.61.030 and the criteria may be found in 16.34.050, 16.35.050, 16.43.030.B, 16.44.010.B.12, 16.44.060, 16.44.120.B.2, 16.63.130, and/or 16.71. Note that in order to preserve Title 4 Employment Areas, the City is in the process of amending the Employment Center District to remove residential uses as a permitted use on the upper floors of mixed-use buildings. For additional information, please contact [email protected].