On June 25th, the Portland City Council passed new rules governing portable signs placed on city sidewalks. Previous legislation from 25 years ago required businesses that placed sandwich boards and a-frame signs in front of their establishments to pay an annual fee, last set at $114. According to city officials, the cost of the complaint-based enforcement program exceeded the income raised by fees, meaning this removal unburdens businesses that had been paying for these types of signs and could save the city money by not investigating unregistered boards.
Councilor for District 3, Steve Novick, brought the code amendment before the Portland City Council after months of work on the initiative. Novick explained in an interview last March that his Chief of Staff, Spencer Knowles, brought this issue to his attention as an unprofitable pain point for small business operators. “We checked, Spencer discovered that it costs more to administer the permit requirement than it brings in,” remarked Novick. The amount of fees paid into the program dipped from $181,295 in 2013 to $39,308 in 2025. He speculated that its decline likely reflected businesses failing to participate due to lax enforcement or because operators did not know that registration was required. “There’s some well-informed, conscientious people who have to go through the process of paying a fee and waiting for a permit. That just struck us as silly,” said Novick.
Image showing Glaze’s sidewalk sign with permit sticker. MV News added the red oval to highlight sticker
Novick’s team recognized that this effort did not require immediate attention, as more impactful city issues took precedence before the amendment reached a vote. However, its passing has a measurable impact on business owners who pay the fee each year, particularly in walkable business corridors. Portable signs help advertise a shopfront at a human scale. Capped at four feet tall, A-Board messages are often blocked from the view of passing traffic by curbside parked vehicles. So they target pedestrians, keeping a sidewalk visually active and letting visitors know that, just a little further down the street, another destination may welcome them. Sidewalk-positioned signs can also help businesses stay visible when healthy street tree canopies block traditional over-doorway signage. As Portland works to increase pedestrian area shade by encouraging tree-lined streets, some business operators have noted that the greenery blocks their signs. Portable sandwich boards have long offered a remedy that does not require an adjacent business owner to aggressively prune the greenery.
Business owners may no longer need to pay to register portable signs; however, they are still responsible for maintaining a clear, Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)- compliant frontage. Signs cannot block the sidewalk or curb ramps and must be located in front of the business. Shops using these signs should still review City rules and ensure they are not obstructing the public right-of-way. The change will likely not significantly increase the number of sidewalk-placed signs, but should create an equal environment for businesses to use this way-finding tool without annual costs.
Portland City Council District 3 members are up for reelection in November 2026. Montavilla News does not endorse individual candidates or ballot measures.
Promotion: Montavilla News is supported by contributions from businesses like Otter Wax, a neighborhood producer of small-batch specialty goods handcrafted in Portland. Using only natural ingredients, they make modern care products that are steeped in tradition. We thank them for their support.
High temperatures and low precipitation in the area caused officials to implement a burn ban starting on June 15th, 2026, and lasting through the summer months. An Extreme Heat warning has triggered Multnomah County’s cooling centers to open for those who need relief from the heat, and TriMet will not turn away people who can not pay a fare when traveling to and from a cooling center between 11 a.m. and 10 p.m. on Monday, June 15th.
Portland’s Fire Marshal issued the recreational fire prohibition for the City due to increased fire danger from the continued hot and dry weather conditions. Effective immediately, people must refrain from using recreational campfires, fire pits, or burning yard debris. Outdoor grills, smokers, and similar cooking appliances are allowed if they use clean, dry firewood, briquettes, wood chips, pellets, propane, natural gas, or similar fuels. Residents should exercise extreme caution when using the allowed outdoor cooking devices and place them at least ten feet away from anything combustible, such as siding, fences, or shrubbery. Residents should also note that personal fireworks are always banned in Portland, as their use can cause injury and fires that spread quickly in dry conditions.
