Gov. Tina Kotek visits Grant County on One Oregon Listening Tour

Published 5:15 pm Friday, July 21, 2023

JOHN DAY — Gov. Tina Kotek says she wants to listen.

Oregon’s highest elected official stopped by John Day on Thursday, July 20, as part of her One Oregon Listening Tour to hear about a local housing development and outline her administration’s efforts to ease Oregon’s housing shortage.

Kotek got things rolling by saying, “We want to build some houses.”

Kotek was at The Ridge, a new housing development on the eastern outskirts of John Day supported by funds from the city’s urban renewal agency, to hear presentations by developers and former City Manager Nick Green about the ongoing work there as well as John Day’s struggles with population decline and a lack of homebuilding over the years.

Green spoke about the history of John Day’s urban renewal agency and informed the governor that 16 homes have been built within the URA’s coverage area with a 17th under construction at The Ridge.

Developers Russ Comer and Josh Walker were also on site and explained the history of acquiring the land for the URA developments along with the efforts the city made in keeping development of the properties affordable. Green referred to The Ridge as a “public-private” development and talked about financial incentives provided by the city.

In past comments to the Eagle, Comer said financial help in developing The Ridge was essential to getting his and other URA housing developments off the ground. Without it, he said, the projects simply wouldn’t pencil out.

“Those incentives will get paid back over time as the tax base increases,” Green said.

John Day’s urban renewal efforts are part of a larger housing push in Eastern Oregon that R3 — the Regional Rural Revitalization Strategies Consortium, the brainchild of Green — has prioritized.

According to Green, an urban renewal agency has already been rolled out in Burns and approval of a URA for Lakeview is forthcoming. All told, he said, 1,000 homes are planned between the three communities.

Shawn McKay of Layer Line 3D gave a presentation about the 3D-printed home his company plans to build in John Day. The design calls for a 1,000-square-foot house with two bedrooms and two bathrooms.

McKay said his company has already produced a proof-of-concept 3D-printed structure in Ontario and is working on a master plan set for 3D-printed homes that would allow the firm to dramatically scale up its operations.

“We’re hopefully submitting the final draft of that today, which will allow us to build not only these homes but thousands of homes across the state,” he said.

Kotek praised the work of Green, Comer and Walker in helping to kickstart a massive homebuilding campaign in John Day and Eastern Oregon.

In comments to the media after the presentation, Kotek had nothing but positive things to say about Grant County.

“I think everybody who lives here knows Grant County is beautiful,” she said.

“I’ve been meeting a lot with local leaders, community members, those who really care about their community, and I’ve just been so inspired by people who are, like, ‘Here is the plan we have, here is what we’re trying to do, we just need your help on this for that thing,’ so it’s been great. As governor I just want to make sure we can help people do what they need to do locally.”

This visit is not the governor’s first to the area. Kotek said she and her wife, Aimee Wilson, were in Grant County in 2017.

“We actually were out here during the eclipse — we spent the eclipse in Long Creek,” she said. “The first lady bought boots in Prairie City, so we’ve been here before, but it’s nice to be back.”

Kotek talked about the work of her Housing Production Advisory Council, which has broken into subcommittees and will have recommendations by the end of the year.

“We are gearing up for a February legislative session (with) as much focus on housing as we can do,” she said.

The governor also spoke about how her administration plans to address housing shortages throughout the state, both immediately and in years to come.

“We’ve got to think about this in terms of a decade — this is 10 years of hard work,” Kotek said.

“In the short term, making sure communities can serve their neighbors who are unhoused — so we’re taking about shelter capacity, we’re taking about more rent assistance to get people rehoused, but we don’t have enough housing,” she added.

“What I hear in Eastern Oregon in particular is workforce housing. Not the really low-income subsidized work, not the really high-end stuff, it’s the middle-income, workforce housing that we just don’t have enough of.”

Finally, Kotek returned the focus developments like The Ridge.

“That’s what’s great about this project here, right? You can minimize the costs by using new technology and strong public-private partnership, we can get new housing done,” she said.

“Every community I’ve talked to on this trip and the last two, three, four trips — it’s all about that. We can do this. We just need a little more help.”

A previous version of this story listed somebody other than Josh Walker as a developer associated with this project. The error has been corrected and the Eagle apologizes for the error.