By Mary Kyle McCurdy and 1000 Friends of Oregon staff | 18-minute read (about one minute per bill)
The 2025 session of the Oregon legislature begins on Tuesday, January 21, and runs through the end of June. 1000 Friends of Oregon is leading the advocacy on bills to advance agricultural and forest land protection, produce more diverse and affordable housing options for all Oregonians, and fund wildfire mitigation and resiliency efforts. We are also supporting other bills to protect natural and marine resources, support carbon sequestration on agricultural lands, fund working lands easements, and provide funding for affordable housing.
Of course, we expect we will have to oppose bills that seek to undermine Oregon’s land use laws, and we will let you know about those too.
The capitol building is still under significant construction to address seismic upgrades and technology needs. Therefore, major parts of the building are not open to the public, and the building itself has capacity limits. You will be able to testify remotely or in person for all committee hearings. Every committee webpage has instructions on how to do that, as well as how to submit written testimony. We will also provide this information in all legislative alerts we send throughout the session.
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Here are key legislative concepts we plan to engage with this session, divided into key advocacy areas:
Housing production
Natural and working lands
Transportation
Healthy communities
Wildfire preparedness and resiliency
Public involvement
This page will be updated as the session goes on.
Housing production
Ensuring that all communities provide a variety of accessible housing options that are affordable for folks at all income levels is a cornerstone of Oregon’s land use Goal 10 and our work. 1000 Friends of Oregon is supporting housing legislation in four broad areas to help achieve this:
- Production of infill housing and “middle” housing, such as duplexes and quadplexes.
- Infrastructure to support residential development in existing neighborhoods
- Preservation of existing affordable housing
- Promotion of innovative housing types and materials
We expect to support several bills that will fund at least some infrastructure for housing, allowing many thousands of much-needed homes to be built in communities across Oregon. We also anticipate several bills focused on making investments in existing affordable housing to ensure already-affordable homes last for more decades.
1000 Friends of Oregon expects to support other bills that advance diverse, accessible housing affordable to all inside urban growth boundaries. We will let you know about these as legislation unfolds.
HB 2138 Middle and infill housing production
Support
What it does: Oregon passed groundbreaking legislation allowing middle housing (duplexes, three- and fourplexes, cottage clusters, townhomes, and accessory dwelling units, often called ADUs) in most neighborhoods, which other states and regions are now following. However, as that legislation has rolled out, some local barriers remain that need to be removed or changed to truly allow these housing choices. This legislation does that.
Why it matters: Producing middle and infill housing in existing neighborhoods means all sorts of families – people with middle and lower incomes, older folks, small families, and more – have the opportunity to live closer to schools, stores, parks, and jobs. It means teachers, utility workers, medical technicians, and others can live in the communities they serve. And it’s better for the climate when people don’t have to drive as far or as often, because what they need is close by. Yet local cumbersome processes and unnecessary requirements are proving a hurdle to actually building this housing. This bill will remove or modify those hurdles, allowing more infill and middle housing.
Status: We are waiting for a hearing to be scheduled.
HB 3031 Infrastructure for residential development
Support
What it does: Oregon’s cities have thousands of acres designated for residential use inside their urban growth boundaries (UGBs), but many of these lands lack some or all infrastructure or need upgrades – roads, sewers, water, sidewalks. This bill will provide funding to build some of this infrastructure.
Why it matters: Almost every city in Oregon – from very large to very small – has land the community has already decided is good for housing, yet no homes have been built there because extensions or upgrades of water and sewer lines, local roads, and sidewalks are expensive. These areas are well located near things like schools and stores. Decades ago, this infrastructure was commonly funded by federal, state, and local funding sources, but those have significantly dwindled. This long-term neglect has negatively impacted building the housing Oregonians need. Housing advocates, builders, cities, and many others agree that investing in these lands is the most important step the state can take now to unlock large parcels to quickly produce the housing we need, where we need it.
Status: HB 3031 is currently a placeholder bill; we expect this will be the governor’s residential infrastructure bill, when amended.
HB 3145 Innovative housing types
Support
What it does: This bill will help advance development of innovative housing-construction materials and methods in Oregon, thereby enabling housing to be built and sited quickly, especially housing for people with moderate and lower incomes.
