FAQs (11 total below)

You may have recently noticed new housing types — like duplexes, triplexes, townhomes, or small cottage clusters — being built in Milwaukie. These housing types are known as middle housing, and they’re now allowed in more parts of Milwaukie due to updates to the city’s zoning code and state law. 

While this may feel like a new change, these types of homes aren’t new to our community — or to American cities more broadly. Middle housing has existed for generations and played an important role in building diverse and vibrant neighborhoods. In fact, you might already live near a duplex or a courtyard apartment that has been part of your neighborhood for decades. 

Middle housing is a term used to describe housing types that fall between single-detached homes and larger apartment complexes. These include: 

• Duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes 
• Townhomes 
• Cottage clusters (small homes arranged around shared open space) 

These homes tend to be smaller and more affordable to build than single-detached homes and are designed to fit within the scale of existing neighborhoods. This type of housing is now allowed to be built wherever single-detached homes can be built due to state law and city zoning code.  

There were two key reasons behind the zoning updates: 

1. Milwaukie Comprehensive Plan (2020) 

Through an extensive community visioning and planning process, it became clear that many residents were concerned about housing affordability and access. One goal of the updated Comprehensive Plan was to support a wider range of housing options so that people of all ages, incomes, and life stages could live in Milwaukie. Middle housing is part of a long-term strategy to improve housing choice and affordability. 

2. Oregon House Bill 2001 (2019) 

This state law requires all Oregon cities to allow the above middle housing types wherever the city allows single-detached homes. House Bill 2001 was adopted to help address Oregon’s housing shortage by allowing more diverse and affordable housing types. Milwaukie updated its zoning code to comply with the middle housing requirements in 2022.  

When House Bill 2001 passed, cities and counties had narrow abilities to customize regulations for their jurisdiction, as long as requirements for middle housing were not more stringent than for single-dwelling detached homes. One of these options was whether to allow detached plexes, meaning 2, 3, or 4-unit developments that did not share a common wall like a traditional duplex, triplex, or quadplex. When City Council updated our code in 2022 to comply with House Bill 2001, they chose to allow attached and detached plexes. 

State direction on middle housing and housing policy in general continues to come out of each annual legislative session. Additional clarifications and mandates regarding middle housing rules may result from the 2025 legislative session, which the City of Milwaukie will then incorporate into our local policies. 

In practice, yes. While older neighborhoods often include middle housing that was built before zoning rules were tightened, for much of the last 70+ years, cities across the U.S. — including Milwaukie — have restricted residential zones to single-unit detached homes only. These restrictions limited housing supply and diversity and made it harder for communities to grow in inclusive, adaptable ways.

No. While the code now allows more types of homes to be built in residential zones, all new developments must follow site development and design standards. These include considerations like: 

• Minimum lot size 
• Maximum building height 
• Minimum setbacks from property lines 
• Lot coverage limits 
• Design rules like window placement, roof design, and cladding materials 
• Tree preservation and planting requirements

Whether a property is being developed with a single home or a fourplex, it must still comply with these rules to ensure compatibility with the surrounding neighborhood. 

Middle housing offers more modestly sized homes that can be more attainable for first-time buyers, downsizing seniors, or families looking for multi-generational living options. While these changes alone don’t guarantee housing access, allowing for a wider mix of housing types is one of many tools needed to create a healthier, more inclusive housing market over time.  

It’s a fair question — new construction is rarely inexpensive. You may see a new townhome or fourplex unit listed at a price that doesn’t feel “affordable” in the way we often use that word. However, the goal of allowing middle housing isn’t to produce deeply subsidized affordable housing overnight — it’s to increase housing supply and housing choice over time. 

Middle housing helps fill the gap between traditional single-dwelling homes and large apartment buildings, offering smaller, often more attainable options for: 

• First-time homebuyers 
• Older/aging folks looking to downsize 
• People seeking multi-generational living 
• Families who want to stay in the same community as their needs evolve 

Importantly, housing affordability is shaped by supply at a regional scale. House Bill 2001 recognized that for the housing market to become more balanced and affordable, every community needs to include various housing options. By legalizing middle housing in residential zones throughout Oregon — including places like Milwaukie and other cities in the Portland region — the state aims to give people more options in more places, now and in the future.  

While no one project will solve the housing shortage, increasing the number and types of homes available helps relieve pressure on the broader market, which can help slow rising prices and rents over time. 

The state’s Climate-Friendly and Equitable Communities (CFEC) programs, initiated by former Governor Brown, aim to reduce transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions by decreasing reliance on single-occupancy vehicles. When the state adopted CFEC rules in 2022, cities were required to adopt parking reforms by June 2023—which the city complied with.  

According to CFEC rules, cities could not require off-street parking in areas served by frequent transit. In Milwaukie, 80% of the city meets the state’s criteria, so the city cannot require off-street parking in those areas for any type of development, including single-dwelling homes, middle housing, multi-unit buildings, or commercial development. However, the rules do not prevent developers from including parking, and many are still choosing to provide off-street parking.  

The city could have elected to require off-street parking for the remaining 20% of our land area (a small pocket in southeast Milwaukie). City Council decided instead to apply the CFEC parking rules to the entire city due to the complexity of applying new parking rules in such a small area.   

For more information about why the state has new parking rules please review this overview. 

https://www.oregon.gov/lcd/CL/Documents/OnePagerCFECSummary.pdf

Similar to development of single-dwelling homes , middle housing developments are required to connect to public water and sewer, meet stormwater requirements, receive permits for driveways, and pay all required fees, including system development charges (SDCs).  

Developments may be required to provide frontage improvements for streets that do not meet current Milwaukie Public Works standards, provided that the improvements are roughly proportional to the impacts anticipated by the development. While the City is not allowed to prohibit middle housing in areas where sufficient infrastructure does not exist, the burden can and is placed upon the developer to provide the infrastructure improvements necessary to support a proposed middle housing development. In some cases, this could include a Fee-In-Lieu-of-Construction (FILOC).  

OAR 660-046-0215 states that cities and counties cannot impose regulations on middle housing that are more stringent than regulations for a single-detached dwelling. A neighborhood meeting/public notice isn’t required for a single detached dwelling unit, therefore itcannot be required for a middle housing development 

In addition, ORS 197A.400 requires cities and counties to apply only clear-and-objective standards to regulate housing within the urban growth boundary. State statutes do not allow local jurisdictions to implement standards that could discourage “needed housing” – which includes both single-detached dwellings and middle housing – through unreasonable cost or delay. Learn more about needed housing: ORS 197A.018 and ORS 197A.420. 

A middle housing land division is a process that allows each home in a middle housing development—like a duplex, triplex, or fourplex—to be placed on its own “sublot”. This is different from a conventional land division. While conventional divisions typically split a larger property into entirely separate lots, a middle housing land division is focused on allowing individual ownership or sale of each home while keeping the original parent lot legally intact for zoning and development purposes. 

Think of it like a condominium – the individual homes can be bought and sold separately, but the overall site is treated as a single lot when it comes to zoning regulations and future redevelopment. This tool expands ownership opportunities while ensuring the site continues to function as a unified residential development. 

If you have questions about a specific project, you can contact the Milwaukie Planning Division. If you’d like to share feedback about state housing policy (such as House Bill 2001), reaching out to your state representatives is the most appropriate route.