Looking Back on Oregon’s 2026 Legislative Session
Some good gifts, some coal, and some presents we really want next year
A legislative session is a little bit like a weird Christmas.
You spend all year making your wish list, then there’s a flurry of wrapping paper flying through the air (aka advocacy and legislative maneuvering), and, when the gavel drops, you see what you got.
LandWatch headed into the 2026 state legislative session focused and ready to advocate for Central Oregon’s places, people, and wildlife. We spent the months before the session meeting with community members and legislators and advancing the policy concepts we most hoped to see.
Out of the total 304 bills introduced, we reviewed and tracked 51 pieces of proposed legislation through a livability lens, lending our support to bills that would help ensure this region is one that people can thrive in, where our cities and towns are affordable and vibrant, where our rural lands remain productive and protected, and our wild lands and waterways continue to support the wildlife and outdoor lifestyles that define our region.
Come with us to the North Pole, er … Salem, for a recap of how our priority bills fared during this short session that felt oh-so-long.
BEST PRESENTS RECEIVED
~$40+ million dollars a year for wildlife - With the successful passage of the 1.25% for Wildlife bill, essential conservation efforts, including the State Wildlife Action Plan, the Oregon Conservation and Recreation Fund, and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Wildlife Connectivity Program now have dedicated funding, thanks to a small 1.25% bump on the statewide tourism tax.
Public lands in public hands - Thanks to Senate Bill 1590, Oregon won’t collaborate with any federal effort to privatize national parks and monuments. This bill bars state and local governments from cooperating with the federal government if it tries to sell off public land in Oregon.
Central Oregonians, please send a note of appreciation to Senator Broadman and Representatives Kropf and Levy who voted in support of both of these bills.
Complete Community opportunities - HB 4037, an omnibus housing bill, includes an important new sideboard for Senate Bill 8 (2021) that will allow for much needed affordable housing to continue to be built, while preserving the neighborhood commercial opportunities needed for Complete Communities. This new provision applies to planned mixed use development (e.g. master planned areas) larger than 10 acres.
STOCKING STUFFERS
Common-sense fire preparedness - Senate Bill 1551 allows homeowners to take critical steps toward fire preparedness by prohibiting HOAs and deed terms from limiting the use of fire-hardened building materials or requiring the use of non-fire-hardened building materials.
LUMPS OF COAL
Large stores on farm land - This one was an uphill battle, but the problematic farm stores bill (House Bill 4153) that would allow large commercial interests to set up shop on farmland passed. We opposed that measure and will be watching the impacts.
MAYBE NEXT YEAR
Transportation priorities - Due to the substantial budget shortfall in front of the Oregon Department of Transportation, many of our top priority programs, including Community Paths and Safe Routes to School, will not get the funding needed. We opposed these cuts, because safety and climate resilience should be non-negotiable.
FRUITCAKE
Each legislative session, there are outcomes we don’t love … but which could have turned out worse without our attention. In this category, we have:
HB 4035 adjusted four criteria that will allow more cities to qualify to use a one-time UGB expansion, while still proving up housing and land need.
HB 4082 allows cities to use a one-time UGB expansion for senior affordable housing and/or manufactured homes.
WHITE ELEPHANTS
While we’d prefer to be pushing for tools that give local communities more flexibility for things like infrastructure funding, much of this session was spent battling back bad urbanization and land use ideas.
For three examples of bills we helped to stop:
Senate Bill 1586 would have expanded the City of Hillsboro UGB by 1,700 acres onto the best farmland in the state—all to attract more data center development that drains scarce water and electricity from Oregonians.
With House Bill 4113, a developer was seeking to use an expired development right in the Metolius to justify sprawl elsewhere in Oregon.
For Senate Bill 1522, the - 1 amendment would have stripped out key pillars of our Urban Reserves process that ensure balance between growth and development and preservation of farm and forest land.
While we successfully stopped these efforts this session, we anticipate that one or more of these ideas could be back in some form next session.
As our state legislators juggled tough decisions, faced federal uncertainty and shortfalls, and reworked an important transportation bill, Central Oregon LandWatch looked out for the programs and projects that would have the most impact on our region’s overall environmental health and community livability.
Thanks to your support, we’re able to take part in Oregon’s legislative sessions at every stage of the game, from shaping legislative proposals to taking part in rallies to making our case by providing testimony at public hearings.
And with the short session now wrapped, we’re turning our focus to work at the local and federal levels. Watch for more from us soon! (Possibly after a nap.)