Why it matters: Many innovative housing-construction methods and materials are being developed – such as modular, mass timber, and factory-produced – that allow housing of different sizes to be built, generally offsite, and assembled onsite at costs less than conventional homebuilding methods, yet blending in with those conventional homes. Investment in this industry, in Oregon, will help produce housing quickly, refine these innovative methods, and provide Oregon jobs.
Status: We are waiting for the bill to be scheduled for a hearing.
Bill number TBD Preservation of existing affordable housing
Support
What it does: We expect one or two bills focused on filling the need for major repairs, upgrades, and operational support in existing affordable housing. Public and nonprofit developers have built tens of thousands of homes across Oregon that provide long-term affordable housing for people with lower income, including seniors, veterans, people with disabilities, families, and people on fixed incomes, often paired with supportive services. Many of those buildings are reaching an age where they need major repairs, just like any home.
Why it matters: Repairing and upgrading existing buildings is more cost efficient than building new ones. These investments also keep people in the homes, schools, and communities they know, rather than uprooting them.
Status: We are waiting for the bill(s) to be filed.
Natural and working lands
1000 Friends is leading the advocacy efforts on two key bills to close loopholes in statutes that protect agricultural and forest land. Currently, the statutes are being used to allow luxury homes, hotels, and other hospitality and entertainment venues on agricultural and forest lands across the state. These abuses are leading to gentrification and displacement in Oregon’s rural areas, pricing out new and existing farmers, ranchers, and forest land managers. 1000 Friends is also supporting bills prepared by allied organizations that will close loopholes that allow inappropriate residential and solar development on valuable resource land.
In addition, we expect to see legislation for several programs that provide funding and support resiliency and market reach of farmers and small-forest managers. These programs often don’t have their own bills, but the funding for them is instead incorporated into the larger funding package at the end of the session.
We also expect a few lawmakers to introduce several bills that will harm farming and forestry by allowing or expanding unrelated activities in exclusive farm and forest zones. These will likely include expanding the current limits on size and duration of agritourism events, increasing the percentage of nonfarm income allowed for farm stands, and allowing cafes on farm land.
SB 73 Ends case-by-case rezoning of agricultural and forest land for residential and industrial development
Support
What it does: This bill requires local governments to use an existing statutory planning process when rezoning designated agricultural and forest land for residential or industrial development, rather than allowing case-by-case rezoning of individual properties outside a planning process. Unlike property-by-property rezonings, the state planning process requires careful consideration of the impacts of exurban sprawl on groundwater, wildlife habitat, and wildfire risk, as well as future urbanization and agricultural and forestry productivity.
Why it matters: Counties across Oregon are allowing landowners to rezone individual tracts of agricultural and forest land for rural residential and industrial development without adequate planning oversight and direction. This case-by-case rezoning is converting thousands of acres of valuable resource land into a crazy quilt of harmful development in the middle of large blocks of agricultural and forest land. This opportunity for speculative development drives up agricultural and forest land prices; introduces expensive and disruptive conflicts for farmers, ranchers, and forest land managers; and breaks up the large blocks of resource land Oregon’s agricultural and forest economies need to operate.
Status: This bill will be heard in the Senate Committee on Natural Resources & Wildfire.
SB 77 Prevent elite development abuse of “home occupations” on agricultural and forest land.
Introduced for 1000 Friends of Oregon
What it does: A loophole in the statutory provisions for “home occupation” businesses in rural homes is being abused to allow large-scale hospitality and entertainment facilities on land designated for agricultural and timber production. This legislation would close the loophole by clarifying the definition of “home occupations” and providing clear and objective standards to ensure the primary use of a rural home is residential and not commercial.
Why it matters: Oregon land use law allows people living in exclusive farm and forest use zones to operate small businesses, called “home occupations,” within their homes, such as bookkeeping services or small-scale childcare facilities. But the home occupation provision is vaguely written and has become a loophole to allow hospitality, entertainment, and other commercial uses in exclusive farm and forest use zones, evading the legislature’s specific requirements for such nonfarm and nonforest uses.
Status: This bill will be heard in the Senate Committee on Natural Resources & Wildfire.
