Gov. Tina Kotek stumped for one of her signature issues on Wednesday before an audience of housing leaders from across the West as she readies for a similar push in the Oregon Capitol.

Speaking before a meeting of the Western Governors’ Association held this week in Bend, Kotek pressed attendees from New Mexico to California to Colorado to embrace “middle housing” — duplexes, triplexes and other options between single-family houses and apartment buildings.

States across the West are grappling with housing shortages and escalating costs of living. Kotek and others have argued limitations on the kinds of housing available, reinforced by zoning and construction codes, have contributed.

“This is about choice,” Kotek told the crowd of conference attendees.

The Oregonian reported this week that Kotek will ask state lawmakers to expand modestly on the middle housing law she championed as House speaker nearly six years ago.

“Middle housing does lower construction costs: shared walls, smaller footprints,” Kotek said in an interview later in the day, after she toured a Bend housing development.

House Bill 2001, legislation Kotek spearheaded as Oregon House speaker in 2019 to legalize townhomes, triplexes and other middle housing in areas zoned for single-detached homes, “built a good foundation,” she said.

As Kotek moderated a discussion on middle housing, a developer panelist noted how it has begun to move the needle. Deborah Flagan of homebuilder Hayden Homes said that because of the 2019 middle housing changes championed by Kotek, an Albany development undertaken by Hayden Homes went from a planned 120 homes to 176 thanks to the added available density, and prices dropped by $45,000. Challenges remain, Flagan said, but the developers are happy with the results.

This year’s bill, House Bill 2138, would allow the construction of such homes in unincorporated parts of urban areas. The bill also would clarify that duplexes, triplexes and quadplexes may be built as attached or detached dwellings and configured any way a developer wants.

“We have gone back to the development community and said, ‘What else do you need to see?’ That’s what’s in that bill,” Kotek said. “More consistency, clarity. Some new options.”

She added the bill is not completely finished — it’s been pre-filed before the start of the legislative session and might be revised though amendments — but said passing it is a priority for the legislative session that begins Tuesday.

After the panel, Kotek joined conference attendees to tour affordable housing developments around Bend, where residents and developers described, with the governor’s ear, their experiences in Central Oregon’s most populous city, including the need for workers to be able to live there.