Southeast 122nd and Division

A potential rendering of Southeast 122nd Avenue at Southeast Division Street, including landscaping, high capacity transit, local food and housing options.

Portland expects roughly 200,000 new residents to set roots here in the next 20 years, and it's no secret the newbies will largely be moving into multifamily apartment complexes.

A new interactive map on the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability's website depicts that reality as red boxes strewn across the city signifying potential mixed-used developments.

The map is a companion piece to the city's Draft Comprehensive Plan, released this week as the first wholesale update since 1980 to planners' long-range vision for the Portland of 2035.

City planners on Wednesday held a two-hour briefing for members of the news media to discuss the plan. Here are some takeaways:

Living together: Planners estimate that by 2035, 80 percent of new construction in Portland will be multifamily housing. Joe Zehnder, chief planner, said the vision for Portland's future is in some ways already playing out on streets such as North Williams Avenue and Southeast Division Street, where mixed-use buildings and new apartments are popping up left and right. "It's going to be what we're seeing," Zehnder said of Portland's future. "Just more of it."

Living alone: Despite the multifamily housing boom, many of those new apartments will likely be filled with single people. According to city planners, more than half of Portland residents are expected to live alone by 2035. The demographic shift is part of the changing shape of American households, planners say.

Growing up: Portland has miles and miles of roadways that are commercial corridors. Those streets are already open to mixed-use projects that include retail and housing, but the market hasn't shifted that way just yet in some cases. The comprehensive plan would explicitly make those high-trafficked areas mixed-use friendly. Where are some streets to expect more apartments and activity? Lombard Street, Killingsworth Street, Foster Road, Powell Boulevard, 82nd Avenue, Sandy Boulevard, 122nd Avenue and Barbur Boulevard to name a few. Zehnder said Portland is behind other Pacific Northwest cities in terms of similar developments. "There's a catch-up phenomenon," he said.

More industrial lands: Currently, there are 370,000 jobs in Portland and that number is expected to swell by 142,000 in the next 20 years. City planners say having enough land for housing stock isn't an issue, but land for future jobs is at a premium. The city needs more industrial land specifically, and leaders are banking on West Hayden Island to help fill the gap. Tom Armstrong, city planner, said the city has a 600-acre deficit in terms of what it needs to accommodate 32,000 expected jobs in that industry. City officials shelved West Hayden Island, the proposed 300-acre marine terminal development, in January. Armstrong said Portland has 550 acres of contaminated brownfield sites that could be rehabilitated and developed for additional industrial jobs. Cleaning up those sites would require federal and state money.

More transit or streets: The comprehensive plan makes it clear that Portland won't be expanding its existing street network anytime soon by adding lane capacity or new roadways. Portland Bureau of Transportation officials say they're working with the planning staff to target areas for additional high capacity transit options. The Powell-Division area's high capacity transit potential is factored into the comprehensive plan, as is the ongoing effort to bring high capacity transit to Southwest Portland on Barbur Boulevard. Building a denser city means more attention and resources will be given to maintaining existing infrastructure, PBOT's Dylan Rivera said. There's a "synergy" between the ongoing street fee discussion and the comprehensive plan, according to city planners. Rivera said the city must acknowledge growth is coming, and that means "more balance to the system" in terms of increased pedestrian and bicycling access.

Major Institutions: As part of the comprehensive planning process, which will stretch out until the spring of 2015 when the City Council is slated to approve it, officials are taking a look at existing policies too. Planners hope to adjust and reform the development review process for construction on major campus institutions (think Portland Community College, Portland State University, Providence and Legacy Emanuel Hospital, and other large institutions). The city wants to create new processes to allow those landowners to "grow up" on their existing footprints. The current process is cumbersome, officials say, and they want to reform it to allow for streamlined and "organic" growth.

Down Zoning: While Zehnder noted that Portland is far behind its West Coast urban peers in adding density to its housing stock, there are some areas of town where down zoning is a possibility. Many of those proposed reforms are related to existing natural hazards, such as areas in Southwest that are prone to landslides, or the area around Powell Butte in East Portland. Planners are also downzoning a swath of land south of Powell Boulevard near David Douglas High School to slow the pace of multifamily housing in that area.

Planning officials want the public to weigh in on the draft document, which is the culmination of three years of work with community members.

Users can add comments about potential land use changes or specific projects online, call the city's new planning hotline, or testify at one of many upcoming public meetings scheduled for the Fall.

-- Andrew Theen