SB 78 Common-sense reform of “replacement dwellings” provision on agricultural and forest land
Introduced for 1000 Friends of Oregon
What it does: Oregon land use laws authorize “replacement dwellings” for homeowners in farm and forest zones who have lost their homes to natural disaster or decay. This is a narrow hardship exception designed to help homeowners quickly and reliably replace the home they lost, and it does not require the standard review process for siting new homes in exclusive farm and forest zones. However, wealthy landowners and speculators are abusing this lack of review criteria to tear down modest homes and build large, expensive country estates unrelated to growing food and fiber. This bill helps address this misuse by limiting the scale of “replacement dwellings,” thereby reducing the speculative attraction of agricultural and forest lands for luxury homesite development.
Why it matters: Oregon agricultural and forest land is being lost to luxury home developers who are misusing the limited authorization for “replacement dwellings” in Oregon’s exclusive farm and forest zones. This both takes land out of production and drives up the price of nearby agricultural and forest land. Oregon’s farmers, ranchers, and forest land managers – especially people who are just growing their businesses – are finding it increasingly difficult to locate land they can afford to lease or purchase.
Oregon is losing nearly 300 tracts of agricultural and forest land every year for high-end residential development in the form of replacement dwellings. That hurts family farmers, ranchers, and forest land managers who need large blocks of undeveloped agricultural and forest land for efficient food and fiber production.
Status: This bill will be heard in the Senate Committee on Natural Resources & Wildfire.
SB 79 Limits new homes unrelated to agricultural and forest management in critical groundwater areas, wildlife habitat, and high-value farm land areas
Support
What it does: This bill would prohibit new houses that have nothing to do with agriculture or forest management from being built in critical groundwater areas, on priority wildlife habitat and migration corridors, and on high‐value farm land.
Why it matters: In exclusive farm and forest use zones, Oregon counties are annually approving an average of 697 new houses that have no relationship to agricultural or forest management. Rural residential sprawl not only threatens our agricultural and forest land base, it also negatively impacts groundwater supplies and critical wildlife habitat and priority connectivity areas. It makes no sense to continue the expansion of residential development in these state-designated areas of concern.
Status: This bill will be heard in the Senate Committee on Natural Resources & Wildfire.
SB 438 Extra houses for resale on farmland (duplicate of HB 2400)
Oppose
What it does: This bill is a duplicate of HB 2400. Read about that bill.
Status: This bill is scheduled for a public hearing on February 26 in the Senate Committee on Housing and Development.
SB 878 Additional houses for resale on farm land
Oppose
What it does: This bill is a near duplicate of HB 2400. It would authorize every landowner in rural Oregon to put an additional house on their property, including properties inside exclusive farm use and forest zones, as well as in the nearly 1 million acres of land outside UGBs zoned for rural residential use in Oregon. The bill allows a bait-and-switch process, stating that the additional house must be for a family member but only until the property is sold.
Why it matters: Read about why this matters in our listing for HB 2400, an essentially duplicate bill.
Status: This bill is scheduled for a public hearing on February 26 in the Senate Committee on Housing and Development.
HB 2316 Sprawling development on public lands, with state-paid infrastructure
Oppose
What it does: HB 2316 would override all land use laws to open up publicly owned lands outside urban growth boundaries to sprawling, expensive development. The bill would allow single, detached homes on lands owned by the Oregon Departments of Transportation, Fish and Wildfire, and Forestry outside, but close to, urban growth boundaries. HB 2316 also requires the state to pay for all infrastructure.
Why it matters: This bill’s focus on lands outside UGBs is very expensive, places housing farther from the things people need, and ignores that many of these lands include sensitive natural resources and are active recreation areas. Building housing for people with middle and lower incomes is better directed inside cities and towns, because Oregonians need housing near schools, stores, and services. We have thousands of vacant acres inside our UGBs, including publicly-owned lands, that are suitable for housing but need an extension of a road or some pipes. We should focus investments and policy changes on housing for all in these places.
Status: This bill had a hearing in the House Committee on Housing & Homelessness on February 10.
Testimony: Read our February 10 hearing testimony.
