Mary Kyle McCurdy#

Mary Kyle McCurdy is the Associate Director and Managing Attorney at 1000 Friends of Oregon, a nonprofit land use and housing advocacy organization founded in 1975. She serves as the organization’s senior staff attorney, legislative lead, and overseer of all program work.¹ McCurdy has been affiliated with 1000 Friends for over 35 years, making her one of Oregon’s most prominent and long-tenured land use advocates.²

McCurdy’s policy work focuses on housing, wildfire, and climate resilience. She has testified before the Oregon Legislature on dozens of housing and land use bills across multiple sessions and has led some of Oregon’s most significant housing reform efforts, including the campaign for middle housing legalization and the Oregon Housing Needs Analysis rulemaking.¹³

Background#

McCurdy grew up near Chicago and earned a B.A. in Human Biology from Stanford University and a J.D. from the University of California at Davis.¹ After law school, she clerked for a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Portland.¹ She discovered 1000 Friends of Oregon between her undergraduate and graduate studies and joined the organization’s staff in the late 1980s.²

McCurdy also serves as Vice-Chair of Oregon’s Wildfire Programs Advisory Council, established by SB 762, where she oversees wildfire preparedness and resiliency implementation work across 11 state agencies.⁴

Key Housing Actions#

As Associate Director and Managing Attorney at 1000 Friends of Oregon (c. 1990-present)#

HB 2001 (2019): Led 1000 Friends’ campaign to pass Oregon’s landmark middle housing bill, which ended exclusionary single-family zoning statewide. McCurdy described it as the most important housing legislation in Oregon since SB 100 in 1973 and argued that over 70% of Oregon’s residential land being zoned for single-family homes created a “structural mismatch” between available land and housing needs.⁵⁶
HB 2001 (2023): Led a coalition of more than 25 organizations—including AARP Oregon, Oregon Home Builders Association, Habitat for Humanity of Oregon, and Oregon Association of Realtors—to pass updated middle housing requirements through the legislature.⁷
Oregon Housing Needs Analysis (OHNA) rules (2025): Led 1000 Friends’ multi-year involvement in the rulemaking process that culminated in the Land Conservation and Development Commission adopting OHNA rules on December 4, 2025. McCurdy called OHNA “the most significant update to Oregon’s housing rules since Oregon created its land use goals in 1974.”³⁸
Housing affordability litigation (2022): Won a precedent-setting legal case with Thrive Hood River defending the City of Hood River’s diverse housing ordinance before the Oregon Court of Appeals, establishing a successful model for small communities passing zoning reform to allow diverse housing types.⁹
SB 1537 (2024): Testified in opposition to provisions in the emergency housing bill that would bypass land use law to allow large urban growth boundary expansions, while supporting other components including the Housing Production Accountability Office and revolving loan funds.¹⁰
2025 legislative session: Testified on numerous housing and land use bills including HB 2138, HB 3145, HB 3031, SB 51, SB 85, and SB 684, focusing on middle housing production and infrastructure for residential infill development.¹¹
2026 legislative session: Testified on HB 4035, HB 4082, HB 4108, SB 1551, SB 1561, SB 1564, and SB 1567, addressing urban growth boundary expansion criteria for affordable housing and maintaining protections for farm and forest land.¹²
2021 legislative session: Testified extensively on housing and land use bills including SB 8, SB 458, HB 2006, HB 2488, and HB 2918, among others, covering topics from middle housing lot splits to housing production strategies and DLCD budget priorities.¹³