Fast Track Needs Fast Clarity: Why Oregon’s Permitting Push Starts With Zoning

Last week, Tina Kotek testified in support of Oregon’s new FastTrack program, a statewide effort to accelerate permitting and help deliver housing, jobs, and economic development more quickly.

The message from Salem is unmistakable. Speed matters. Oregon wants projects to move faster, approvals to be more predictable, and good development to get off the ground sooner.

But there is a critical truth that everyone who builds already understands. Speed without clarity does not actually move projects forward. It simply moves uncertainty earlier in the process.

FastTrack Recognizes the Real Problem

FastTrack is built around a clear set of intentions. Reduce permitting timelines. Improve transparency. Make sites more ready for development. Increase Oregon’s competitiveness for investment and housing production.

These goals reflect the day to day reality of planners, developers, architects, and public servants across the state. Everyone wants fewer surprises, better coordination, and clearer expectations. What often goes unsaid is that all of this depends on one foundational layer.

Zoning.

Clarity: The Foundation for Accelerated Development

Every development project begins with a foundational question: What is possible on this site? Before the first design, financing agreement, or permit application, teams need a clear, common reference point to ensure their vision aligns with the rules.

Currently, navigating this first step can be time-intensive. Zoning information is often dispersed across lengthy codes, disparate maps, and various departmental datasets. Providing quick, accessible answers requires overcoming significant fragmentation, which can slow initial project scoping and increase the risk of missteps later on.

To truly accelerate project delivery, the first and most prudent step is establishing this shared clarity. By increasing the visibility, accessibility, and transparency of zoning, we create a more predictable starting line for everyone. This foundational improvement is what allows teams to move from basic questions to confident, intentional execution, reducing avoidable friction and accelerating good development.

Zoning Is Infrastructure

If FastTrack is about speed, zoning clarity is the infrastructure that makes that speed possible.

UrbanForm exists to provide that clarity. The platform translates complex zoning codes into parcel specific answers that are instantly accessible. Where the new Enterprise Zones are. What is allowed. What limits apply. What constraints need to be understood early

When teams can see zoning clearly from the start, the entire process improves. Developers submit stronger applications. Planners spend less time correcting basic issues. Conversations move beyond whether something is allowed and toward how to do it well.

This is not about replacing planners or reducing oversight. It is about giving everyone a shared starting point.

A Shared Map Creates Capacity

One of the quiet challenges in permitting is misalignment. Different interpretations of the same code. Different datasets across departments. Different assumptions between public and private teams.

Clear zoning intelligence creates alignment. It gives planners, applicants, and decision makers a common reference. That shared understanding reduces friction and builds trust.

In places like Yamhill County, we have seen what happens when that foundation exists. Staff time is freed up. Developers move forward with more confidence. Collaboration across jurisdictions becomes easier rather than harder.

FastTrack is trying to scale those kinds of outcomes statewide.

Speed With Intention

At UrbanForm, our mission is better buildings, cities, and environments. That means faster processes, but it also means thoughtful ones.

FastTrack represents an opportunity to modernize how Oregon builds without lowering standards or losing local expertise. Zoning clarity is what allows speed and care to coexist.

If Oregon wants projects to move faster, the first step is making the rules easier to see.

Because when zoning is clear, permitting can be fast. And good projects can get started sooner.