College Hill Cottages Tour and Housing Discussion

At the invitation of the City of Eugene, I joined roughly thirty participants on June 11 for a tour of the College Hill Cottages, followed by dinner and a discussion at Tsunami Books. The evening was part of the City’s ongoing Urban Growth Strategies work and its central question: how can Eugene provide affordable, attainable, and accessible housing over the next twenty years? 

The tour was led by Dylan Lamar of Cultivate, the architect‑developer behind the project. The College Hill Cottages occupy a standard residential lot at 45 W 27th Avenue, but the design intent is unusually focused. Cultivate describes the project as “workforce‑affordable homeownership in a walkable neighborhood”—six compact, zero‑energy‑ready cottages arranged around a south‑facing courtyard. Each one‑bedroom home offers about 800 square feet of living space, with a well‑organized first floor, exposed timbers, a vaulted upper‑level bedroom, an office nook, and a full‑height loft that can flex as a studio or additional sleeping space. 

View of the cluster from the street (my photo).

The cottages are individually owned, with recent pricing around $380,000 per unit. There is no off‑street parking, a deliberate choice supported by Eugene’s middle‑housing code, which does not require parking for cottage clusters. The absence of driveways and garages allows the courtyard to become the defining feature of the site: landscaped and intended for casual social connection, whether through outdoor dining or tending garden beds alongside neighbors. 

Dylan also addressed the tradeoffs inherent in the cottage‑cluster typology. Because Oregon House Bill 2001 defines cottage clusters as groupings of detached dwellings, shared walls are not permitted. The resulting high surface‑area‑to‑volume ratio is less efficient than townhouses, but Cultivate compensates with building‑science rigor: airtight 2x8 walls, operable cedar shutters for solar control, heat-pump space and water heating, and solar‑ready metal roofs. The homes are certified “Zero Energy Ready” by the U.S. Department of Energy. 

One of the cottages (my photo).

After the site visit, we reconvened at Tsunami Books for dinner (provided by Subo Sushi Burritos and El Super Burrito) and a conversation with City staff. The discussion centered on Eugene’s projected need for nearly 26,000 new homes over the next twenty years, as identified in the 2026 Oregon Housing Needs Analysis. Meeting that target would require producing roughly 1,600 dwellings per year—a 70 percent increase over current output. 

City staff outlined the first set of actions heading to Council as “Adoption Package #1,” a group of time‑sensitive land‑use code amendments. These include new development standards for micro‑village housing and single‑room occupancies (SROs), both of which would be permitted in all zones that allow housing. The package also proposes updates to middle‑housing and land‑division standards to reduce cost and complexity, improve clarity during plan review, and align local code with recent state legislation and the State’s Model Housing Code for Large Cities. 

Kitchen (my photo).

The College Hill Cottages served as a useful case study for how one form of middle housing is currently being implemented. Cottage clusters are allowed throughout Eugene’s residential zones but come with strict dimensional and design requirements: minimum lot sizes, limits on building footprints and heights, mandatory shared courtyards, and the requirement that all units be fully detached. The intent is to preserve small‑scale massing and maintain the appearance of individual homes, even as density increases. 

The evening offered a grounded look at how policy, design, and community expectations intersect. Eugene’s housing needs are substantial, and the City is moving quickly to align its code with state requirements while encouraging a broader mix of housing types. The College Hill Cottages illustrate one path forward—small in scale, community‑oriented, and designed to fit within the fabric of established neighborhoods.