What We Heard at AOC 2025: Counties Are Asking for Capacity and Clarity

This year’s AOC Annual Conference in Eugene brought together county leaders from every corner of Oregon. It was a chance for planners, administrators, commissioners, public works teams, assessors, surveyors, and partner agencies to pause, compare notes, and talk openly about what’s working, and what isn’t, in the day-to-day reality of county governance.

As we spoke with teams throughout the week, a clear picture emerged. Counties are carrying more responsibility than ever, and they are doing so in a landscape where the rules, expectations, and technical complexities keep shifting. The common thread across nearly every conversation was simple: capacity is the constraint and clarity is becoming essential for county infrastructure.

Governor Tina Kotek addressing the attendees of AOC 2025 in Eugene, Oregon

Zoning Is Changing Faster Than Counties Can Keep Up

One of the strongest themes we heard was the sheer speed at which zoning-related rules are evolving. Counties described a constant stream of updates: new statewide housing directives, evolving flood and wildfire hazard maps, groundwater considerations, habitat overlays, special districts, and local amendments. Even well-resourced planning teams struggle to keep internal documents updated and ensure that every staff member is working from the same version of the rules.

What we heard is that counties don’t lack expertise, they lack time. What’s hard isn’t understanding the rules; it’s maintaining confidence that everyone has access. Consistency across departments is becoming harder to guarantee without tools that actively maintain that alignment.

Capacity, Not Commitment, Is the Bottleneck

Across Oregon, counties are doing ambitious work with limited staff. Many teams described the increasingly heavy load of pre-application questions, permitting expectations, and public inquiries. They also spoke about turnover, retirements, and the ongoing challenge of preserving institutional knowledge when workloads are high and days are full.

County staff aren’t struggling with ability, they’re struggling with bandwidth. Repeating the same zoning interpretation dozens of times a week, pulling information from different sources, and fielding incomplete or inaccurate external information all add up. Many pointed to this as the biggest constraint on housing timelines, project starts, and predictable development paths.

A Desire for Shared Understanding

At AOC, there was a palpable desire for alignment. Counties want something that sounds simple but is surprisingly hard to maintain: a shared understanding of zoning, boundaries, and overlays that spans planning, public works, GIS, permitting, and external partners.

When each department relies on its own maps, PDFs, interpretations, or workflows, friction is inevitable.

We all want everyone, from a junior planner to a seasoned administrator, or a developer to a resident, to start with the same foundation of information. A shared source of truth doesn’t just improve internal efficiency; it creates a more seamless experience for the public.

Zoning Clarity Is Becoming the Starting Point for Everything

Perhaps the strongest insight from AOC was how deeply zoning underpins nearly every county priority and is at the root of so much of the work governments do. Housing, infrastructure, economic development, emergency management, climate resilience, business expansion; every one of these initiatives begins with a land-use question.

Counties described zoning clarity not as a technical detail but as the foundation that determines how confidently and quickly they can act.

When the first step is slow or uncertain, every step afterward becomes more difficult. When the first step is clear, counties can move with purpose.

Our Commitment Going Forward

Leaving AOC, we were reminded why UrbanForm exists. Counties are not asking for shortcuts, they’re asking for clarity they can trust, and tools that help them navigate increasing complexity without losing capacity. They want a foundation that is stable even as the rules around them evolve.

We built UrbanForm for this purpose: to make zoning clarity available instantly, to reduce repetitive work, to keep information current, and to help counties stay aligned internally and externally. Every conversation we had at AOC affirmed that mission.

We’re grateful for the insights, the honesty, and the partnership. Counties across Oregon are doing extraordinary work under challenging conditions, and we’re honored to support them in building better buildings, cities, and environments starting with the clarity that makes everything else possible.