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You are here: Home / housing / Update: Affordable Housing Plans In Sellwood Still Somewhat Stymied

Update: Affordable Housing Plans In Sellwood Still Somewhat Stymied

November 29, 2017 By TonyJ 4 Comments

Children playing and a parking lot divided by a question mark.
Will Portland choose to prioritize new residents or new cars?

In September, Portland’s Bureau of Development Services released a review of the impact of the inclusionary housing (IH) policy enacted in February 2017. Highlighted in the review are three proposed buildings in Sellwood which make up the bulk of “good news” in the report, but the news would be better if Portland would stop requiring mandatory shelter for cars.

Post Inclusionary Housing Permit Activity Between February 1, 2017 and August 1, 2017, permits were filed for 11 projects subject to IH requirements. Six were privately financed and five were affordable housing projects receiving some level of assistance from the Portland Housing Bureau. The six privately financed projects included 406 market-rate residential u
The report from BDS highlights the proposed affordable units in Sellwood.

Urban Development Group (UDG), the developer, was initially planning to build three buildings in Sellwood containing a total of 187 market-rate apartments and 46 required car parking stalls. After the passage of the inclusionary housing rules, the developer sought assistance to determine the feasibility of utilizing the parking waiver for projects under the IH program to, instead, build 210 total units, 170 at market-rate, 31 affordable to households making 60% of the MFI and 9 for households at 80% of MFI, with no on-site car parking.

While transit-frequency requirements disqualified one of the buildings from receiving a waiver for mandatory car parking, UDG is still pursuing the project reconfiguration, albeit with less affordable housing and more car parking. The most current proposal includes 170 market-rate units, 29 units at 60% MFI and 9 units at 80% MFI, along with required 19 car parking stalls at 1717 SE Tenino.

This reconfiguration demonstrates the impact that parking requirements have on affordability. Parking requirements for mid-sized housing projects (50-150 units) are suppressive and expensive. When allowed to build 27 fewer parking stalls, UDG is willing (and able) to build 21 more homes total and 38 permanently affordable units.

Portland is in dire need of more affordable housing and the city should be aggressively seeking to work with developers who are willing to participate in the IH program. If UDG wasn’t required to build shelter for 19 cars at SE Tenino, what other incentives or changes could unlock the potential to build another 15 or 20 homes, including several more affordable units. Portland should eliminate all parking requirements for multi-family housing and use parking management, such as residential permits, to encourage developers to “right-size” their parking.

 

 

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Filed Under: housing, Minimum Parking Requirements

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Comments

  1. Ada says

    November 29, 2017 at 11:35 am

    Considering we have a spiteful, landlord-and-developer-hating commissioner in charge of the BDS, I wouldn’t hold my breath for any meaningful cooperation between the city and those who could actually be building out affordable housing. Eudaly has shown that she fundamentally does not understand how housing markets work and would rather pass feel-good, “stick it to the man”, faux-progressive measures that exacerbate the issues than solve the problem with solutions that actually work in the real world.

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Weekly Roundup: 1177 NE 21st, Block 45, Rothko Pavilion, and more - Next Portland says:
    December 5, 2017 at 12:45 pm

    […] for Parking Reform wrote about how a project at 1717 SE Tenino St will include less affordable housing but more parking spaces, as a result of city […]

    Reply
  2. Restricting new parking wont ruin our cities says:
    April 24, 2019 at 9:01 am

    […] new developments in Portland, many apartments are built with little to no parking (unless the city requires it) but high-end condos and office space have lots of new parking. Would impact fees discourage this […]

    Reply
  3. Portland takes one more step toward zero parking requirements says:
    March 26, 2020 at 12:16 pm

    […] of multi-family or commercial zones were “too far” from transit and it was hard to defend the damage from the occasional project caught up in red tape because of it. Mayor Ted Wheeler agreed and proposed a successful amendment […]

    Reply

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