Lessons Learned: Yamhill One Year Later

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A Comprehensive Evaluation of Regional Zoning Digitization and the UrbanForm Implementation

The landscape of municipal governance and land-use planning within the State of Oregon has historically been characterized by a high degree of regulatory complexity, rooted in a robust system of statewide planning goals and localized development codes. For decades, the friction inherent in navigating these regulations has served as a silent "information tax" on development, disproportionately affecting workforce housing and small-scale infrastructure projects.

The 2024 pilot program in Yamhill County, which sought to digitize and "decode" the zoning ordinances of eleven distinct jurisdictions, represented a fundamental shift in how geographic and legal data are synthesized for public and professional use.

One year following the launch of this initiative, this "Lessons Learned: Yamhill One Year Later" report provides an exhaustive analysis of the implementation process, the quantitative metrics of engagement, the qualitative feedback from practitioners, and the strategic implications for the future of regional planning infrastructure.

Invisible Barriers: Context and the Need for Clarity

Zoning is foundational to every building in America, yet the systems used to communicate these rules are often antiquated, siloed, and opaque. In Oregon, the complexity of development code remains one of the primary obstacles to initiating projects. For developers and municipal staff, the labor-intensive nature of interpreting hundreds, sometimes thousands, of pages of code adds significant time and cost to the entitlement process.¹ The City of Portland’s zoning code, for instance, spans 1,854 pages, illustrating the scale of the challenge for even the most experienced planners.¹

Before the application of digitized tools, the research phase for any given parcel involved manual cross-referencing of PDF documents, physical maps, and internal GIS layers. This process was inherently error-prone and often resulted in inconsistent interpretations across different municipal desks. The Yamhill County project was born from a collaboration between eleven jurisdictions, local employers, and housing leaders, specifically aimed at unlocking faster, more coordinated development starting with workforce housing in Newberg.¹ By translating and applying municipal code into readily accessible, parcel-specific answers—addressing constraints, overlays, and the fastest path forward—the project sought to instantly start every project beyond the initial information discovery formerly required.¹

The Framework of Initial Implementation

The deployment of UrbanForm across Yamhill County was not a singular event but a multi-phased collaborative process that prioritized data integrity and municipal trust. The implementation was structured over a four-month period, which allowed for a deliberate transition from raw data to a polished user interface.

The Onboarding and Refinement Process

The first two months of the project were dedicated exclusively to the onboarding of data. This involved the digital extraction of rules from municipal codes and the alignment of these rules with existing geographic information system (GIS) layers. The subsequent two months were focused on refinement, feedback, and quality assurance.¹ This collaborative "back-and-forth" between the technical team and municipal planners was essential for identifying edge cases and unique local nuances that a purely automated system might overlook.

One of the most significant technical achievements during this phase was the visualization of easement and floodplain data. In many jurisdictions, this information had never been mapped in a user-friendly way, often requiring multiple meetings with public works or engineering departments to uncover.¹ By integrating these constraints into a click-to-view interface, the platform provided a level of transparency that was previously unavailable.

Regional Synergy and Funding Models

The project's success was largely dependent on its role as a regional convener. The implementation involved a diverse array of stakeholders, including the Missing Middle Housing Fund (MMHF), the Strategic Economic Development Corporation (SEDCOR), and the Newberg Workforce Housing Consortium (NWHC).¹ The involvement of major employers such as A-dec, George Fox University, and Providence Health highlighted the economic stakes of zoning clarity. These organizations recognized that the inability to produce housing at the pace of job growth was a systemic risk to the regional economy.¹

Implementation Milestone	Duration	Primary Focus
Data Onboarding	Months 1-2	Translation of PDF codes to digital logic and GIS alignment.
Refinement & QA	Months 3-4	Planner feedback loops and data verification.
Regional Launch	Winter 2025	Public rollout across all 11 Yamhill jurisdictions.
Continuing Development	Summer 2025	Updates and additional data integrations.