People can contact PF&R at 503-823-3700 for additional information about the burn ban. Although the City prohibits the use of personal fireworks and has implemented a burn ban, emergency services request that people refrain from calling 911 to report violations so the dispatch system can remain open for serious crimes, out-of-control fires, and injuries. For non-emergencies, Portland residents can call the non-emergency line at 503-823-3333 after the holiday. Additionally, individuals witnessing the unauthorized use of fireworks can report the incident online (portland.gov/311/report-fireworks).
Promotion: Montavilla News is supported by contributions from businesses like Otter Wax, a neighborhood producer of small-batch specialty goods handcrafted in Portland. Using only natural ingredients, they make modern care products that are steeped in tradition. We thank them for their support.
On May 20th, at the end of a marathon budget session, the Portland City Council approved an $8.5 billion city budget for fiscal year 2026-2027 with a $755,000 line item for a replacement Montavilla Park picnic shelter. Portland City Council Member Tiffany Koyama Lane’s amendment to the budget came back to consideration at the tail-end of the proceeding after a quick revision to specify Parks Local Option Levy money as the intended funding source. This budget addition passed seven to five at the end of an evening Council session that saw many failing amendments with 6-6 ties as city leaders addressed a $160 million revenue shortfall.
Montavilla Park picnic shelter demolition October 2021, photos by Weston Ruter
Political interest in funding a replacement picnic shelter ramped up recently; however, the community’s desire for its replacement began years before. In October 2021, demolition crews removed the aging picnic shelter at Montavilla Park and installed new grass turf rather than preparing the site for an already-designed replacement structure. Portland Parks & Recreation (PP&R) postponed the planned modern 2,000-square-foot open-walled replacement shelter due to a department-wide budgetary shortfall. Before its removal, the area was fenced off for safety concerns. Earlier this month, a community group began circulating a petition to build that Montavilla Park structure.
Proposed Montavilla Park Picnic Shelter from 2021
The petition effort, led by members of the Hope & Bread Street Church who gather in the park for Sunday service, gained community interest, with ABC Television affiliate KATU and MV News covering the campaign. On May 17th, Councilor Koyama Lane from Montavilla’s District 3 included shelter funding as part of her seven proposed budget amendments, later receiving expressed support from other elected officials, including Multnomah County Commissioner Julia Brim-Edwards and Oregon Representative Thuy Tran.
Votes for the Montavilla Park picnic shelter did not fall strictly on Portland City Council District lines with District 3 and District 1 residents having local access to the park. District 3 Councilor Steve Novick voted against the funding due to reservations regarding project priorities, given the City staff reductions and program cuts necessary to balance this year’s budget. He expressed support for the project but worried about the potential to overlook other needed projects without an evaluation process to rank community needs. “I would love to be able to vote for this. This is important, but I think that we should make all of these decisions in the context of considering trade-offs, and parks as a huge maintenance backlog,” said Novick, preceding the vote. “I just can’t make this decision out of context. Maybe if we took a long look at all the things that communities have been promised in the maintenance backlog, this would rise to the top. But I can’t say that I’ve done that work, so I can’t support this today.”
1933 Portland Archive image. 82nd Ave roadwork looking north from NE Glisan St. A previous Montavilla park shelter is visible at the right but is not the one removed in 2021
Some petitioners supporting replacing Montavilla Park’s picnic shelter had been watching the proceedings since early afternoon and had to wait until nearly 9:30 p.m. for the session’s final budget amendment vote. The Tax Supervising and Conservation Commission will conduct a legal review of the amended budget. The council can make further adjustments to the approved budget, provided that no individual fund is adjusted by more than 10%. In June, the Portland City Council must formally adopt the budget ahead of July 1st, when the new fiscal year begins. At that point, Parks planners can begin project planning for the return of a Montavilla Park picnic shelter, restoring a nearly 100-year run of having a covered outdoor gathering space at this location.
By
Jacob Loeb
Portland City Council District 3 members and RepresentativeThuy Tranare up for reelection in November 2026. Julia Brim-Edwards is seeking the Multnomah County Chair position. Montavilla News does not endorse individual candidates or ballot measures.