HB 2400 Extra houses for resale on farmland
Oppose
What it does: HB 2400 would authorize every landowner in rural Oregon to put an additional house on their property, including inside exclusive farm use and forest zones, as well as the nearly 1 million acres of land outside UGBs zoned for rural residential use in Oregon. The bill allows a bait-and-switch process, stating that the additional house must be for a family member, but only for the initial application. The family member can move out of the house any time after the application is approved, and the owner may then lease the house to anyone for 18 months. After that, the owner may sell the house to anyone.
Why it matters: This bill is unnecessary. Oregon law already allows new homes for relatives of agricultural and forest land managers, as well as additional new homes for unrelated farm workers. Locating more housing in and around farm and forest areas increases conflicts with common farming and forestry practices, increases traffic on farm roads, creates additional demand on limited water resources, and can increase wildfire risk. And the mere opportunity for additional residential development drives up land prices beyond what farmers, ranchers, and forest land managers can afford.
Status: This bill had a hearing in the House Committee on Housing & Homelessness on February 10.
Testimony: Read our February 10 hearing testimony.
HB 2422 Haphazard higher-density rural land upzoning
Oppose
What it does: HB 2422 would override existing state policy that requires a planning process to increase dwelling densities on thousands of acres of rural land. The bill would authorize counties to more than double the dwelling density on rural lands where it is currently limited to one house per 2.5 acres, increasing it to one house per 1 acre without taking an exception to Goal 14 – as is required under existing law.
Why it matters: This bill bypasses the benefits of requiring counties to plan for additional rural development through the exceptions process, or through the Big Look provisions of ORS 215.788.-794, both of which ensure any increased densities will not have unintended negative consequences on Oregon’s precious resources. These planning processes also ensure an equal playing field where everyone, not just well-financed individual landowners, have access to the planning process.
Status: This bill had a hearing in the House Committee on Housing & Homelessness on February 10.
Testimony: Read our February 10 hearing testimony.
HB 2979 Small-farm disaster relief and resilience funding
Support
What it does: This year, we anticipate another funding request for small farms needing disaster relief, shifting emphasis from recovery to resilience.
In 2023, the Oregon legislature allocated $6.65 million in disaster-relief funds for small farms (split $2.65 million for farmer and rancher disaster relief, $1.5 million for food hub infrastructure, and $2.6 million for farmers’ market disaster-resilience work). The Oregon Community Food Systems Network and the Oregon Farmers Market Association administered the funds.
Why it matters: Wildfires and drought impact farmers across the state, and many small or otherwise nonconventional farmers cannot qualify for federal disaster relief.
Status: This bill has been referred to Ways and Means, following a hearing and work session in the House Committee on Agriculture, Land Use, Natural Resources, and Water.
HB 3131 Oregon Agricultural Heritage Program (OAHP) funding
Support
What it does: The legislature created the Oregon Agricultural Heritage Program (OAHP) in 2017 but did not fund its operation until 2022. Since then, the program has provided millions of dollars (and attracted millions more in federal funding) for willing farm and ranch landowners to create easements that permanently protect their land and ensure it remains in production. This bill, which has strong bipartisan support, would ensure continued funding.
Why it matters: OAHP is not a land use program in and of itself; rather, it is another tool to help Oregon achieve the goal of preserving farm land by placing working lands easements on the land of willing property owners. The program also has provisions for helping farmers with transition planning to pass their land on to the next generation of farmers. Fully funding the currently identified need would leverage more than $27 million in federal matching funds for the program – which Oregon will lose access to if the program is not funded.
Status: This bill has been referred to Ways and Means, following public hearings and a work session in the House Agriculture, Land Use, Natural Resources, and Water Committee.
Testimony: Read our January 27 hearing testimony.
HB 3422 Ensures all large-scale energy facilities are subject to the same siting criteria
Support
What it does: This bill would require the Energy Facility Siting Council (EFSC) to use the same land use standards as counties for siting energy facilities. Most energy facilities are permitted at the local level by cities and counties, but bigger facilities requiring large acreages of high-value or cultivated farm land require EFSC permitting, which has laxer siting criteria.
Why it matters: Unlike counties, the EFSC is not required to consider alternative sites before approving an energy facility on a protected class of farm land. This bill would create parity and subject all energy facilities to the same siting criteria.
Status: We are waiting for the bill to be scheduled for a hearing.
Bill number TBD Natural climate solutions funding
Support
What it does: We anticipate a $5 million request to continue the Natural Climate Solutions program, in an end-of-session budget bill.
