Our Salem is a process to update the Comprehensive Plan for Salem. It is linked to the development of a Climate Action Plan. A Middle Housing Plan for compliance with HB 2001 will also be in the mix. Our Salem started in 2018, the Climate Plan in 2020, and the Middle Housing had some preparatory activity in 2019 and will start up again after the State finishes formal rule-making for it.
The Middle Housing code was adopted in January 2022, the Climate Plan was "accepted" but not formally adopted in February of 2022, and Our Salem adopted in July 2022. With those milestones this page will close, and we will start a new one for the next phases.
Draft Plan in September 2020
- "Our Salem Releases Underwhelming Draft Plan"
- "Our Salem Vision and Draft Plan Relies too Much on Arterial Conversion to Mixed-Use"
- "City Council and Planning Commission, September 23th - Our Salem Vision and Plan"
- "We may Need more Neighborhood Hub Sites out of Our Salem"
- "Rewrite! With Monday's Council Action, Our Salem Should Formulate a new Preferred Alternative"
- Salem 350.org submitted formal comments to the City on the plan and talked a lot about driving.
The Revised Draft Plan in February 2021
- "Our Salem Draft Plan v2.0 Still Fumbles on Climate"
- "Expansion of Proposed R4 Live-Work Zoning Tucked into New Draft: A Footnote"
- "City and State Diverge on Complete Neighborhoods in Greenhouse Gas Assessment"
- "City Council, February 22nd - Our Salem and Weasel Words on Climate"
Spring of 2021 - Policy Meetings and Zoning Concepts
- "City Publishes new Policy Concepts and Meeting Schedule for Our Salem"
- The City proposes six zoning concepts and creates a new subcommittee to look at them
- Notes on some ways we are still hung up on parking
- "Policy Ideas on Transportation Likely too Weak still in Our Salem"
- On the final meeting with the Zoning Subcommittee, "Zoning Subcommittee Meets for Final Time on Thursday the 15th"
- Doubt and second-thoughts in Seattle on their hubs and corridors plan after 20 years, "Problems with Seattle's Urban Villages might Prompt more Thought on Our Salem"
- The City deletes a bunch of hubs in response to neighborhood criticism, "City Deletes Three Fifths of Proposed Neighborhood Hub Sites in Latest Revision for Our Salem"
Further Revised Draft Plan - Fall 2021
- Ways that our commitment to single detached housing interferes with goals on natural resources
- A note on the 1973 Comprehensive Plan and notes on the October 2021 Work Session with the Planning Commission and Council
- On a Portland TDM framework and a better, more detailed approach on reducing emissions from transportation
Towards Adoption - Winter-Spring 2022
- "City Council, October 18th - Work Session with Planning Commission on Our Salem"
- "City Council, December 6th - Our Salem and Middle Housing Code Update"
- "Cherriots and Our Salem should give more Thought to Future BRT"
- "Our Salem at the Planning Commission: Make it Stronger"
- "Our Salem Continued at Planning Commission on Tuesday - More on Hubs"
- Council held first reading and public hearing, and second reading and enactment in July 2022. They made a few minor tweaks at the individual lot level, but did not alter the basic structure in any way. See "City Council - July 25th - Our Salem and new Climate Friendly Rules."
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| The current plan shows hardly any difference from current trends, and that reduction is only 18% not the 50% we actually need! |
Preliminaries On Climate
- "Greenhouse Gas Assessment points to Cars"
- "Yes, It's the Cars"
- "Council Goals and Strategic Plan: Slow-walking on Climate"
- "Council Goals and Strategic Plan, part 2"
- "City Council, February 18th - Climate Action Plan"
- "Calm and Optimistic? Doomy and Urgent? City Chooses Former Framing on Climate"
- "City Council, October 12th - Managing to a Goal on Climate"
- "Rewrite! With Monday's Council Action, Our Salem Should Formulate a new Preferred Alternative"
- "A Big Refusal? Our Climate Plan is Dodging Fossil Fuels and does not seem very Serious" and supporting, smaller notes on the "natural disasters" frame and on a minor revision in response to critique of the "resilience" theme.
- Associated with the second formal workshop for the Advisory Committee, "City Launches New Round of Climate Brainstorming" this one actually focused on reducing emissions, and a new analysis of emissions with a different analytical method, "City Publishes Slightly Different Take on Emissions." The second analysis also says driving is the largest source of emissions.
- Following the brainstorming, the City sent out a survey on the ideas: "New City Survey on Climate Action Plan may Vitiate rather than Boost" and "Climate Survey Results show Risks of Prioritizing Popularity."
- Will deadly and record-breaking heat make any difference? And a few more on our changing weather patterns: Notes on daily temperatures in July 1921 and August 1921; and notes on winters and widespread ice, an old-timer recollection from 1918, and the river freezing over in 1924; and buried a little in a post on other matters are a couple of charts on snow accumulation in Portland by decade.
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| First draft plan |
The First Public Review Draft Plan on Climate
- Doubt the plan is more than symbolic: "Draft Strategies for Climate Action Plan Still Evade the Heart of the Matter"
- On a seemingly counterproductive meeting with SEDCOR and the Chamber, "Meeting Structure and Rhetoric on Climate may have Invited Doubt and Delay"
- For a September 2021 Council Work Session: A seeming lack of enthusiasm in Staff and Consultants. On the "Benefit-Cost analysis" and on the Staff Report and Presentation. In the second is a brief mention of our local 350.org's recommendations.
- And on the draft plan itself, "Climate Action Plan Frothy but Empty"
- Our 350.org chapter echoes criticism of the "plan" and offers many constructive suggestions for improving it: "350 Salem Offers Detailed Comment on the initial draft Climate Action Plan"
The "final" draft (which could be revised again)
- Here finally is the center of the matter. "Recommended First Stage Climate Actions Finally Released." But even this isn't really a plan - but it could be shaped into one.
- The revised, "final" draft had minor edits rather than substantive revision. "Final Climate Action Report Clears Throat, Still Seems Short on Actual Plan." This is definitely not a plan.
- Our 350.org chapter is a little alarmed the the final adoption has been postponed, "City Still Slow-Walking Climate Plan."
"Accepting" rather than Adopting the Plan
- "City Council, February 14th - Climate Delay or Climate Action?"
- "City Council, February 22nd - New City Manager and Climate"
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| Driving causes 53% of our carbon pollution |
On Middle Housing
- Earlier in the process, "Revised Missing Middle Housing Concepts Whiff on Parking"
- "Easing Missing Middle Housing: At the Planning Commission"
- "City Council, January 13th - Multi-family Housing Standards"
- "Surveying Themes in Criticism of Missing Middle Housing"
- "City Council, January 27th - Parking and Housing"
- "City Council, February 24th - Win on Parking"
- "Planning Commission to see Proposed Middle Housing Code" on HB 2001 compliance.
- Since the HB 2001 compliance package was folded into a larger omnibus code update, and there were other topics to follow closely, I lost the thread. Here is a little bit on it from December 2021, though not enough to say whether it is a minimalist compliance or whether it goes above-and-beyond in any way, "Our Salem and Middle Housing Code Update." In January 2022 Council adopted the whole package. Maybe later we'll circle back for a closer look.
On Tensions with our Historic Preservation Framework
- "Defense against Developer Dark Arts: Historic Districts' Unpredictable Charm"
- "Update on Historic Preservation Plan may be too Limited"
- "Incumbency Privilege in the Historic Preservation Plan at Council Monday"
- "Zoning and the Restoration Drama: Different Perspectives on the Buchner House"
- "Attempt at Grant Historic District Bears Watching: At the HLC"
Background on History of Salem Zoning
