As we’d long suspected he would, Mayor Charlie Hales this morning gathered in Southeast Portland with a host of local dignitaries to announce the city will have the money to fund a sidewalk on SE 136th, after all. The project had been a hot topic—and among the few sources of political strife in the mayor’s […]
Build Out
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Cops: Controversial Division Apartment Building Hit by Drunken Vandals
Dirk VanderHart As the Mercury reported earlier this week, Portland fire officials have been fretting over the stalled apartment structure at SE Division and 37th Avenue, fearing it might attract the attention of vandals or squatters. It looks like those fears were founded. As first reported by Willamette Week, Portland police arrested three trespassers at […]
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The Fire Department is Mad About Division Street Development, Too
Dirk VanderHart The feared fire hazard While rhetoric flies and the city’s tenuous stance on the permit of a controversial southeast apartment project congeals into seeming permanence, one agency is quietly fretting on the sidelines: the Portland Fire and Rescue Bureau. Fire officials worry the proposed 81-unit structure — incomplete and wreathed in garish yellow […]
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Burkholder: Hales “Stampeded” into Parking Decision
Rex Burkholder Former Metro Councilor Rex Burkholder — who departed the body this year because of term limits — hasn’t been shy in his criticisms of new parking requirements city council will take up April 4. He testified at a meeting of the city’s Planning and Sustainability Commission earlier this month — part of a […]
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STILL Interested in Parking Policy? Read this Study!
As Portland’s back-and-forth over parking-free apartments reaches a fresh fever pitch — and council readies itself to discuss new mandatory parking minimums for bigger projects — this study [PDF] is making its way around the web. It’s a look at what happened in downtown Los Angeles when the city eased up on parking requirements and […]
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Charlie Hales Backpedals on Controversial Permit
Dirk VanderHart Facing outraged citizens and the vexation of colleagues, Mayor Charlie Hales is pulling rein on recent changes that would likely mean clear sailing for the controversial 37th Street Apartments. The mayor sent out a press release at 5:40 pm indicating he’s instructed Portland’s Bureau of Development Services to stall its vetting of a […]
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A Mammoth Parking-Free Apartment Building Is Skirting Further Public Scrutiny
Backers of a controversial apartment development at SE Division Street and 37th Avenue have filed a revised permit with the city — circumventing further public scrutiny on the project and possibly eliminating risks the building could fall under new parking requirements headed to city council. Beaverton developer Dennis Sackhoff’s 37th Street Apartments have been a […]
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Speaking of Parking in NW, Major Con-Way Development Would Add 1,200 Residents to Area
Con-way Development Plan Massing Diagram Major changes are on the horizon for the north end of Portland’s NW district. Freight company Con-way owns nine square blocks between NW 19th and 22nd, Pettygrove and Upshur, which right now are a collection of warehouses and parking lots. But not for long! Con-way is working with developers and […]
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What Happens When You Build Housing With No Parking?
Portland’s progressive parking policy has taken a beating recently. Under city code, developers are allowed to build some types of buildings in areas with frequent public transit without any parking. Developers love it (parking is extremely expensive to build), car-free renters love it (because they’re not paying the added cost of a parking every month), […]
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Walmart’s Cloud of Inexorable Doom
Portland has a love/hate relationship with Walmart that’s mostly tilted (except when Fred Meyer’s and Safeway are closed and you own a car and don’t mind driving to Happy Valley) toward the hate side of the equation. And with neighbors talking about that new Walmart in North Portland (and our formerly anti-Walmart mayor’s softening stance), […]
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With “Street Seats,” City Turns Public Parking Spots into Private Cafes
This month, Portland unveiled the first outdoor cafe in its new Street Seats program, a venture that will convert on-street parking spaces into outdoor extensions of businesses. The first raised-platform seating was built outside Wafu on SE Division; by the end of the year, we’ll see up to 12 of these little spots spring up. […]
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“Urban Green Living” Townhomes Heading to SE 25th and Ankeny
The lot on SE Ankeny that currently looks like this: Is slated to someday turn into this: Five townhomes and one condo will make up Ankeny Row (pdf), an “urban green living” project from design-build company Green Hammer. The buildings are supposed use super energy efficient “passive house” construction and are priced at $581,200 for […]