In 2023, HB 3409 created a $10 million fund for natural climate solutions – particularly for programs that help create resilience and promote carbon sequestration on land being used for agriculture, forestry, and natural-resource conservation. With guidance from the Oregon Climate Action Commission, four agencies distributed that funding to projects and landowners. Many of these projects attracted matching federal funding.
Why it matters: These funds supported some of the first “payment for practice” programs that incentivize willing private landowners to invest in resilience and carbon sequestration. Oregon landowners who choose to participate – and Oregon’s working lands on the whole – benefit from these programs.
Status: There may not be a stand-alone bill for this funding request. In that case, this will be incorporated into the major funding package at the end of the session.
Bill number TBD State Meat Inspection Program funding
Support
What it does: This bill would fund Oregon’s meat-inspection program. For ranchers to sell cuts of meat commercially, a USDA-licensed facility must process the meat. That process is expensive, and there has been a chronic shortage of licensed facilities to meet the demand.
In 2020, the legislature created a state inspection program to fill some of the gaps, and in the years since has provided grants to Oregon businesses to build or modify facilities that can operate under that system.
Why it matters: Many inspection facilities are ready to begin operations, but the Oregon Department of Agriculture needs to hire inspectors to run the program. A fully staffed inspection program will reduce costs and help Oregon ranchers be more successful.
Status: We expect that this request will end up in the budgeting process as well.
Bill number TBD Farm to School, Double Up Food Bucks, and other programs’ funding
Support
What it does: Funding requests are coming for Double Up Food Bucks, which matches SNAP benefits at farmers’ markets and faces cuts in federal funding; Farm to School programs across the state; and possibly other farm-to-institution programs. These programs provide direct economic-development support for Oregon’s small farms.
Why it matters: Oregon spends money every year on public health, nutrition, and food-education programs. It makes good economic sense for that funding to be spent with Oregon businesses and farmers.
Status: There may not be a stand-alone bill for these funding requests. In that case, this will be incorporated into the major funding package at the end of the session.
Transportation
1000 Friends is helping lead the Move Oregon Forward campaign to advocate for a safe, clean, fair, and accountable transportation funding package. The legislature must address the lack of funds available for basic operations and maintenance, as well as the oversubscription of numerous popular active- and public-transportation grant programs. Oregonians in every corner of the state supported these priorities in testimony to the Joint Committee on Transportation at their listening tour over the summer.
At this time, we have not seen any bill drafts from the Joint Committee on Transportation. Instead, several placeholders have been introduced, which will later be amended with actual proposed legislation. For the 2017 package, the first real draft of the bill was not posted until the end of May. We will post updates as they become available, and we will have a number of opportunities throughout the session for Oregonians to advocate for their own transportation priorities.
Bill number TBD Major state transportation package
Neutral
What it does: This bill raises revenue to fund Oregon’s transportation priorities. Typically, this could include funding for everything from pedestrian-safety improvements to freeway megaprojects. Projects across the state, from rural communities to our biggest metro areas, will be affected.
Why it matters: The legislature historically passes large transportation funding packages only every eight years. This is our opportunity to expand investments in the successful programs created in the 2017 package, such as Safe Routes to School, Oregon Community Paths, public transportation, and more. We are at the table with Move Oregon Forward, championing investments in a more sustainable, accessible transportation system that meets the needs of all Oregonians. This package is also where other stakeholders will advocate for maintaining the status quo through further investments in freeway expansion, which we continue to advocate against.
Status: We are waiting for the bill to be filed.
Healthy communities
HB 2411 Industrial land readiness loan fund
Support
What it does: This bill would create a $40 million loan fund to help with planning and project costs for industrially zoned lands inside cities and towns.
Why it matters: Land readiness is key to using our existing lands inside current urban growth boundaries and preventing sprawl. Often, cities and towns have lands that are already zoned for industrial uses, but some initial barriers (often financial) remain to building on that land.
1000 Friends of Oregon has asked for an amendment that would exclude data centers from this funding, so that these investments can focus on creating high-quality jobs instead of subsidizing automation. We also want to see this bill support retrofits, so that buildings and sites don’t sit vacant when needs change over time.
