Public Meetings in a Pandemic
May 7, 2020
As part of the American Planning Association’s 2020 virtual conference – NPC20 @Home, Jennifer Bragar presented on California, Oregon, and Washington’s responses to the pandemic in relation to public meetings, public participation, and land use hearings. In connection with the presentation, Jennifer wrote the “The West Coast’s Flexible Approach to the Open Meeting Laws in a Pandemic” available here. The…
Meeting in the Middle
March 19, 2019
Jennifer Bragar was recently published in the January 2019 edition of the American Planning Association magazine. You can find a PDF copy of the article here.
Tomasi Salyer Martin Sponsors Housing Land Advocates Conference
January 24, 2018
Tomasi Salyer Martin (TSM) is pleased to sponsor the 2018 Housing Land Advocates Conference, “Strategies for Housing Planning, Policy and Finance: City, Region, State” on February 9, 2018. As a result of TSM’s contribution, ten scholarship recipients will be able to attend the conference and gain valuable tools to ensure local land use decision making results in land available for…
Recent Developments in Comprehensive Planning Law
January 12, 2018
Jennifer Bragar an Ed Sullivan co-authored the annual comprehensive plan update for the American Bar Association’s State and Local Government Law Section. The most recent update was just published by the Urban Lawyer and you can read about it here. Urban Lawyer, Vol. 49, No. 3 Summer 2017. The article undertakes an annual survey of state and federal cases dealing with…
Lawyer Monthly – United States’ Land Use Lawyer of the Year
December 22, 2017
Lawyer’s Monthly, a monthly legal publication with content that is entirely defined by the significant legal news from around the world, has named Jennifer M. Bragar as the United States’ Land Use Lawyer of the Year. The distinction was awarded after nearly 9,000 readers of Lawyer’s Monthly selected nominees, and a select group of judges narrowed the short list to Ms. Bragar…
Super Lawyers 2017
August 4, 2017
We are pleased to announce that Valerie Athena Tomasi, was nominated by her peers to the Oregon Super Lawyers list in 2017 for Banking Law, maintaining a 7 year track record on the list. In addition, Jennifer Bragar received the Rising Star designation for land use and has received the designation since 2012. Elizabeth Biermann received the Rising Star designation…
Tillamook County’s 2017 Housing Plan
April 21, 2017
In March 2017, Tillamook County issued its new housing needs analysis, “Creating a Healthy Housing Market for Tillamook County.” The County recognized the necessity to take a new approach to the analysis of housing in light of its changed economy. The study utilizes graphic representations and analysis of the coastal and interior markets to focus on the need for regional solutions. Coastal…
Analysis of Zoning Barriers that Limit the Construction of Manufactured Housing
April 7, 2017
In the Portland metropolitan region, we often think of affordable housing in urban terms – increased density, homelessness, and accessory dwelling units, but considering the issue in rural areas requires a different lens on how to build low cost housing. This post reviews zoning barriers that limit the construction of manufactured housing that were identified by renowned land use law…
Oregon’s Land Use and Conservation Development Commission Issues Final Enforcement Order Against the City of Corvallis
March 24, 2017
The tension around whether clear and objective standards must apply to a proposed residential development gripped the City of Corvallis and one developer in a multi-year legal battle at the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals (“LUBA”) that left the developer in a cycle of remands about how the city would apply its standards. Fed up with the cycle, the…
Big Win for the Confederated Tribes: Oil Trains in Oregon Face New Hurdle
March 11, 2017
The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon, and Bands of the Yakima Nation (collectively the “Treaty Tribes”) have been opposed to an Union Pacific oil-by-rail project that called for trains from oil-producing regions to deliver the crude to ports where ships could move it to refineries along the West Coast. Notwithstanding the oil train derailment in…