Update: Portland Archive image description expanded to note that the sheltershown in 1933 photo is not the one demolished in 2021. It was removed at an unknown date.
In October 2021, demolition crews removed the aging picnic shelter at Montavilla Park and planted new grass turf. Portland Parks & Recreation (PP&R) has postponed the planned modern 2,000-square-foot open-walled replacement shelter due to a department-wide budgetary shortfall. Now, half a decade later, without a functional covered park space, a community group is circulating a petition to build that Montavilla Park structure.
The aging picnic shelter at Montavilla Park fenced in 2020 and demolished in 2021
Before demolition work began, PP&R updated the Montavilla Park Picnic Shelter project webpage, announcing the pending deconstruction of the structure and noting the lack of funds for its replacement. That web page is no longer accessible to the public. Park staff planted grass seed on the worksite, and signs of the shelter’s past presence are near undetectable. In 2021, PP&R representative Mark Ross confirmed the project’s indefinite delay while emphasizing that staff would continue to seek opportunities to revive it in future budgets.
With Montavilla’s decaying shelter demolished and no longer a danger to parkgoers, the replacement shelter project eventually disappeared from the PP&R project page. However, the picnic shelter is still listed as a Montavilla Park amenity on the location’s official web page and park maps. Tired of waiting for the project to become a priority on its own, Hope & Bread Street Church decided it was time to launch a petition requesting that the project be returned to priority status with PP&R. The faith group uses the park 52 Sundays a year, in all weather. The lack of covered shelter is a significant burden for that group, and they understand it is impacting other park users as well. The petition will collect the digital signatures from all interested parties who want a new picnic shelter in Montavilla Park.
Proposed Montavilla Park Picnic Shelter from 2021
Hope & Bread Street Church’s volunteers pride themselves on adapting to conditions and set up portable canopies during the winter months. However, they note that wind and rain limit their ability to keep people dry year-round, and they want to serve attendees with dignity while remaining accessible to those who are not comfortable attending within a traditional indoor gathering space. Although the host petitioner’s need is specific, their request is generic: for all community members and all Montavilla Park users to have access to a covered area within the neighborhood’s public recreation space.
Hope & Bread Street Church’s representative says the petition has 70 signatures from its participants and hopes the community will join their efforts. This request comes at a time when the city faces a budget gap of over $160 million, and many city services will likely face significant cuts. However, even during budget shortfalls, PP&R has tapped System Development Charge (SDC) funds paid by eligible developers. That money is used for capital projects that expand the park system’s capacity, including the expansion of existing parks or facilities. People have until May 17th to sign the petition before it is delivered to the Portland City Council.
In July 2025, Oregon Metro purchased a 1.46-acre property at the intersection of SE 90th Place and SE 89th Avenue for planned Transit-Oriented Development (TOD). For over a decade, community advocates have envisioned the large, sloped property as a neighborhood park and are now seeking support for that project ahead of Metro’s RFP (Request for Proposals) this summer. Residents and interested parties can complete an Online Form to endorse a call for the City to purchase the lot from Metro and to direct Portland Parks and Recreation to create public green space for the expanding community in this area.
Park Rendering from the 2018 EPA Greening The Jade project document
Metro’s TOD team plans to introduce new affordable housing at the site with help from partner developers. The early concepts included open neighborhood greenspace, but not at the scale documented in the 2014 Jade District community visioning plan or the 2018 EPA Greening the Jade project. The community outreach recorded in those documents showed a desire and expressed need for green space across all groups in the neighborhood. The Metro-owned property at 2815 SE 90th Place is in the center of a community surrounded by busy city roadways, a State highway, and a freeway. Harrison Park is the closest park to this location, at over half a mile away, and often serves as an extension of the adjoining school’s campus rather than a neighborhood park.
