ADUs Decisions in Deschutes County

An Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) is a secondary housing unit located on the same parcel as a primary single-family residence. ADUs go by many names - granny flats, in-law suites, backyard cottages, garage apartments, or casitas - but they all share the common characteristic of being smaller, subordinate residential units that share a lot with the main house. ZoneWire tracks adus activity across Deschutes County, OR public meetings.

ZoneWire monitors Deschutes County, OR planning and council meetings, transcribes them, and flags adus activity. As of the latest update we have analyzed 8 meetings and detected 28 adus mentions.

Tracking adus in Deschutes County surfaces zoning and development signals early, so developers, investors, and brokers can evaluate parcels and approvals before they reach the broader market.

Zoning and land use in Deschutes County are administered by the county's Community Development Department (CDD) through its Planning Division. The Planning Division reviews land use applications and answers zoning questions; staff can be reached at planning@deschutes.org or 541-388-6560. Because Deschutes County is a county government, it regulates unincorporated areas; incorporated cities such as Bend, Redmond, Sisters, and La Pine administer their own zoning within their limits.

Deschutes County Code Title 18 (the county Zoning Ordinance) establishes the base zones EFU (Exclusive Farm Use), F1 and F2 (Forest Use), MUA-10 (Multiple Use Agricultural), RC (Rural Commercial), RI (Rural Industrial), RR-10 (Rural Residential), and UAR-10 (Urban Area Reserve). The county also applies combining (overlay) zones such as LM (Landscape Management), WA (Wildlife Area), SMIA (Surface Mining Impact Area), AS (Airport Safety), GSGA, and SBMH.

In the RR-10 (Rural Residential) and MUA-10 (Multiple Use Agricultural) zones, the minimum lot size for a standard land division is 10 acres, according to the county's base zone descriptions. The UAR-10 (Urban Area Reserve) zone also carries a 10-acre standard division minimum and is intended to provide a transition between urban and rural development. Property owners should confirm specifics with the Planning Division, since combining zones and other standards can affect a given parcel.

Depending on the type of application, land use decisions are made by Planning Division staff, a Hearings Officer, or the Planning Commission, with the Board of County Commissioners serving as the final county-level decision maker. The county publishes Planning Commission and Hearings Officer hearing schedules through Community Development, and matters can be appealed beyond the county level to the state. The Planning Commission also advises the Board of County Commissioners on amendments to the Comprehensive Plan and land use regulations.

You can look up a property's zoning using the county's property research tools, including DIAL (the Deschutes County property information system) and the Summary Property Report, available through Community Development's Property & Permit Research Tools. The Zoning Index and 'Zoning 101' resources on the Community Development website explain the zone designations set out in Deschutes County Code Title 18, and Planning staff can help interpret how a designation affects development.

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