Density plan cuts both ways

MARKET FORCES • New urban homes can be unwelcome neighbors

By Jim Redden and Connie Pickett

The Portland Tribune, Jun 26, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (2 Reader comments)

L.E. BASKOW / PORTLAND TRIBUNE

Willie Brown of the Northeast Coalition of Neighborhoods says many recent housing developments, such as these new homes behind a traditional bungalow in the 4800 block of North Kerby Street, are too large and don’t fit in with the homes around them.

Everywhere you look it seems that density is changing the face of the Portland metro area — and upsetting a lot of people.

It’s no secret that more and more people want to live in or near downtown. Condominium and apartment towers have been rising near the South Park Blocks and in the Pearl and South Waterfront districts for years.

But smaller housing projects have been springing up in virtually all neighborhoods, even in the suburbs. In some cases, they are being built on vacant lots. In other cases, they are replacing long-standing houses. And in many of these cases, neighbors are complaining they do not fit in.

“Developers are tearing down existing homes and replacing them with much larger buildings that are completely out of place,” said Willie Brown, interim director of the Northeast Coalition of Neighborhoods, who has spent most of his life in Portland’s Albina area.

During a recent trip through North and Northeast Portland, Brown pointed out several recent developments that he thought were too large for their neighborhoods. They include a cluster of tall contemporary houses just west of Jefferson High School, the Wygant Lofts at North Williams Avenue and Wygant Street, and a multifamily building at Northeast 55th Avenue and Mallory Street.

But developer George Hale, who has been building infill housing for 10 years, believes that mixing contemporary design with traditional housing stock creates “interesting texture in a neighborhood, a diversity that makes things exciting.”

He is finishing up a 13-unit condo development at Northeast Seventh Avenue and Knott Street that is tailored to buyers “who are more design-conscious.”

“A lot of people want more traditional design, and then there comes the buyer who walks in and says, ‘Thank God, I’m home,’ ” Hale said.

The infill and redevelopment projects popping up all over the metro area are consistent with state, regional and local land-use planning policies to increase density in urban areas. The goal is to preserve farm and timber lands by increasing the number of people living near jobs and shopping.

Metro, the regional government charged with managing growth, is carrying out these policies by corralling all new development within an urban growth boundary, which includes most of Multnomah and large parts of Clackamas and Washington counties.

City encourages newcomers

As part of its planning efforts, Metro asks all cities and counties within its boundaries to periodically report on how many new homes and jobs they can accommodate.

Portland has always offered to accept a disproportionately large share of the growth. According to a Sept. 14, 2005, memo from city planners to Mayor Tom Potter, the city has a goal of absorbing at least 20 percent of all new people moving to the region — a goal it has accomplished since 1995.

“Past construction rates and housing demand demonstrate Portland’s ability to absorb a significant share of the region’s housing growth,” says the memo, written by Bob Clay, a planner with the Bureau of Planning, and Stephen Iwate, a planner with the Portland Office of Transportation.

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