skinny houses kenton

Skinny houses in the Kenton neighborhood. Commissioner Amanda Fritz, who oversees the city's development bureau, says it needs to start saying "no" to developers more often. One area where it's taking a harder stance is in proposals to split lots to make room for skinny houses.

(Olivia Bucks/The Oregonian)

Portland regulators have been told they need to tell developers "no" more often.



City Commissioner Amanda Fritz, who oversees the Bureau of Development Services, told the department's staff in a memo this month that it needs to "raise the bar" in certain land-use reviews. In particular, she said, staff members should put more emphasis on considerations like neighborhood compatibility, the preservation of trees and availability of on-street parking.



All are issues that have attracted residents to testify at City Hall by the dozens in the past several years as a post-recession building boom has ruffled some feathers in long-established neighborhoods.



"I don't support the philosophy of cramming in density at all costs," Fritz wrote in the memo, obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive. "We need a more balanced approach."



The directive won't impact development that's allowed outright under city code. Rather, it's a change in how planners make "discretionary" land-use decisions, in which some criteria is subjective.



Homebuilders say they've already noticed a shift at the bureau. Rather than hearing "no," however, they're often hearing "I don't know." That has builders and developers worried. Like most businesses, they want certainty when it comes to regulations and how they're applied.



"If you know the code, there's predictability," said Douglas MacLeod, a real estate agent who works in land acquisition and development. "Now it's complete unpredictability."



The shift is the most significant sign of Fritz's influence on the bureau since Mayor Charlie Hales assigned responsibility for its oversight to her in June 2013.



In an interview Monday, Fritz said she wanted to be clear with bureau staff about the expectations of the new City Council, which had overruled city planners' approval of development projects twice last year.



"I'm not going to interfere with their day-to-day professional decision making," Fritz said. "I want to be clear at the policy level."



Her memo advised planners they "do not have to 'get to yes' with every project." But, she said, they should guide developers on how they could tweak their project to could make them more acceptable.



"I want them to give due consideration to the neighborhood as well as the applicants," she said. "It's not one or the other. It's both."



So far, the shift is most evident in an area where Fritz and developers have tangled before: skinny houses.



As a neighborhood activist and then a member of the Portland Planning Commission, Fritz fought the proliferation of skinny houses -- typically built on narrow 2,500-square-foot lots -- in areas that had been zoned for 5,000-square-foot lots.



Now that battle is spilling over into areas zoned for greater density.



The bureau had, with some restrictions, routinely approved narrow lots in the R2.5 zone -- areas of the city that have a density goal of one residential unit every 2,500 square feet.



In a city where the typical lot is 5,000 square feet, it's been common for builders to tear down one house on a lot zoned R2.5, split the lot down the middle and build two houses. They say they're more affordable, and they don't have trouble finding buyers.



In October, the Portland City Council denied a lot division sought by infill developer Vic Remmers, overruling staff at the Bureau of Development Services and a city hearings officer. It agreed with the Woodstock Neighborhood Association that the lot arrangement, which would create two skinny lots around 30 feet wide, would be incompatible with the existing neighborhood.



The rebuke of the bureau's original findings on the case sent a message it needed to figure out how to account for the character of the existing neighborhood.



The decision doesn't mean skinny houses can't be built in a given neighborhood, said Rebecca Esau, who oversees the land-use division at the Bureau of Development Services. But they might be limited in height or other ways to ensure they fit in.



The bureau, however, hasn't approved a land division in the R2.5 zone since October, shortly after the Woodstock neighborhood decision. Some builders now report they're being advised to withdraw their applications for land divisions.



Greg Cochell planned to divide a 75-foot-wide lot at Southeast 92nd and Yamhill and build three houses. He ran the plan by the city before buying the property and was told it would likely be approved.



Now, he says, two of the 25-foot lots he was seeking are in limbo. Bureau staff have said his plans wouldn't be compatible with the neighborhood, where most lots are 50 feet wide. If he can't build three houses, he said, he's not likely to break even on his investment.



"What's worse is, there's been no code change, no statute change of any kind," he said. "They're evidently just interpreting the code differently, and they've given no notice or guidance to the builders."



Justin Wood, a builder and lobbyist for the Home Builders Association of Metropolitan Portland, said he thinks a builder will challenge the new interpretation of the code to the Land Use Board of Appeals.



"It flies in the face of all common sense," Wood said. "It makes it hard to do density in the neighborhoods that are zoned for density."



The Woodstock case points to the difficulty of determining what's "compatible." A hearings officer who reviewed the case before the City Council described compatibility as "particularly vexing from a legal standpoint because they are so subjective as to be nearly meaningless as a standard."



Terry Griffiths, the Woodstock Neighborhood Association's land-use co-chair, said she realizes the concept of compatibility is one that's subjective. And although she's no fan of skinny houses, she saw the case as more about the way those particular houses would have been arranged and didn't realize her neighborhood's case would have any significance beyond the corner of Southeast 40th and Reedway.



"I'm not sure I foresaw that," she said. "Personally, I don't grieve for (skinny houses). But I realize there is a question of affordability."



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