Departments, Planning & Building

PLANNING & BUILDING SERVICES HIGHLIGHTS FOR APRIL, 2020

CITY COUNCIL (CC) ACTIONS ON PLANNING ITEMS

On April 2 the City Council reviewed and approved a Business Assistance Program, including $250,000 in grants for small businesses, in response to COVID-19.

On April 21 the following annexations were approved by the City Council at their regular meeting.

  • AN 19-0008, 4688 Oakridge Road – 0.47 acres
  • AN 19-0009, 13962 Knaus Road – 1.0 acres
  • AN 20-0001, 16317 Bonaire Avenue – 0.23 acres
  • AN 20-0002, 5555 SW Childs Road – 0.42 acres

PLANNING COMMISSION (PC) ACTIONS

City Boards, Commissions, and Committee meetings, unless legally required, were cancelled through April 28 under the City Manager’s emergency declaration in response to COVID-19.

Please refer to the following web page for the current PC meeting forecast: http://www.ci.oswego.or.us/boc_pc/schedule-and-information

DEVELOPMENT REVIEW COMMISSION (DRC) ACTIONS

As a precautionary measure due to the Corona Virus outbreak, the City Manager canceled meetings of City Boards, Commissions, and Committees through April 28, unless they are legally required. As a result, the April 6th and April 20th DRC meetings were canceled.

HISTORIC RESOURCES ADVISORY BOARD (HRAB)

City Boards, Commissions, and Committee meetings, unless legally required, were cancelled through April 28 under the City Manager’s emergency declaration in response to COVID-19.

May is National Preservation Month.  Every year during the month of May, communities throughout the nation celebrate Preservation Month, first created in 1971 by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Over the past several years, Lake Owego has celebrated Preservation Month by presenting a Preservation Merit Award to an individual or group who has excelled in the field of preservation and a bronze plaque is presented to a homeowner whose property is on the Landmark Designation List. Workshops and tours are conducted by the Lake Oswego Preservation Society and the Oswego Preservation Council. Unfortunately, Lake Oswego’s Preservation Month 2020 will be postponed due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. Many of the events originally scheduled for this year have been rescheduled for July, 2020.

ADMINISTRATIVE LAND USE DECISIONS

Staff approved two administrative land use cases as follows:

LU 20-0004, a request for a Development Review Permit for a minor park improvement (trail repairs and replace foot-bridge) within the Greenway Management Overlay District located at Roehr Park, 350 and 370 Oswego Point Drive. A Notice of Decision was issued on April 10, 2020.

LU 20-0006, a request for a Minor variance to construct an addition   to an existing single-family dwelling. Located at 755 Maple Street. A Notice of Decision was issued on April 8, 2020.

 

PRE-APPLICATION CONFERENCES

In April, staff held five pre-application conferences as follows:

  1. PA 20-0021, 2-parcel minor partition on Mapleleaf Road.
  2. PA 20-0022, Minor variance to allow a wall sign in addition to a monument sign at Lakeridge Middle School on Jean Road.
  3. PA 20-0023, Development Review for a new commercial and residential building in the West Lake Grove Design District on Boones Ferry Road.
  4. PA 20-0025, RID review for an addition to a single-family dwelling on Lake Haven Drive.
  5. PA 20-0026, Development Review for a multi-family co-housing project in the Downtown Redevelopment District on 5th Street.

PLANNING REVIEW OF BUILDING PERMITS, SIGN PERMITS AND BUSINESS LICENSES

In the month of April, Planning staff reviewed 30 building permits, 4 sign permits and 9 business licenses.

CODE ENFORCEMENT

In April, 15 code enforcement cases were resolved without Municipal Court action.

PERMIT CENTER ACTIVITY

Customer Contacts: During the month of April, staff served 4 walk-in customers and responded to 444 phone calls, or approximately 20 customer contacts per day. Of the phone-in customers 53% were for Planning, 18% for Building, 18% for Engineering and 11% for other services.

Building Permit Activity: During April, Building staff issued one demolition permit on Palisades Crest. Five new Single Family Residential (NSFR) applications were received. Five NSFR permits were issued, as follows:

  1. Lake Shore Road
  2. Spruce Street
  3. Spruce Street
  4. Childs Road
  5. Woodhurst Place

The above median timeline for review is from application completeness to “ready to issue”. As of November 2018, the Planning Department has provided NSFR plan review services for both Planning and Engineering reviews. Ready to issue includes time that applicants need to address corrections required for code compliance or factors beyond the City’s control.

In addition to NSFR permits, Residential Structural Permits include remodels, additions, decks, etc., of which there were 16 issued in April by Building staff, with the median days being 32. Commercial Structural Permits include Commercial, Industrial, Multi-Family and Institutional, of which there were 23, with the median days being 21.