Status: This bill had a hearing on February 10 in the House Committee on Economic Development, Small Business, and Trade.
Testimony: Read our February 10 hearing testimony.
HB 3062 Healthy communities act
Support
What it does: Provides clear direction for cities and industry to address potential public health impacts on hospitals, care facilities, and schools from nearby industrial uses. The concept combines technical and community input to quickly identify land use conflicts and possible impacts through early detection and intervention.
Why it matters: Incompatible industrial zoning continues to harm vulnerable Oregon communities. Not only do such communities face more pollution, but they are generally more susceptible to negative health impacts from that pollution due to socio-demographic factors and/or preexisting health conditions. It’s time to adopt model policies enacted in other cities and states that are protecting and safeguarding neighborhoods facing disproportionate public health and safety risks. This modernized approach enhances the health and safety for Oregonians, brings certainty for business, and relieves cities of complaints and litigation.
Status: A hearing is scheduled in the House Committee on Emergency Management, General Government, and Veterans on February 20.
Wildfire preparedness and resilience
Over the past 20 years, wildfires in Oregon have increased in number, size, and intensity, including destroying significant portions of the towns of Talent and Phoenix and communities in the Santiam Pass and leading to loss of lives. In response, the 2021 Oregon legislature passed and funded the state’s first comprehensive wildfire-preparedness bill, which established wildfire-preparedness and resiliency programs and investments across the state and made a measurable difference for Oregonians. Because of this legislation, even though the 2024 fire season broke records for acreage burned, Oregon did not experience anything near the level of loss of life or property as we have in years past. However, since 2021, funding to maintain and grow these programs has dwindled, thereby increasing our vulnerability to wildfires and smoke.
Bill number TBD Comprehensive wildfire resilience
Support
What it does: This bill restores adequate funding to comprehensive wildfire-preparedness and resilience programs, including technical assistance, education, provision of equipment and staff, and grants across 11 state agencies. This will enable neighborhoods, communities, and the state to engage in community-risk reduction, including establishing and maintaining defensible space, providing education and technical assistance to communities in how to be wildfire prepared, providing protection from wildfire smoke, and enhancing local fire-related staffing and equipment.
Why it matters: Wildfire is a natural part of the Western ecosystem, but climate change and exurban sprawl are causing larger and more frequent wildfires. We can live safely with wildfire, provided we take certain steps to reduce sprawl, reduce our carbon emissions, and collectively invest in actions like creating and maintaining defensible space around our homes and communities, home hardening (especially for people who are socially and economically vulnerable), plan for evacuation and response routes, and more.
Status: We are waiting for the bill to be filed.
HB 2950 Comprehensive updates to land use Goal 1
Support
What it does: This bill would require the Land Conservation and Development Commission to update Oregon’s land use goal regarding citizen involvement by June 2027.
Why it matters: The architects of Oregon’s land use planning program understood the value of getting broad public input into decisions about how and where their communities develop, and where farm and forest land, natural resources, and clean air and water should be protected. They made sure that public involvement was integrated into land use planning by making it the first goal. However, Goal 1 hasn’t been updated since 1988, and the current language does not reflect modern needs, nor does it ensure equitable standards for public participation. Oregon’s population has grown and diversified, and the many ways in which the public engages with local and state governments and with each other has changed dramatically.
Status: A hearing was held on February 12 in the House Committee on Agriculture, Land Use, Natural Resources, and Water.
Testimony: Read our February 12 hearing testimony.
Public involvement
HB 3013 Ensure legal rulings of Land Use Board of Appeals are enforced
Support
What it does: The bill would make orders of the Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA) self-executing. If LUBA reverses a local government’s permit, the permit would automatically be void. Additionally, a party to the LUBA appeal would have the right to enforce LUBA’s order in circuit court.
Why it matters: LUBA does not enforce its orders but, instead, relies on the parties in an appeal to take proper corrective action according to the board’s legal decision. This process usually runs smoothly, but not always. Sometimes both local governments and state agencies have not revoked the permits related to land use decisions that LUBA ruled were improper, and construction went on nonetheless.
Status: A public hearing was held on February 3 in the House Committee on Agriculture, Land Use, Natural Resources, and Water.
Testimony: Read our February 3 hearing testimony.
This page will be updated as the session goes on.