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Originally Posted by maccoinnich
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Height limit cramping county
By: Inka Bajandas
Multnomah County Health Department officials are seeking city of Portland approval and neighborhood support for construction of a taller building in Old Town Chinatown than zoning allows.
Initial plans for the health department’s new headquarters called for a six-story building that would not exceed the 75-foot height limit on a vacant lot east of Bud Clark Commons. But the proposed $46 million building would not be able to provide the approximately 120,000 to 150,000 square feet of office space the county anticipates it needing. The only way that the constrained half-block site could provide that much space would be in a building nine or 10 stories, county spokeswoman Julie Sullivan-Springhetti said.
“We have learned a six-story building is not enough space,” she said. “It’s critical that when we invest this type of money in public funds that we have the capacity, and that’s what we’re coming up against with the height limit.”
The revelation has led county officials to put on hold plans to break ground next month on a six-story building that would replace the department’s current downtown Portland headquarters, Sullivan-Springhetti said.
“We paused on that six-story (concept) and we are working with the city of Portland and the Portland Development Commission to look at what we can do to try and utilize the site,” she said.
Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability staffers are reviewing the county’s revised plans and are developing a proposal to change the height allowance on that block, bounded by Northwest Hoyt and Irving streets and Broadway and Sixth Avenue, city planner Nicholas Starin said. A city staff report on a proposed amendment to the height limit is expected to be released by the end of this week, he said.
“They need a fairly large building that wouldn’t fit within the 75 feet,” he said. “The number we’re working off is to get the height to 150 (feet).”
To achieve this, city planners propose increasing the base height allowed on the planned site to 120 feet and offering the county height bonuses in exchange for including building features that are considered a public benefit, such as an eco-roof. Currently, the site is not eligible for such floor-to-area-ratio bonuses.
The proposed height allowance and FAR bonuses require approval of the Portland Planning and Sustainability Commission and Portland City Council, Starin said. A Planning and Sustainability Commission public hearing for the proposal is scheduled for April 28. If the commission were to approve the height allowance, a City Council hearing would likely take place in June, he said. The project would then have to enter the city design review process.
County and city officials earlier this month met with neighbors of the site to discuss plans to construct a taller headquarters building. This includes seeking the support of the Old Town Chinatown Community Association and Pearl District Neighborhood Association.
When county officials last week presented the proposed height increase to the OTCCA’s Land Use and Design Review Committee, members expressed concerns about the taller building blocking views of the Union Station clock tower as well as inconsistency with the shorter surrounding structures. The neighborhood association’s board is scheduled to review the proposal on April 1.
Health department officials more than a decade ago began looking for options for relocation from the Gladys McCoy Building in downtown Portland. The 12-story building, constructed as a department store in 1923, had outlived its usefulness as the hub for one of Oregon’s largest federally qualified health centers. The new headquarters will allow the county to consolidate health department functions currently spread out across multiple buildings. It will house the department’s leadership, public health emergency services, a communicable disease program, specialty clinics, a pharmacy and electronic health records. About 350 health professionals would work out of the building.
In 2013, health department officials brought on Home Forward, ZGF Architects and JE Dunn Construction to formalize a building plan for developing the half-block site owned by the Portland Housing Bureau west of Northwest Sixth Avenue, between Irvington and Hoyt streets.
The department has since undergone a leadership transition. Former department head Lillian Shirley left in fall 2013 to lead the Oregon Public Health Division. The county’s former chief operating officer, Joanne Fuller, took over as interim director of the health department. The Multnomah County Board of Commissioners this past June appointed her health department director.
Sullivan-Springhetti said county officials still believe the Old Town site is a prime location for the health department’s new headquarters and hope to make the proposed project pencil out there.
“We have this great site (but) because it was limited to the 75-foot height for the investment we would not be able to fit the professionals and services in that for the cost,” she said. “This was the option we were hoping to go with and now we’re in the process to see how we make this work.”
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