New Construction Means New Residents

Two new residential in-fill developments are moving forward in Eliot.  The first one is rising on the site of the former Morning Star Baptist Church.  While it was sad to see the church leave the neighborhood, the vacant lot wasn’t a welcome replacement.  Now several duplex-style townhomes are being built on the site.  These will soon be joined by five single homes on the parking lot of the former Cox and Cox funeral home (Graham and Rodney).  Despite the sour real estate market, Eliot remains an attractive location and the builders of both projects claim they have had no problem selling these types of homes elsewhere.

Continue reading Land Use News For Winter 2012

The recession has slowed development activities in Eliot so the major land use action involves City plans for the NE Quadrant as part of the Central City Plan update.  The Central City Plan covers the downtown area east of the West Hills as well as our area of NE (Lower Albina, Lloyd District, Rose Quarter, and points in-between).   The NE Quadrant plan is the first to be developed of the four quadrants in the Central City.  The plan is a partnership between the City and the State because the Department of Transportation wants to improve freeway capacity on I-5 between I-84 and I-405 and needs to replace ramps and overpasses to do so.  That will require changes to surface streets so it makes sense to plan for that within the Central City Plan update.  The proposed freeway changes are expected to be “temporary,” which means sufficient for the next 20 to 30 years only.  The freeway element has dictated that the Plan process proceed on two tracks, one for freeway improvements and one for land use.

Continue reading Central City Plan—NE Quadrant

The vacant lot on the southeast corner of MLK and Ivy used to be a service station turned alchemy lab known most recently as the Grant Warehouse.  The former owner had polluted the site with an unknown toxic brew which was discovered during a fire.  Consequently the City tried to force Mr. Grant to clean up the site, which was beyond his ability and means.  Ultimately the EPA did the clean up and placed a lien on the property.  Eventually the EPA turned the property over to the City and from there it ended up with PDC as an “opportunity site” within the Convention Center Urban Renewal District.  PDC hosted a couple of community advisory committees to explore development options and to solicit design proposals.  One of the goals was to provide home ownership opportunities rather than subsidized rental housing.  Due to the poor housing market and challenge financing condo construction in inner-NE Portland final design and construction had been delayed.  Now it appears a workable plan has been identified that can be constructed.

Continue reading Grant Warehouse Becomes Ivy Street Homes

Portland has launched 2 major planning activities – the Portland Plan and the Central City Plan (CCP).  Both will chart a future for Portland over the next 25 years.  This will compliment Metro’s 2040 Plan.  The Portland Plan has a high level look at 9 issues of importance to city residents, such as economic development and education.  On the other hand, the CCP will review land use and zoning and propose changes in both to City Council.  The Central City area includes the Lloyd District, Rose Quarter, Lower Albina, and a portion of Eliot between Broadway and Russell.  More information on the CCP can be found on the City web site www.portlandonline.com/bps/cc2035.  Information about the Eliot portion of the CCP can be found by clicking on the “N/NE Quadrant Plan.”

Continue reading The Central City Plan – And So It Begins

The next couple of years will see new plans and projects proposed that will affect the future of Eliot.  There are outside interests driving these that do not necessarily have Eliot’s interests at heart.  It is important for us, as residents, to make our interests known.  Both the Eliot Land Use Committee and the Board are here to do that and, in some cases, we are already preparing, but we need to be sure we are accurately representing the neighborhood, so participating in neighborhood meetings is critical.

Continue reading The Future of Eliot

By winter Eliot will have new infill housing that is as old as the neighborhood.  Let me explain.

The call came in mid-2007, “Want to move another house?  I have a lot and we can go 50/50.”  The Kinsman house was built in 1908 near NE 7th and Broadway and was recently used as an annex to the Mountain Shop.  It is a large building – and tall.  Unfortunately, the available lot in Eliot was 10 blocks away down tree-lined streets.  So the first order of business was to find out what route had both the width and the fewest trees.  Next we tried to discover what the City’s tree trimming/cutting policy was for house moves.  Six months and a letter to the Mayor later, we finally got a response, “We won’t tell you until you have your building permit.”  Thus began the first of many Catch-22 situations we had to resolve.  Although the City’s building move process is better than is used to be, it is still poorly implemented.

Continue reading New-Old Infill Housing