2 new housing projects in Hollywood have neighbors worried about parking
POSTED: Friday, March 16, 2012 at 02:09 PM PT
Daily Journal of Commerce BY: Lindsey O'Brien
With a 2.9 percent vacancy rate, Portland’s Hollywood District is ripe for development of rental housing. Developer Creston Homes and Myhre Group Architects are teaming up for a couple of 47-unit apartment building projects in the district – Hollywood Apartments is now under construction and 41@Tillamook Apartments is in the permitting phase.
For the latter, developer David Mullens of Creston Homes is planning to replace a surface parking lot and a commercial building on Tillamook Street between 41st and 42nd avenues with a four-story apartment building. The project is expected to not only meet a growing need for rental units, but also for an aging population.
But some residents are concerned that the two projects – within just a few blocks of each other – will result in more traffic and constrain parking in an area that already lacks it.
“Parking and traffic in this part of the city is dicey at best,” said Jo Schaefer, chairwoman of the Hollywood Neighborhood Association. “There will be overflow and some angry neighbors; that’s just the way it’s going to go.”
However, for 41@Tillamook, the project team is hoping to attract a mix of “transit-friendly” tenants – career-starters who bike or use the 42nd Avenue MAX station three-tenths of a mile away; and older residents who do not have cars. To accommodate this tenant blend, the design calls for a public bicycle work station as well as a laundry list of accessibility features to accommodate people with disabilities.
“I think Hollywood is a great little neighborhood and you don’t need a car,” Mullens said.
He initially envisioned an even larger building for the site, which is directly across from the Multnomah County Library on Tillamook Street. But the cost of excavating a basement on the city right-of-way was prohibitive, according to Mullens, so the project was reduced from five stories to four, with approximately 23,000 square feet of residential space.
Even at a smaller size, 41@Tillamook will cost more than other Creston Homes developments, Mullens said, although he did not disclose an estimate. Universal design goals – an elevator, in particular – added to the price tag.
“It’s definitely more expensive than what we’re used to doing, but (universal design) is something we want to start doing more of anyway,” he said. “That neighborhood right there in that spot is the perfect place to start.”
City Commissioner Amanda Fritz, a member of the Portland Commission on Disability, said there is a definite need for more accessible rental units.
“Finding living space is one of the biggest challenges for people – even those who can afford to pay more can’t find accessible units,” she said.
Dozens of features planned for 41@Tillamook would increase livability for disabled residents and visitors, although Myhre Group principal Don Sowieja said that aspect of the design is still in its early stages.
In its application for transit-oriented development tax abatements, which requires developments to include “public benefits” such as accessibility features, the project team lists nearly 50 universal design features that may be included, such as lever handles – rather than twisting doorknobs – throughout the building; interior spaces wide enough to accommodate wheelchairs; and height considerations for light switches, plugs and other controls.
The tax abatements also require that some of the units are available to people earning 60 percent of the area’s median family income. Ten of the units at 41@Tillamook will meet the affordability standards, with preliminary rent estimates ranging from $648 for a studio; $670 for a one-bedroom unit; and $800 for a two-bedroom unit.
Hollywood District residents continue to wonder, however, whether their new neighbors will actually move in without cars.
“We want more housing; it will be nice to have more people living in the neighborhood,” Schaefer said. “At the same time, it just somehow feels like it’s not very well thought out. More people are going to be driving into the neighborhood, and we’re left with a bit of a puzzle because there is already a lack of parking.”
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