Recognition: The Regional Cooperative Project Award

The regional success of the Yamhill implementation was formally validated in March 2025 at the 67th Annual Mid-Willamette Valley Council of Governments (MWVCOG) meeting. The project was honored with the "Regional Cooperative Project Award," which recognizes exemplary partnerships that promote intergovernmental collaboration and community benefit. The award specifically cited the group's work in streamlining zoning codes across Yamhill County through an easy-to-use website, noting that the initiative has improved permit application quality and saved significant time for both applicants and municipal reviewers. This recognition underscores the project's role as a model for innovation in public-private partnerships and its impact on reducing barriers to housing development.

Quantitative Metrics: Reviewing a Year of Engagement

The statistical performance of the platform over its first year provides a clear indication of its utility and the varying needs of different jurisdictions. The data, captured from March 2025 through January 2026, reveals significant trends in how information is consumed across the county.

Comparative Usage Across Jurisdictions

The "Total Events of Parcel Selection" metric serves as a proxy for the volume of feasibility studies and property inquiries being conducted. McMinnville and Newberg, the county's largest urban centers, naturally led in total volume, but smaller jurisdictions such as Lafayette and Willamina demonstrated high levels of engagement relative to their population sizes.

Jurisdiction	Average Monthly Sessions	March 2025 (Launch)	November 2025	January 2026
McMinnville	198.1	1,135	27	35
Newberg	125.2	281	17	36
Lafayette	101.2	101	118	127
Yamhill County	74.7	58	23	60
Willamina	61.5	95	81	17
Dayton	51.2	110	13	32
Carlton	39.7	74	32	38
Amity	23.6	53	18	19
City of Yamhill	18.1	21	14	13
Sheridan	10.9	56	11	10
Dundee	7.7	4	0	8

[Image 1, Image 2]

Seasonal Trends and Behavioral Insights

The data exhibits a massive spike in March 2025, particularly in McMinnville with 1,135 sessions. This likely represents the initial "discovery phase" where local developers, real estate agents, and municipal staff explored the newly available data for their entire portfolios. Following this initial surge, usage settled into a more predictable "steady state," although localized spikes occurred throughout the year.

For instance, Lafayette saw a consistent increase in usage toward the end of the year, peaking at 127 sessions in January 2026 [Image 1]. This suggests that as the tool becomes integrated into the daily workflow of community development staff, its value as a persistent research utility increases. Conversely, the high average in Newberg (125.2) despite lower year-end numbers indicates that the tool may be used more intensively during specific phases of the development cycle, such as site selection or pre-application preparation.¹

Qualitative Evaluation: Practitioner Perspectives and Workflow Shifts

While the statistics provide a measure of volume, the qualitative feedback from professionals in the field offers a deeper understanding of the platform's impact on operational efficiency and institutional culture.

Streamlining the Planning Counter

For municipal staff, the primary benefit has been the reduction in repetitive, low-value information retrieval. Amanda Perron, a Community Development Clerk for the City of Lafayette, noted that she opens the tool alongside the state GIS (ORMAP) each day to answer resident questions and review site plans several times per week.⁵ This capability to provide "instant information" transforms the public counter from a place of frustration into a center for efficient customer service.

Nicolette Cline, a City Planner for the City of Bandon (which adopted the tool following the Yamhill pilot), articulated a common challenge: a significant portion of a planner's time is spent gathering basic information for individuals regarding what they can and cannot do on a piece of property.⁵ The digitization of these rules allows the public to have this information at their fingertips, freeing professional planners to focus on "big-picture planning" and complex policy issues.⁵

The Developer and Building Official Advantage

The platform’s impact extends into the private sector and related municipal departments. Glenn McIntire, a Building Official, described the system as "intuitive" and noted its ability to make work more "streamlined" by speeding up the entire process for the building department.⁵ Doug Rux, a former Community Development Director, characterized the tool as a "gamechanger," emphasizing its potential to improve the quality of permit applications submitted to cities.⁵

This improvement in application quality is a critical second-order effect. When developers have access to the same authoritative data as the city, the number of "incomplete" or "non-compliant" applications decreases, reducing the administrative burden on staff and accelerating the overall timeline for housing production.⁴

Overcoming Institutional Skepticism

The adoption of new technology in government is rarely without friction. In Dayton, the contract city planner initially rejected the platform as a "duplication of existing tools".⁵ However, after witnessing the practical application of the tool, the same planner embraced the platform and now uses it whenever dealing with land issues.⁵ This shift highlights a key lesson: the value of digital zoning tools is often realized not through theoretical demonstration but through the practical resolution of daily "pain points."

