Adams calls for end to ‘cheap, ugly housing’

Declaring that Portland has too much “cheap, ugly housing,” Mayor Sam Adams urged the Legislature to pass a bill giving the city more design control for new residential developments.
BY JIM REDDEN
The Portland Tribune, Apr 11, 2009

“We have a problem in this city with ugly houses and ugly infill,” Adams told reporters Saturday morning press during a meeting with state Sen. Rod Monroe, an East Portland Democrat who introduced Senate Bill 907, which allows Portland to review designs for medium- and high-density housing projects.

Both Adams and Monroe called on Sen. Mark Hass, a Raleigh Hills Democrat, to schedule a hearing on SB 907, before April 17, the final day for first hearings on bills at the current session.

“The city ought to be able to have some review so we can get quality housing,” Monroe said.

Hass is chairman of the Senate Education and General Government Committee, where the bill has been referred. Contacted by the Portland Tribune Monday morning, Hass said he will asked Senate President Peter Courtney to refer SB 907 to the Rules Committee, which has a later deadline for first hearings.

Adams said well-designed housing helps raise surrounding property values and encourages more investment.

Under current law, the city can review design plans downtown, in historic districts and in the Gateway Urban Renewal Area. SB 907 would extended that authority to properties along MAX light-rail lines and in “town centers” designated by Metro, the regional government, for new development.

Monroe said the legislation was especially important in the low-income areas of Portland, where much of the city’s recent growth has occurred.

“Why should low-income and handicapped people have to live in slums?” asked Monroe, who said he plans to meet with Hass early next week to request a hearing for SB 907.

The press conference was held at the MAX station at East Burnside and 148th Avenue, in front of Hazelwood Station, a housing complex that Adams and Monroe cited as an example of the results the bill would help achieve.

Among other things, the complex faces Burnside, is heavily landscaped, and has its parking lot in the back, where it is hidden from view.

Adams called the complex “beautiful.”

Bill Wilson, the architect who designed the complex, said it did not cost significantly more to build that apartments that face away from the street and have visible parking lots.

“You don’t need to have rubber stamp projects that don’t fit their lots,” said Wilson, who supports SB 907. “You can have solar orientations, and safe and secure open spaces for the residents.”

Neighborhood activist Linda Robinson also supports the bill, saying that East Portland residents deserve higher quality housing.

Metro estimates that around 300,000 new housing units must be built in the metropolitan area in coming decades to accommodate the new people projected to move here. Portland has historically taken a disproportionately large percent of the new residents, and Adams does not expect that to change even if SB 907 does not pass.

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