Portland’s east side is gaining apartment complexes at a rapid rate, and some people are not happy that many do not have off-street parking.

“There definitely is a strong reaction about the changes that are happening in the neighborhoods,” said Bob Kellett, neighborhood planning program manager for the Southeast Uplift Neighborhood Coalition. “They create a lot of concern.”

In fact, 11 apartment complexes – most with more than 30 units – are either proposed or being built on the east side without dedicated parking spaces for their tenants. Some stakeholders fear that this will constrict on-street parking in their neighborhoods.

“That’s one of the big frustrations,” Kellett said. “(Residents) feel there’s little opportunity for them to influence that kind of development.”

The fact is that most of the time, developers are sticking to city code when they build apartments without parking. The city has encouraged this type of development since the 1990s, when changes were made so that many commercial zones, where residential development is allowed, do not require on-site parking.

When the changes took place, they were widely praised. They were made to encourage use of alternative forms of transportation and to promote multifamily housing. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had warned Portland that it was not complying with air-quality standards, according to Eden Dabbs, communications officer for the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability.

“We had a real problem with dirty air,” she said. “Portland is the way it is now partly because of (the zoning changes).”

City officials believed that apartment buildings constructed without parking – but with other amenities like bike storage – would attract tenants who used alternate forms of transportation and did not own a car.

This rationale is still used by the city. In a document released by the BPS recently, bureau officials pointed to a 2009 study conducted by Ellen Bassett, an associate professor in the Urban Studies and Planning program at Portland State University. In it, she said that more cars were occupying on-street parking spaces during the day than at night. In other words, BPS officials concluded, more congestion was caused by visitors parking on neighborhood streets than by apartment dwellers without access to off-street parking.

Developers reached the same conclusion, according to David Mullens, who is behind a number of the proposals for complexes without parking.

“There is a perception in the neighborhoods that the impact of these buildings to their ability to park is great,” he said. “But most of the people that are leasing these new units don’t see parking as a problem because they don’t own cars.”

On-site parking also can be the difference between an apartment’s rent costing $700 or $1,200, Mullens added. Complexes without parking are needed nowadays, he said, when market-rate housing is in demand.

However, residents believe there is not enough proof to validate these theories, according to Kellett.

“I think the neighbors are highly skeptical of that,” he said. “If you attract people with a low-car lifestyle, even those people are going to own a car.”

Residents also believe that their voices are not great enough in the development process. At present, official notice of a project is given to neighborhood residents only when discretionary design review is required. Often, if a project meets community design standards in the Portland zoning code, a review is not required and residents are not notified.

However, the BPS is starting to take notice of these complaints. As part of the effort to update the Portland Comprehensive Plan, the bureau is weighing whether to make changes to the zoning code, according to Dabbs. These changes could involve design and compatibility of new residential and mixed-use development on the east side.

The BPS also is re-examining its theory that tenants in apartment complexes with little or no on-site parking do not own cars. Earlier this summer, the bureau hired an outside consulting firm to conduct a survey of six apartment buildings without parking to find out if their tenants own cars.

“We’re hearing from the community; this is something we’re concerned about,” Dabbs said.

However, any potential zoning changes would not affect the 11 projects either proposed or being constructed without parking because they’ve already gone through the permitting stage. But some residents believe changes will occur eventually, Kellett said.

“There is recognition that there are some challenges with the existing codes,” he said. “I think there is some momentum toward (zoning changes) happening.”