UNR Resolution: Resdiential Demolitions

[zilfondel]

So... I just read about this resolution being supported by ~1/3 of the city's neighborhood organizations. City hearing on it will be next week on December 17th.

source
there is no text version, sadly.

The group "United Neighborhoods for Reform," says they want to prevent residential houses from being demolished and replaced by single unit larger houses, which are less affordable because of upsizing the unit square footages.

So, not the lot-splitting issue that was reaised a few years ago, but a measure to target groups like Renaissance Homes, which have been extremely active throughout SE and NE Portland. Note: they have no listings under $400k.

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My initial thoughts:

At first I thought it would make it extremely difficult to tear down an existing house, but I'm not really sure what its impact would be. I'm not a big fan of the current practice of commercial home builders having entered the Portland market and are replacing houses with Portland super-sized bungalows (doesn't add density, although the homes are new, meet current codes and more energy efficient - to a degree).

However, I do not think its a good idea to make demolitions contingent upon the city and neighborhood association's approval. In fact, it sounds like a nightmare. I also don't want PDX turning into San Francisco.

Personally, I'd like to see some of the older, crappier houses in Portland rebuilt, perhaps as duplex/triplex/quadplex or townhomes, to add density without going full Pearl District. Rowhomes and the like would help fill in the density gap between shoebox apartments and single family homes.

Thoughts?

[Nunya]

That is very poorly written and will never work. Item 2-A especially as limiting height/setbacks/footprint/mass to the average means every new house built in whatever area this would cover would have to be increasingly smaller, with larger setbacks, and shorter than a significant portion of existing construction (half if things were evenly distributed).

And unless every new project was exactly at the average for each of the criteria listed each subsequent project would need to be yet smaller. Since it's based upon a specified distance if you have few homes in that specified distance and I decide I want to build a 400 square foot house good luck with your averages if you want to build after me.

[PDXDENSITY]

Originally Posted by Nunya

That is very poorly written and will never work. Item 2-A especially as limiting height/setbacks/footprint/mass to the average means every new house built in whatever area this would cover would have to be increasingly smaller, with larger setbacks, and shorter than a significant portion of existing construction (half if things were evenly distributed).

And unless every new project was exactly at the average for each of the criteria listed each subsequent project would need to be yet smaller. Since it's based upon a specified distance if you have few homes in that specified distance and I decide I want to build a 400 square foot house good luck with your averages if you want to build after me.

It's thinly veiled anti density. The same woman who speaheaded this also tried to stop a building on Fremont that sat unfinished due to her pointless battle; in the comment section of the Bike Portland article about this she had to be called out to finally admit it openly. They're saying they care about single family homes when they really want to prevent dense corridors like Division or Williams from being near their house. It's protectionism, and it's kinda gross. We need this density, or our housing will never be affordable. I wish we had inclusionary zoning as well, because that would go a long way toward forcing housing in new buildings for low and middle income folks... You know the people writing this would have a fit if more poor people moved in, though....

I really hope this thing gets treated and the doublethink it is. Neighborhood associations are good, but many are just hives for people to prevent any development so their housing gets a premium when they sell due to shortage.