Best Practices in Municipal Integration

A year of implementation has revealed several best practices for jurisdictions seeking to maximize the utility of digital zoning infrastructure. The most successful cities are those that have integrated the tool not just technically, but strategically, into their public-facing operations.

High-Visibility Website Integration

The City of Carlton, among Yamhill cities, represents a good example of effective website integration. Rather than burying the zoning information deep within an ordinance directory, Carlton features a direct link on its "Planning and Zoning" page.⁷ The call to action is clear: "Access Carlton's zoning map and codes through an interactive online map, provided by UrbanForm".⁷ This transparency signals to developers that the city is "open for business" and committed to reducing regulatory uncertainty.

Perhaps as examples of continuing development and integration, the City of Coos Bay and the City of Boardman have utilized the platform to manage the rapid growth associated with major industrial and port investments. By providing instant, parcel-specific answers to "What can be built here?", these cities have been able to support a surge in housing demand without a corresponding increase in planning staff.⁶

Technical Differentiation: GIS vs. Zoning Logic

A critical best practice identified by Rusty Merritt, a veteran GIS manager, is the distinction between GIS as a "spatial aggregator" and UrbanForm as a "logic decoder".⁵ While GIS is essential for managing boundaries and utilities, it often lacks the ability to translate the nuance of legal text into actionable development parameters. Best practices suggest that municipalities should consider these tools as complementary: GIS for the "where," and the digital zoning platform for the "what" and "how much".⁹

Regional Collaboration as Infrastructure

The Yamhill pilot demonstrated that treating zoning clarity as "regional infrastructure" rather than "local siloed code" creates significant economies of scale. Smaller jurisdictions—like Willamina, which saw "outsized value"—gained access to a level of technical capacity that would have been financially impossible on their own.¹ The lesson is that regional councils of government and economic development districts (like SEDCOR or CCD) are the natural homes for these initiatives, as they can facilitate the cross-jurisdictional standards necessary for a seamless user experience.¹⁰

Economic and Social Implications: Beyond the Interface

The impact of the Yamhill project transcends mere administrative efficiency; it has direct implications for regional economic health and the production of workforce housing.

Accelerating Workforce Housing

The project was specifically aligned with the goals of the Newberg Workforce Housing Consortium. By reducing the "information tax" on development, the tool helps lower the pre-development costs that often make middle-income housing projects financially unviable.¹ As housing production in regions like Coos County lags behind job creation from port investments, the ability to "accelerate the path from site selection through entitlement" becomes a vital economic stabilizer.⁶

Reducing the "Phantom Tax" of Uncertainty

Every day lost to zoning research and pre-application back-and-forth adds cost and uncertainty to a project. This "phantom tax" can cause acquisitions to stall and investors to hesitate.¹¹ By providing a "buildable picture" of a site—including height, setbacks, FAR, and overlays—the platform reduces the risk for developers and lenders alike. Theresa Haga, Executive Director of CCD, noted that tools like this are essential for realizing a county’s economic potential by ensuring the region is "prepared for growth".⁶

Acknowledgments and Contributions

The success of the UrbanForm Yamhill initiative was made possible by an unprecedented level of cooperation across public, private, and non-profit sectors. The following organizations and individuals were instrumental in the development and deployment of this project:

Regional and State Partners

Missing Middle Housing Fund (MMHF): For providing the strategic vision and management of housing innovation funds.³
SEDCOR (Strategic Economic Development Corporation): For securing state grants and facilitating regional economic alignment.¹
Business Oregon: For supporting the expansion of these tools as vital state infrastructure.⁴
CCD Business Development Corporation and Southern Oregon Coast Regional Housing (SOCRH): For their leadership in the Coos County expansion.⁶

