Portland officials revamped the city’s residential zoning rules Wednesday to allow denser housing units to be built in most city neighborhoods, particularly ones that previously only allowed single-family houses.
The City Council also prohibited new extra-large homes on most lots, required more wheelchair-friendly housing, created incentives for affordable housing in high-income neighborhoods and took other steps that proponents said would increase economic and racial integration.
Local and national proponents of the changes said they are potentially the most effective and important housing equity rules approved so far in any U.S. city. But critics said they could enrich developers, hurt quality of life in established neighborhood and undermine incentives to concentrate new housing near transit corridors.
The Portland City Council voted 3-1 to adopt the new rule, referred to as the Residential Infill Project, which city officials have discussed publicly and revised since 2015.
Specifically, the plan will allow more duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes as well as more accessory dwelling units and cottages to be built amid existing single houses. New developments wouldn’t be required to offer off-street parking. The new policy will also allow up to six units on residential lots where at least half of the units are affordable for families with income no higher than 60% area median income to rent or for families earning no more than 80% area median income to buy.
The policy lowers the size of new homes that can be built in place of existing homes. Currently, city code allows homes on most residential lots to be torn down and replaced with a single-family home of up to 6,750 square feet. That would be reduced to no larger than 3,500 square feet.
Commissioner Amanda Fritz voted against the plan saying the changes “throw out 40 years of land use planning in Portland.” She warned the new rules could end up enriching corporate rental owners and a handful of housing developers and said the new policy will work against the city’s plans to address gentrification, equitable development and climate change.
Fritz said the zoning rule change doesn’t take into account existing Portland neighborhoods that lack the infrastructure to accommodate an influx of new residents, like proper sidewalks and close access to bus and light-rail lines. She called it “the saddest vote” she’s cast in her 12 years on the City Council.
“By allowing development far from centers and corridors, we are allowing housing to be developed in areas without safe, immediate access to transit,” said Fritz, the lone council member who was in office when the policy discussions began years ago. “We are promoting our continued reliance on cars, which is antithetical to our climate goals.”
Mayor Ted Wheeler, Commissioner Chloe Eudaly and Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty said the new rules will better prepare the city to handle more housing for future residents. City officials projected in 2015 that Portland would draw 260,000 new residents by 2035.
The three council members who voted to enact the new policy said it will help begin repairing the damage caused by zoning rules that contributed to racial discrimination and segregation in Portland and wide disparities in homeownership rates and wealth attainment. Statistics show that owning or renting housing in many of Portland’s single-dwelling neighborhoods is nearly impossible for many residents, including people of color and single parents.
The new policy “doesn’t ban single family homes and it will not destroy Portland’s neighborhoods,” Eudaly said. “What it will do is open the door for the missing middle housing to exist across our city.”
She said current city estimates show there could be another 5,000 residential units built in previously single-family-only neighborhoods in the next 20 years because of the change. Eudaly, Hardesty and Wheeler are all Portland renters. Fritz owns a home in the city.
The city council voted in the 1950s to expand single-family-only zoning to many of the city’s neighborhoods. That was shortly after Black families moved to Portland in large numbers to help in the city’s ship-building industry. Today, more than 40% of all land in Portland allows only single-family houses.
Oregon lawmakers passed a bill last year to end single-family-only zoning in cities of 10,000 or more statewide.
Hardesty, Eudaly and Wheeler said they are open to modifying the rules in the future after seeing how the residential infill impacts the city.
Hardesty said she believes the zoning change will “increase the amount of space Portland has to grow for decades to come.” Eudaly said the city’s goals include wanting to preserve existing houses, encouraging more affordable housing and mobility-device-accessible units for low-income residents, and preventing displacement.
During the many years the policy has been debated, drafted and redrafted before Wednesday’s vote, it “has become a zoning lightning rod and it’s pitted Portland’s affordable housing advocates against people who are concerned with neighborhood charter and preservation,” Eudaly said. “This conversation is complex and it’s been challenging.”
-- Everton Bailey Jr; ebailey@oregonian.com | 503-221-8343 | @EvertonBailey
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