Measure 37 claim, 17th and W Burnside

[nwd]

Hey, longtime lurker and rare poster here. I live in NW Portland and just got a notice in the mail saying there's a Measure 37 claim in progress for 1703-1719 W Burnside. That's the Acropolis Hotel building with A-Ball plumbing at the ground floor.

Now, it's not the most amazing building in town or anything, but it is one of the few remaining older buildings in the area. It's immediate neighbors are the Enterprise car lot, the Jaguar dealership across the street, and the McDonalds at 18th. It'd be a shame to punch yet another hole up there.

Anybody know what's going on?

[bvpcvm]

I've never seen any of those mailings; doesn't it say something about what the owner wants to do? Seems like there would have to be some sort of proposal in order to know how much to base the claim on.

[nwd]

The mailing is a simple postcard with only four information fields: claimant name, address, claim amount and claim number. There's no project description. The claim amount is $178,813. That sounds pretty small as M37 claims go. The claimants names are Haralampose A. & Diane L. Polizos.

There's a phone number to set up an appointment to view claims at 1900 SW 4th. But I was hoping someone might know what's up.

[PDX City-State]

It'd be a shame to punch yet another hole up there.

Joe Weston is building a 32-story tower two blocks away, the owners of the land whereon Jaguar sits want to build a condo, the Civic is 75% sold--I don't think you'll need to worry about another hole being punched.

[pdxman]

^^^actually, the civic is 80% sold, and thats as of may 2006 :) so its probably close to full by now.
http://www.movingtoportland.net/condos_southwest.htm#Civic

[zilfondel]

I think it's for a billboard.

There's a little blue dot on/near the site on this map, which is for billboards & signage.

http://www.portlandonline.com/index.cfm?c=djjga

http://www.portlandonline.com/shared/cfm/image.cfm?id=142573

*update*

Yup, just as I thought (http://www.portlandonline.com/index.cfm?c=39966&a=96421):

Regulation:
Ch. 33, 33.130, 33.430, TRN 10.26

Issue:
Sign code, Commercial Zones, Environmental Zones, Transportation Policies, Scenic Resources Protection Plan, Comp. Plan

Amount:
$178,813

Submitted:
11/30/06

==================

I gots to say, reading through the city's M37 spreadsheet is really interesting... they really don't fuck around with landowners in their claims!

[PDX City-State]

Call me crazy--I like billboards.

[urbanlife]

yeah, he is probably just looking for another source of income to pay for building improvements possibly....or more money for the wallet, who knows.

[MarkDaMan]

It would be nice if something happened to that nasty Enterprise lot...HUGE waste of space!

[nwd]

Thanks for the replies. I live just a couple blocks away, so it's nice to know it's nothing too major. And Mark, you're right about that Enterprise lot. The McDonalds, Panda Express, and the car wash are all real eyesores as well. I was flipping through a book of old photos at Powells last week and I saw a picture of what the upper Burnside area looked like around 1940 or so. It made me sad to see how much has been lost. Hopefully the Civic, the Morrison, the Weston development, and the Jaguar dealer redevelopment will help to turn the area around.

[PDX City-State]

New development will certainly turn things around, but unfortunately, any developer on the north side of Burnside will have the horrible NW Neighborhood Association to deal with. They oppose everything more than two stories that doesn't look like it was built 100 years ago. Remember the Uptown Tower? They were happier with a surface parking lot than a nice building. With appeals, it took forever to break ground. They also apposed the Pacifica Tower at Riverscape, reducing it to a eight-story slab. I would bet everything in my back pocket (which is about 12 bucks incidentally) that in ten years Upper Burnside will look completely different. There is just no way a property owner would renew a lease for an Enterprise car lot, a Panda Express, or a car wash with a 32-story condo right across the street. It's all highest and best use.

[zilfondel]

^^^ I actually would like to see some 4-6 story built-right-up-to-the sidewalk buildings to create a really hard street edge for the northern side of Burnside. Repairing what we lost with the stupid McDonald's, Freddies, Walgreens & friends would really give the NW neighborhood a strong visual identity apart from Goose Hollow (which is going to be awesome with the towers its getting).

Looking at the zoning maps, with 4:1 FAR and required street frontages along Burnside, it appears that's the case... although I have no idea what the height limits are! Anyone know where you can find those?

[MarkDaMan]

I'm thinking the NW Nimby's wouldn't really care about any developments east of 21st avenue down to the 405 that borders Burnside. There was absolutely no opposition to the Civic, however I wouldn't imagine anybody would fight to keep a building that you have to carry an umbrella on a hot summer day when you walk past the place in order to avoid a needle flying out of the druggies window from stabbing you in the head...but you never know with NIMBYs.

In any case, since lower Burnside is taking off, and it has less of a population base than upper Burnside, that UpBu:haha: wouldn't be the next organic revitalization area.

[PDX City-State]

They opposed the tower at Riverscape. Their official stance against new buildings is ussually "we don't want to overwhelm the infrastructure." Did anyone ever tell them that cities grow--and this growth is a big reason why their property values have tripled in the past 15 years?

[MarkDaMan]

^I will never, at least in my lifetime, understand the opposition to the Riverscape tower. It isn't even in the NW district, it's on shitty industrial land around shitty industrial businesses. Highway 30, IMHO, is the dividing line for the NW NIMBYs, anything past that is really none of their concern, but they did have success in forcing a redesign...bastards!

[65MAX]

upper Burnside, that UpBu:haha:

BAD, Mark, BAD!! Go wash your mouth out with soap. Just say no to pithy contractions!! :yuck:

[MarkDaMan]

^:haha:

[Urbanpdx]

I'm thinking the NW Nimby's wouldn't really care about any developments east of 21st avenue down to the 405 that borders Burnside. There was absolutely no opposition to the Civic, however I wouldn't imagine anybody would fight to keep a building that you have to carry an umbrella on a hot summer day when you walk past the place in order to avoid a needle flying out of the druggies window from stabbing you in the head...but you never know with NIMBYs.

In any case, since lower Burnside is taking off, and it has less of a population base than upper Burnside, that UpBu:haha: wouldn't be the next organic revitalization area.

The Civic is not in the NWDA boundry so they didn't get a chance to comment. Generally they tend to like feaux classical styles that provide the least development possible. It is odd that they fight so hard to keep stores like Apple from building modern but no one says a thing about vinyl widow replacement, composition roofs, front porch expansions and other non-historically accurate remodels in the historic district portion of the NWDA.

[MarkDaMan]

^so they don't have an opinion about a tower that casts shadows over their homes, something they can all see from their windows, but they do stop a project they probably can't even see...stupid...stupid...stupid!

Is the Pearl part of the NWDA or is their a Pearl neighborhood association?

[Urbanpdx]

^so they don't have an opinion about a tower that casts shadows over their homes, something they can all see from their windows, but they do stop a project they probably can't even see...stupid...stupid...stupid!

Is the Pearl part of the NWDA or is their a Pearl neighborhood association?

No the Pearl isn't in there association.
;)

[zilfondel]

Speaking of NW Portland, have you guys heard about all the heavy metals and other pollutants in the air? Apparently that funny smell late at night is from the several pounds of lead that one of the plants in the area releases per day.

I read this somewhere the past few days, but unfortunately cannot find the source... thought it was the oregonian, tho.

[Urbanpdx]

I think it was the Tribune. There is a website that allows residents to report the "smells". I've seen yard signs advertising it but cannot remember the URL

[sirsimon]

Mmmmm-mmmm. I {heart} lead.