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Old Posted Apr 24, 2007, 3:43 PM
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Orenco, suburban development that has the potential to change America's burbs

Model for density, design
ORENCO STATION AND OTHER NEW URBANISM SUCCESSES REFLECT HOUSING EMPHASIZING TRANSIT, PEDESTRIANS AND COMMERCIAL USES
Saturday, April 21, 2007
DANA TIMS
The Oregonian

When Rudy Kadlub started planning a densely configured suburban housing, retail and commercial hub in Hillsboro more than a decade ago, he searched the country for established models.

To his astonishment, there weren't any.

"I know that because I traveled all over looking for them," said Kadlub, whose Costa Pacific Communities was then in the early stages, with partner PacTrust, of building Orenco Station. "We had to be our own model."

Even local planners shrugged when asked what a transit-oriented, pedestrian-friendly, mixed-use development should look like.

But with westside commuter rail then on the way out from Portland and critical federal funding requiring features now dubbed as New Urbanism, Kadlub started doing his own research to measure market demand for the innovative development.

Planning specialists across the country have since hailed Orenco Station as a success in its rethinking of traditional suburban development patterns. It is credited with helping reverse a half-century pattern of filling the suburbs with sprawling, nondescript subdivisions and cul-de-sacs, all far removed from needed goods and services.

And although financial and other obstacles could hinder construction of similar projects, Orenco Station helped lay what national experts call important groundwork for other urban-inflected developments now under way or in early planning stages around the fast-growing Portland region.

"The future belongs to more of what we would call traditional, older-style neighborhood development," said Ed McMahon, senior resident fellow at the Urban Land Institute in Washington, D.C. "And by now, it's very clear that we are going to see a lot more of these developments rather than less."

Defining what constitutes a New Urbanist community remains an inexact science, he said. But they generally are regarded as semi-self-contained communities with narrow streets, a mix of shops, offices, apartments and houses. Tree-lined streets are connected, and most amenities are within a 10-minute walk.

Garages face onto back alleys, creating a high-quality pedestrian network. Backyards are small, placing increased emphasis on front porches. Sidewalks, open spaces, parks and greenways are intended to foster a sense of walkability and community openness.

Many, such as Orenco Station, are labeled as transit-oriented because they are adjacent to commuter rail or light-rail lines. Fairview Village near Gresham is another area example of a New Urbanist community.

In Wilsonville, another Kadlub-led development, Villebois, is in full-construction mode. About 250 of the complex's planned 2,500 housing units have been sold.

Villebois, a French term meaning "village near the woods," is three years into a decadelong build-out schedule. The development occupies the land that housed long-closed Dammasch State Hospital and will have an estimated population of more than 5,000 residents when complete.

For Allison Sherman, one of its first residents, it couldn't provide a better fit for her family.

"We really like the idea of planned communities," said Sherman, sitting at one of Villebois' numerous pocket parks and watching her 5-year-old daughter, Haley, shovel sand into an orange pail. "The pool, parks, basketball courts and village center make this so much more than just a traditional houses-only subdivision."

<INSUB>Significant restraints </INSUB>

As popular as New Urbanist communities are with residents, significant constraints, most notably lack of available financing and scarcity of land inside the region's urban growth boundary, stand to limit just how many more the region can accommodate.

"A big development around here is 100 acres," said Ethan Seltzer, director of Portland State University's School of Urban Studies and Planning. "That's laughable, given the scale of 3,000-acre developments in places like Phoenix, Houston or Austin."

Still, he praised Portland's New Urbanism trend for introducing new types of development patterns to suburbs that for decades were stamped from a single mold.

"These developments are adding diversity to what in other places are very homogenous settlement patterns," Seltzer said. "You're beginning to see a greater range of choice in every location as households change and age, and as the economy continues to evolve."

Given scarcity of undeveloped land inside the region's urban growth boundary, the most likely spots for new such ventures will be on the extensive tracts brought inside the boundary in the past several years, said Don Guthrie, chief operating officer of West Hills Development.

<INSUB>Regional possibilities </INSUB>

Three immediate possibilities are the Damascus/Happy Valley area, the St. Mary's property south of Hillsboro and the 800-acre North Bethany tract just east of Portland Community College's Rock Creek Campus, he said.

Increasingly, research shows that individual homeowners in New Urbanist communities benefit, said the Urban Land Institute's McMahon.

A new study conducted by Chris Nelson, an instructor at Virginia Tech University, shows that, among all types of housing, dwellings in traditional suburban subdivisions return the lowest increase in valuation. Houses in master-planned communities rate much higher, with residences in New Urbanist communities above those.

"From every standpoint, including the ability to leave your car home and walk everywhere in the face of rising gas prices, these communities make nothing but good sense," he said.

David Bragdon, Metro Council president, has been preaching the New Urbanist gospel for some time. As the metro area braces for nearly 1 million residents expected to move here over the next two decades, he said, opportunities should be rich to increase those offerings.

"Even with multiple developers and property owners," he said, "there is a comprehensive nature to the way we are approaching these projects that should really benefit the entire region in the long run."

Dana Tims: 503-294-5973; danatims@news.oregonian.com

http://www.oregonlive.com/special/ou...410.xml&coll=7
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