Participating Municipalities and Jurisdictions

The Cities of Amity, Carlton, Dayton, Dundee, Lafayette, McMinnville, Newberg, Sheridan, Willamina, and Yamhill, as well as Yamhill County.¹

Individual Recognition

The project benefited from the tireless efforts of many professionals, including but not limited to: Nathan Wildfire, Amy Snyder, Abisha Stone, Scott Dadson, McRae Carmichael, Erik Andersson, Naureen Khan, Kip Morris, Branden Dross, Nathan Frarck, Rochelle Roaden, Hilary Malcomson, Heather Richards, Clay Downing, Leanne Wagener, Jeremy Caudle, Curt Fisher, Evan Hietpas, Andrew Castro, Shannon Beaucaire, Shelley Reimer, Julie Brandao, Christy Martinez, Jeff Gaus, Peter Clarke, Charles Voloshin, Doug Rux, Dave Rucklos, Rachel King, Linda W., Cale George, Marianne Thomson, Bridget Meneley, Yvette Potter, Michelle Long, Vickie Hernandez, Aimee Amerson, Scott Whyte, Shea Corrigan, and Mayor Bill Rosacker.¹

The Horizon: 2026 Roadmap and the Future of Planning

As the Yamhill project transitions into its second year of steady-state operation, the roadmap for 2026 and beyond is focused on expanding both the geographic footprint and the technical depth of the platform.

Expanding the Network of Clarity

Following the successful pilot, the platform has already expanded to serve 29 jurisdictions across Oregon.⁹ This momentum is expected to continue as more counties recognize zoning clarity as "civic infrastructure".⁴ The digitization of over 41,000 parcels in Yamhill and nearly 40,000 in Coos County provides a blueprint for a statewide "zoning platform" that could eventually standardize development research across all 36 Oregon counties.²

Technical Evolution and AI Integration

The future of the platform lies in the integration of increasingly sophisticated analysis tools. The 2026 roadmap includes:

Enhanced Zoning Analysis: Adding more detailed data on requested analysis types and increasing transparency into authoritative code sources.⁹
AI-Driven Compliance: Exploring how Artificial Intelligence can be used to further "repurpose GIS data" and provide even more nuanced answers to complex development questions.⁵
Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) Integration: Aligning zoning data with state-level transit and climate-friendly mandates to support denser, more sustainable urban forms.⁴

The ISUF 2025 conference on "Urban Morphology in the Age of Artificial Intelligence" underscored that the evolution of urban form will be increasingly driven by conceptual and representational tools that can handle the complexity of modern city dynamics.¹² For the practitioners in Yamhill, this means the tool will continue to evolve from a research utility into a "decision support system" that can model the impacts of proposed code changes in real-time.

Synthesis of Lessons Learned

The primary lesson of the Yamhill pilot is that technology is a necessary but insufficient condition for success. The project’s impact was rooted in its ability to build trust—trust in the data, trust between jurisdictions, and trust between the public and private sectors.

Key Takeaways for Regional Jurisdictions

Zoning is Infrastructure: Just as cities maintain roads and water lines, they must maintain the "information infrastructure" of their development rules. A PDF on a website is no longer sufficient in a high-demand housing market.¹⁰
Collaboration not Compartmentalization: Regional approaches reduce the technical burden on smaller cities and create a predictable environment for developers operating across multiple jurisdictions.¹
Complementary not Redundant: UrbanForm functions well in complement with well-run and organized GIS workflows; not against or over them. For public-facing service, an effective way to reduce staff workload is to make the tool the primary point of entry for all zoning inquiries.⁷
A Better Way to See Zoning: Move beyond long-form PDFs and static or GIS maps to "decoded logic" that answers the user’s ultimate question: "What can I build here?".¹

As the State of Oregon continues to grapple with housing affordability and climate-friendly land use, the model established in Yamhill County provides a scalable, practical solution. By turning thousands of pages of static code into a "Google Maps for zoning," the region has not only streamlined its bureaucracy but has also laid the foundation for a more resilient and accessible urban future. The work in Yamhill is no longer just a pilot; it is the new standard for municipal engagement in the digital age.

Data Appendix: Detailed Monthly Session Count by Jurisdiction (2025-2026)