Marion County Wildfire Recovery Planning

In Lincoln County, the 2,500-acre Echo Mountain Fire destroyed half of the town of Otis’s 1,241 structures, with 288 homes and 339 structures lost. More than 1,200 people were left homeless. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 10 and Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) entered into an Interagency Reimbursable Work Agreement (IRWA) to support recovery following the Oregon Disaster Declaration. ECOnorthwest, supported by Logan-Simpson, convened and facilitated a multiagency and public-private group across the county.  The Workforce Housing Recovery Team worked to identify barriers and opportunities to developing and recovering workforce housing countywide. The team conducted a review of relevant Lincoln County, city and statewide materials to understand the challenges of, barriers to, and knowledge gaps around the issues of affordable housing for the county’s workforce including the impacts of the 2020 wildfires and how they impacted workforce housing. ECOnorthwest and Logan Simpson then researched current housing market data, conducted a land suitability analysis specific to Lincoln County and researched funding opportunities. This culminated in a multipronged action plan that included a set of interventions to help the County fill the dire workforce housing gaps. These strategies ranged from building up regional collaboration and capacity; identifying innovative ways to build developer capacity; identifying available funding for infrastructure; opportunities to increase the availability of suitable land and strategies for improving processes across planning and permitting departments.