Not in my zone

by cornelius Swart

Design commission requires developer to work with neighborhood

Byline: Alissa Bohling

Developer Jerry Eekhoff wants to build a six-story, 22-unit condominium complex on his 60’ by 100’ lot at 7116 N. Montana Avenue. The neighborhood would rather he didn’t.

In their written statement of appeal to the Portland Design Commission, the residents of Arbor Lodge expressed a wide range of concerns that suggest the proposed development would be destabilizing to their neighborhood.

“What we’re building is the future, not the past,” said Eekhoff, whose application for a zone change on the site was approved by City Council in November of 2004. The neighborhood appealed the decision soon after, but it was upheld.

Jamison Chabot, who lives next door to the single-family home that will be demolished to make room for the condos, said that there has been “no willingness on the developer’s part to work with the neighborhood at all.”

The 63’ building would be the tallest structure standing between St. Johns and Lloyd Center.

City Planner Kristen Minor required Eekhoff to redesign plans submitted in March of 2005 two or three times before approving them in August of this year. The neighborhood appealed the approval at a hearing on October 19.

“That degree of redesign is not typical, but because of the disparity in the zoning, it was very difficult to find a path to compatibility,” said Minor in an interview before the hearing.

The site and the surrounding neighborhood are zoned to allow for residential high density development. “This one lone high-density zone, on a quiet residential street of one- and two-story single-family homes, was created to encourage the development of shops and apartments on the I-5 MAX route,” wrote Arbor Lodge in its appeal. “When the route along Interstate Avenue was chosen instead, the zoning remained unchanged.”

City Planner Julia Gisler is in charge of the Interstate Light Rail Corridor Zoning Project, which will revisit and refine zoning in the conflicted corridor between now and fall 2007. “We’re trying to make development a little more sensitive” to the communities it affects, said Gisler. The project intends to “make it happen in a way that is less bold than the one that is going on on Montana.” “The problem,” Gisler added, “is that design isn’t going to solve the issue of buildings that are just really differential in scale.”

Some neighbors have asked that the decision be delayed until the Interstate zoning review is complete. A year, said one design review commissioner at the appeal hearing, “is a long time for development to be shelved.” Consultant Peter Fry, Eekhoff’s representative at the hearing, said it is not the role of the design commission to make such decisions. “We are concerned about politicizing the design review process,” said Fry.

Although City Council unanimously upheld the appealed zone change in 2004, there is some question as to where they stand on the matter today. The day before the hearing, City Councilor Dan Saltzman, who voted in the 2004 decision, sent a letter to the Design Review Commission urging them not to approve the application. “Although the proposed development may fall within the proposed zoning guidelines, the proposed development is not, in my opinion, compatible with the surrounding neighborhood,” wrote Saltzman.

Eekhoff appeared at the appeal hearing with a new group of architects and presented a new set of drawings that Minor received that morning. No one else was notified about the changes beforehand.

After the three-hour marathon hearing, the design review board opted to require Eekhoff to return on December 7 with an improved design. “It’s not an illegal building, but I would say it’s inappropriate,” said one board member. Another member added that multiple requests for modifications to code for the design “is beginning to push its envelope a little bit hard.”

The board also directed the design team to sit down with the neighborhood when drafting the next set of plans. “Even if you’re pioneering a pattern of growth that’s already been expected, and legally adopted and zoned for, you have a responsibility to be neighborly,” said one member.

The decision was a relief for Arbor Lodge Neighborhood Association Chair Chris Duffy. “I’m very happy with the outcome,” she said. “I think there’s hope with these new fellows.”

“We’re trying to be as classical and clean and residential as we possibly can,” said one of the new architects. The new plans may favor materials “of a more domestic scale” than those in the previous drawings, said architect Josh Stein.

Eekhoff said units would start at $129,000 and range to the mid-$400,000s.

30

Photo op: Condo façade (Montana Elevation) in one frame, current single-family home in second frame
Location: Drawings in appeal hearing packet and 7116 N. Montana Avenue

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