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Housing boom starts brewing
TRIB TOWN: As projects percolate on Interstate, so does debate
By Anna Johns
The Portland Tribune 16 minutes ago
JIM CLARK / PORTLAND TRIBUNE
Along Interstate itself, developers (from left) Rick Johnson, Mark Kirchmeier, Adam Gnicwosz and Chris Gincwosz stand in front of a house that will be torn down.
Later this month, demolition begins on the old Marino Furniture store, 3970 N. Interstate Ave., to make room for condominiums.
It’s the first transit-oriented, high-density housing project along Interstate Avenue since the MAX light-rail line opened, even though that was three years ago – an eternity compared to how quickly housing sprouted along the Portland Streetcar route.
The four-story, 30-unit complex will feature lofts and one- to two-bedroom units, with 2,200 square feet of retail space on the ground floor at the intersection of Interstate and North Shaver Street. With unit prices ranging from $200,000 to $350,000, the developers expect buyers will be people who are priced out of the Pearl District. They plan to open in late fall.
Chris Gniewosz is one of the developers on the project. He says the entire process has been long and arduous because the city had neglected to change the zoning for the Interstate Avenue corridor, despite a multineighborhood plan in 2002 that called for an increase in high-density housing near the light-rail line.
“We had to go through a horrendous process,” Gniewosz said.
It cost him and his partners $30,000 for experts and paperwork, and took 12 months to get the zoning changed for their high-density housing project. It’s a headache they shouldn’t have had to endure, Gniewosz said.
“It’s something that should’ve been done when the MAX was finished,” Gniewosz said. “Zoning should have been part of that project.”
According to Julia Gisler, a project manager with the City’s Bureau of Planning, the money and manpower to change the zoning hasn’t been available until now. Gisler is leading a yearlong zoning study of the Interstate MAX corridor that is just getting under way this month.
She thinks the long, expensive zoning process is keeping transit-oriented business and housing away from the Interstate MAX corridor.
“There’s a disconnect between the neighborhood plan and the current zoning laws,” Gisler said. “We really think we can help the corridor.”
The light-rail study is in its infancy, with Gisler still taking applications from members of the public to sit on a community advisory board. Initial plans called for zoning recommendations to be made to the City Council by November 2007, but the study already is several months behind and a final date has not been rescheduled.
When it does get under way, participants in the study will use the 2002 multineighborhood plan as a base. The plan recommends developing high-density housing and transit-oriented businesses near five Interstate MAX stops at Lombard Street, Portland Boulevard, Killingsworth Street, Prescott Street and Overlook Boulevard.
One of the challenges that will be addressed in the study is how much high-density housing should spill into the surrounding neighborhoods. The neighborhood plan calls for higher density, but Gisler says she hopes the study will find a way to strike a balance so the neighborhoods don’t lose their character.
“A lot of people point to Northwest Portland, with high buildings and small buildings,” Gisler said. “This (light-rail) corridor is going to become more eclectic.”
Density’s good on Interstate
Chris Duffy, chairwoman of the Arbor Lodge Neighborhood Association, said the bigger projects should be allowed only on Interstate Avenue.
She pointed to Gniewosz’s 30-condominium project as ideal because it is directly on the light-rail line and is not surrounded by single-family homes.
“I definitely support transit-oriented development,” Duffy said, “but the density should be stepped down as you move away from the transit stations.”
Case in point, Duffy said, is a six-story condominium complex planned for North Montana Avenue between Bryant and Buffalo streets. The land is one block back from the light-rail line and surrounded by single-family homes.
“It will loom over the neighborhood,” Duffy said.
But worse than its size in comparison with the nearby buildings, Duffy said, is what it already has done to the neighborhood. Two homeowners across the street from the planned project have moved away and rent out their former homes.
A next-door neighbor sold his home after living in it for three years, and two more are considering selling their homes to the developer.
“It destabilizes the neighborhood terribly,” Duffy said. “It puts a lot of stress and pressure on the people who live nearby.”
Some projects praised
Duffy points to a set of condominium projects further south on Montana Avenue as examples of the kind of high density she thinks is called for by the neighborhood plan.
Between North Shaver and Mason streets, there are a set of six-unit, three-story condominiums that are set back several feet from the street. Although they are significantly taller than the surrounding homes, Duffy says they are designed in a way that minimizes their visual impact.
She also applauds a family housing project planned for the current site of the Crown Motel, 5226 N. Interstate Ave. Reach Community Development, a nonprofit developer, will build a four-story, 54-unit apartment complex of affordable housing.
Demolition of the hotel is set to begin in late fall, and construction should be complete in 2008.
To apply for the community advisory group for the Interstate Light Rail Corridor Zoning Project, call Julia Gisler, 503-823-7624, or visit the Bureau of Planning Website,
www.PortlandOnline.com/Planning.
annajohns@portlandtribune.com