Tag Archives: Infill

Structure Reuse

This Seattle Builder is Reinventing Sustainable Housing | LinkedIn

“Rather than be like everyone else and scrape the entire lot, we chose to preserve the existing home and build a single-family home where the garage was located.“ Scraping the entire lot and building multiple units may lead to greater profits, says Maschmedt, “from an economic standpoint other builders are going to say we are leaving money on the table, and we probably are. But we look at the big picture. We look at the neighborhood and its people. We are looking at it from a community standpoint and the ri

Source: This Seattle Builder is Reinventing Sustainable Housing | LinkedIn

Policy/Regulations/Government, Portland Area

North Portland Rising | A Fight to Save a 115-Year-Old Home from Demolition Appears Doomed | Portland Mercury

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Finklea, 34, says the house should be saved. He would prefer to retain it on site, but thinks a house that old deserves to be moved and preserved rather than torn down. Finklea says Lowry doesn’t care about preserving the Eliot neighborhood’s integrity, and worries what the large apartment complex will do to the feel of the street he loves.

via North Portland Rising | City | Portland Mercury.

Policy/Regulations/Government

Portland home demolitions: Committee to recommend 35-day waiting period | OregonLive.com

Concordia home demolition.JPGCrews tore down a house on Northeast 29th Avenue and replaced it with a much larger house. After that replacement, crews tore down the neighboring house, too. (Casey Parks/The Oregonian)

Some infill developers have taken to tearing down the majority of a house but leaving small parts standing. As far as city planners are concerned, that’s a remodel, not a demolition.

Neighbors have also raised concerns about asbestos being released during demolitions without proper precautions. The Bureau of Development Services may require developers seeking a demolition permit to acknowledge that they have to meet state asbestos regulations.

http://public.tableausoftware.com/views/HomesdemolishedinPortland_0/Dashboard1?:showVizHome=no

via Portland home demolitions: Committee to recommend 35-day waiting period | OregonLive.com.

Policy/Regulations/Government, Portland Area

Portland must do more to preserve old houses: Guest opinion | OregonLive.com

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A group of neighborhood residents recently saved Northwest Portland’s Goldsmith House from demolition. ( James Reddick/The Oregonian)

According to The Architectural Heritage Center, an estimated 389 demolitions took place in 2013 in neighborhoods across the city; it’s rumored that a demo per work day is happening in 2014. They have some ideas as places to start responding to the demolition epidemic:

(1) Require advance notice to surrounding property owners and residents. Right now, notice is only required by the city when more than one new house is proposed. There’s no notice/delay when a demo application and the replacement house permit are filed the same day. The city should require notice, and time for response, across the board.

(2) Change the definition of “demolition” in the city’s development code – a big problem is that any demolition that leaves any portion of a house still standing (such as a partial foundation wall) is called an “alteration” or “remodel,” not a demolition (which are seriously under-counted, as a result.) More typically, many other jurisdictions use “at least 50% of a structure remains standing” as the primary criterion for an alteration/remodel. If that’s reasonable enough for other cities and counties, it should be acceptable for Portland.

(3) Houses that are obviously historic (but unprotected) are those that have long been listed on the city’s 1983 Historic Resources Inventory, but many houses have reached the age of 50-plus since then. We propose a mandatory 120 day delay for houses on the HRI or at least 50-plus years old. These are likely the ones that need time for investigating alternatives to demolition.

(4) Require that existing front and side yard setbacks be maintained for the new house(s). One major concern is that after a demolition, a new house is not only usually bigger, but it covers much more of the lot, often changing the streetscape substantially. If the front- and side-yard setbacks stay the same for the new house, the streetscape remains more like its traditional neighbors.

via Portland must do more to preserve old houses: Guest opinion | OregonLive.com.

Portland Area

Demolition builds frustration for neighbors

by: TRIBUNE PHOTO BY JONATHAN HOUSE - An anti-large house sign sits near a Renaissance Homes infill project in Southwest Portland.

by: TRIBUNE PHOTO BY JONATHAN HOUSE – An anti-large house sign sits near a Renaissance Homes infill project in Southwest Portland.

No one on the Development Review Advisory Committee proposed making the notifications mandatory, however. That disappointed several neighborhood representatives at the meeting who argue that neighbors should always be notified before a nearby home is demolished. Under the existing City Code, notification is not required on homes where a developer applies for a demolition permit and a construction permit on the same day.

According to Anne Dufay, executive director of the Southeast Uplift Neighborhood Program office, notification is especially important for houses built before 1973, when asbestos and lead paint were common.

“Asbestos and lead paint chips can be thrown into the air if a demolition isn’t done right,” Dufay says. “Neighbors need to know when it’s going to happen so they can leave or monitor the work.”

via Demolition builds frustration for neighbors.

Portland Area

SE Portland neighborhood fears infill development could ruin ‘keystone block,’ takes dispute to City Council | OregonLive.com

“It’s a representative case of the challenges neighborhoods are facing with increased density, compatibility with character,” said Kellet.

Neighborhoods throughout Portland are grappling with infill development, he said, though demolition and new construction is particularly rampant in Southeast Portland. Eastmoreland is one of few neighborhoods with the organization and resources to pull off such a strong, unified fight.

lavia SE Portland neighborhood fears infill development could ruin ‘keystone block,’ takes dispute to City Council | OregonLive.com.

Policy/Regulations/Government, Portland Area

Home demolitions skyrocket in Portland, neighbors demand advance warning | OregonLive.com

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This tear down on Southeast Knapp Street in Eastmoreland was not considered a demolition by the city because part of the old house remained intact. Melissa Binder/The Oregonian

At the root of the debate are two technical aspects of city code. The waiver is the first.

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Developers may choose to be courteous, but the delay and notification requirement was never intended as a kindness to neighbors, said Ross Caron, spokesman for the development bureau.

The requirement was added to city code in 1988 to prevent large backlogs of vacant land from building up. The waiver option was added in 1990 to allow property owners to move forward more quickly if they were ready to build.

The second technicality neighbors cite as a problem involves what the city considers a true demolition — and the difference between a demolition and a remodel.

This tear down on Southeast Knapp Street in Eastmoreland was not considered a demolition by the city because part of the old house remained intact.

City code defines a demolition as a complete removal of a structure. If any portion of the to-be-razed home remains — say a bit of wall or floor framing — a demolition permit is unnecessary. An alteration or addition permit is required, but that does not involve a delay or notifying neighbors.

There have been about 2,700 alteration and addition permits thus far this year, up 24 percent from 2011. Projects range from remodeling a bathroom to building an entirely new home with a bit of an old wall or floor still intact.

To the city, these technicalities are separate issues. To neighbors the problem is uniform: Homes are being torn down, and they’re being caught by surprise.

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New homes are being built in established neighborhoods throughout Portland, particularly in the Southeast. Photographed here, a new home nearly four times the size of houses around it is being constructed in Mt. Scott-Arleta. (Melissa Binder/The Oregonian)

Via Home demolitions skyrocket in Portland, neighbors demand advance warning | OregonLive.com