Development in the Buckman Neighborhood
This website is a vehicle for neighbors and others in favor of appropriate development in the Buckman neighborhood.

To e-mail city hall on development in Buckman:

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Dear Mayor Potter, City Commisioners and Bureau of Planning Director Kelley:

I am concerned about new development in Portland and the direction it is taking. I support the concept of density in the inner city, but not if it comes at the price of destroying existing neighborhoods and livability for families.

An example of such development is the proposed mixed-use building at SE 20th & Morrison, across the street from historic Lone Fir Cemetery. This development requires the destruction of historic houses from the 1890's or early 1900's and significant trees dating from that period as well. Its frontage on Alder completely disrupts the historic fabric of a modest residential street consisting entirely of single family homes, or single family homes converted into apartments. It does so by its massing, its scale, its monolithic roof form and the use of large amounts of glazing. In addition, it completely turns its back on a neighborhood public life based on individual front porches and front doors facing the public street. The building does nothing to foster a sense of community or connectedness with the surrounding neighborhood.

This development does not provide adequate affordable family housing for a neighborhood which is trying to keep families in the inner city and engaged in the public school system. Of the 40 units, only 2 are 3-bedroom and 8 are 2-bedroom. The 30 remaining units are only 650 – 890 SF.

Furthermore, this development shows no concern with the city's desire to become a sustainable city, other than providing density on a transit street. No attempts are made at incorporating green features such as a green roof, storm-water mitigation or low-energy use.

What does the development give back to the neighborhood? It increases density and offers expensive, trendy lofts for young singles with no amenities for the neighborhood. The lack of neighborhood input into the evolution of the city's physical gestalt is antithetical to the model of citizen involvement in Portland. The indiscriminate destruction of historic homes and neighborhoods is something that many other cities have long regretted.

I am asking you to seriously consider this issue, which is becoming rampant throughout Portland, and especially for the inner east side, and to support good development.

Sincerely,

name:
address:
e-mail:

Additionals Points to consider for your message:

Destruction of historic fabric

It intends to destroy historic houses of good condition on a densely built residential block which consists of single family units functioning as single family or multi-family residences.

It does not acknowledge the public life of the neighborhood by placing entrances to the complex away from the front doors of surrounding houses and/or through an internal lobby or private courtyard, thus reducing interaction with the neighbors.

It does not recognize the gradations of public to private space necessary in a dense, inner-city neighborhood.

The residents of Buckman are proud of our community and dedicated to preserving the architectural distinctiveness and social character of our neighborhood

Housing issues

It does not provide adequate affordable family housing for a neighborhood which is trying to keep families engaged in the public school system. Of the 40 units, only 2 are 3-bedroom, 8 are 2-bedroom, and 27 will be listed at less than $400,000, with the remainder above $400,000.

It displaces the current renters, many of whom cannot afford to go through the moving/rental process.

Sustainability

It shows no concern with sustainable design in a city which is supposedly the leader in the nation for sustainable design.

It predicates a car-dependent lifestyle by encouraging entry to the units through an underground parking garage

it uses vast expanses of energy-wasting glazing

It has no innovative storm-water mitigation features

It involves the destruction of historic homes with no plans for their relocation or salvage of high-quality building materials

The design requires the destruction of old growth trees, which we consider essential to the character and charm of the Buckman neighborhood.

Stress on the neighborhood

It puts additional traffic stress on two already difficult traffic corridors: 20th Avenue and Morrison Street, which will both see additional traffic from the proposed development of 120 units just one block away.

It will cause additional traffic on the immediate residential feeder streets, which are heavily used by the neighborhood's 50+ children for street play.

Although it provides 55 parking spaces for 40 units, it will still cause parking stress in a neighborhood with little off-street parking and which absorbs parking from area businesses during the day.

It will block the sun to the residents at 648 and 644 SE 20th .

Context

The proposed building is a big box development with no attempt at providing community-oriented spaces.

The aggressively modern design of the building is inappropriate for the neighborhood. The use of out-sized windows, welded wire panels, corrugated metal, etc. clashes with the older homes adjacent to the property, and is in jarring contrast with nearby residential and commercial buildings.

The building is out of scale with the surrounding structures; it will dominate two intersections and fundamentally change the character of the immediate vicinity, which includes the historic Lone Fir Cemetery and the proposed site of the Chinese Worker Memorial.

It does not acknowledge the future presence of a memorial to Chinese immigrant workers across 20th Ave. at Lone Fir Cemetery.

The planned method of entry for residents ignores the social structure of a neighborhood strongly connected through its porches, gardens, and sidewalks. By making the primary entrance into the building through an elevator from the central lobby or from the parking garage, you will have isolated the tenants from the neighborhood, encouraging them to remain anonymous and disconnected from the community in which they are embedded. The 6 individual street entrances proposed for a few units offer little improvement, since they will either face a commercial print shop across a busy street or a gated private backyard.

Development issues

As a neighborhood of 80% renters, we have struggled with not having the clout to influence development positively within the neighborhood.

We are dealing with issues of gentrification and predatory development in this traditionally working-class/low income neighborhood.

The proposed structure does not meet the requirements of the CS zone, described in Chapter 33.130 of the Portland zoning code as “[intending] to preserve and enhance older commercial areas that have a storefront character. The zone intends that new development in these areas will be compatible with this desired character.” This building is *not* compatible with the small commercial area on Morrison, nor with the larger commercial areas of Belmont and Hawthorne, which are within the Buckman neighborhood.

It is antithetical to the way we want to see Portland, and especially inner Southeast Portland develop.

We want input into how Portland develops. If we have to accommodate 1 million people in the next 10 years, do developers really have the livability of the city in their best interests?