Central Oregon LandWatch

https://www.centraloregonlandwatch.org

Central Oregon LandWatch#

Central Oregon LandWatch (COLW) is a nonprofit public interest organization based in Bend, Oregon, founded in 1986 to ensure Oregon’s statewide land use planning laws are upheld.¹ The organization describes its mission as defending and planning for Central Oregon’s livable future by guiding development where it belongs and protecting the land and water that sustains communities and ecosystems.²

COLW operates across four major program areas: Rivers and Springs, Farms and Forests, Urban Planning, and Wildlife Habitat.³ On housing, the organization advocates for increasing affordable and workforce housing within urban growth boundaries while opposing development patterns it views as promoting sprawl into rural, agricultural, and wildfire-prone areas.⁴ COLW frequently participates in Oregon legislative hearings and has brought high-profile lawsuits challenging land use decisions, including achieving a roughly 70% reduction in a proposed 8,400-acre expansion of Bend’s urban growth boundary in 2016.⁵

Policy Positions#

• Urban growth boundaries: Supports maintaining strong UGBs as a key tool for keeping cities compact and meeting residential needs; opposes UGB expansions it considers premature or unnecessarily large.⁴
• Middle housing: Supports HB 2001 and middle housing reforms that allow duplexes, triplexes, quadplexes, townhomes, and cottage clusters within city limits as a way to limit sprawl and use urban land more efficiently.⁶
• Infill-first development: Advocates for prioritizing development within existing urban areas before expanding city boundaries, citing available undeveloped land within current UGBs.⁵
• Wildfire-safe housing: Supports legislation enabling homeowners to install fire-hardened building materials, particularly in wildfire-prone Central Oregon communities.⁷
• Opposition to rural residential rezoning: Opposes measures that would allow residential development on rural, agricultural, or forest lands outside UGBs, arguing these create sprawl, increase wildfire risk, and burden residents with infrastructure costs.⁴
• Housing-conservation linkage: Supports studying and developing programs that tie housing development opportunities to land conservation outcomes.⁸

Key Legislative Involvement#

• HB 4113 (2026): Testified jointly with 1000 Friends of Oregon in support of a study on housing development opportunities conditioned upon land conservation, reflecting the organization’s interest in linking housing production with conservation goals.⁸
• SB 1578 (2026): Opposed this bill allowing rural counties to rezone land for residential development, consistent with COLW’s position against development outside urban growth boundaries.⁹
• SB 1551 (2026): Supported legislation invalidating deed restrictions that prevent homeowners from installing fire-hardened building materials on residential properties.⁷
• SB 70 (2023): Opposed modifications to residential rezoning requirements in the Eastern Oregon Border Economic Development Region, testifying twice against the bill.¹⁰
• SB 458 (2021): Supported this bill allowing land divisions to separate dwelling units for middle housing, complementing HB 2001’s middle housing reforms.¹¹
• HB 3318 (2021): Opposed a bill requiring DLCD to approve Bend’s urban growth boundary expansion to include specified lands, reflecting COLW’s longstanding skepticism of Bend UGB expansions.¹²
• HB 2001 (2019): Supported Oregon’s landmark middle housing legislation and participated in Bend’s HB 2001 Stakeholder Advisory Group to help shape local implementation of the bill’s zoning reforms.⁶

News Coverage

No news coverage found for this organization.

Legislative Testimony

2026

7 testimonies

2025

31 testimonies

2024

2 testimonies

2023

13 testimonies

2022

1 testimony

2021

7 testimonies