2815 SE 90th Placeproperty with fence
Andrea Pastor, Metro’s Senior Development Project Manager of Housing and TOD, explained in a September 2025 interview that Metro purchased the land along SE 89th Avenue using an allocation provided by the Oregon State legislature for a revolving acquisition fund around 82nd Avenue. “With all of the improvements happening on 82nd, including the planning of the new transit, we wanted to prioritize the area. So we made a specific legislative ask back in 2023 for some funds to buy land near 82nd,” said Pastor. “We have been basically looking and making offers on properties in the area for the last couple of years.” She notes that Metro has often owned land around transit with the intention of developing it. “We are trying to think of ourselves as a regional land bank specifically aimed at building affordable housing near transit.”
The Jade District advocacy organizers seeking support for the park say Metro TOD is willing to sell the parcel, but City of Portland support must be secured before Metro releases an RFP to potential developers in August or September 2026. The park space is across from The Jade apartments, which are currently under construction and will offer 15 units with family-sized accommodations, including three bedrooms and two bathrooms. The workforce housing development will also create 14 one-bedroom and 11 two-bedroom flats. The expanded pool of families on this street would benefit from a new city park with a safe crossing to a play area. The site can also amplify existing green space that is not publicly accessible but protected by Portland’s Bureau of Environmental Services, which owns the lot to the south of this property. It serves as a natural stormwater detention area where plants and soil help absorb the area’s rainwater. It also contains a sewer pump facility that requires 24-hour security for community safety and asset protection. Depending on the City’s flexibility, designers could extend park space into some of the stormwater detention area land without compromising security.
Image from the 2018 EPA Greening The Jade project document
Park designs and amenities presented in the visioning materials are illustrative only and do not constitute final design options. If the idea receives community support through the Online Form and city officials adopt the property for a new park, future community outreach from park planners will drive the development of the green space. Whether the land serves as a public park or affordable housing, this large, underdeveloped property will become a needed community resource as housing density brings more people into the Jade District.
Portland City Councilor Steve Novick wants to amend a 1992 chronic nuisance property ordinance to lessen the threshold for triggering mandated remedies. He is proposing these changes with the intent of reducing the impact on afflicted neighborhoods from human trafficking and gun violence. The City Council will hear first reading on this proposed amendment at the March 18th session held at 6 p.m. this Wednesday.
Former Congressman Earl Blumenauer introduced the first version of Portland’s chronic nuisance property ordinance while serving as a Portland Commissioner. It received several updates in the years following its enactment but has remained relatively unchanged since 1997. The proposed update considers the current list of Nuisance Activities to be too narrow and the timeframe for accumulating violations to be too restrictive for law enforcement to adequately address contemporary instances of harmful behavior. “We’re proposing that instead of having to have three instances in 30 days to initiate this process —which is a lot, a hell of a lot of bad stuff can go on in the location, and you still don’t have three reports in 30 days— we’re proposing it become two in 90 days,” said Novick.
The councilor says this ordinance has never been intended to punish property owners. Instead, it is designed to encourage responsible site operations. “What it means is, it just gives the police a little more leverage to lean on property owners to play ball,” explained Novick. However, enforcement is not without significant consequences if people ignore recurring complaints. “Well, I don’t know if that’s ever happened, but if you can’t work out an agreement, then the city can go to court, which has happened rarely, and the court can order them to take abatement measures. Then, only if they don’t take abatement measures, then the last resort is that they forfeit the property,” Novick said. Ordinance infractions only accumulate for specific activity from a list of 25 defined types that occur within 200 feet of their property. Those activities include assault, Firearm-related crimes, drug crimes, and prostitution.
Additionally, Novick noted that the existing ordinance did not provide sufficient guidance for property owners to demonstrate a good-faith effort to improve conditions. So part of this update is to build that into the legislation. “Washington D.C. came up with a list of abatement measures to be considered. So we’re borrowing from that and saying, ‘here’s a list of things you might be asked to do,’” said Novick. The intent is to ensure people have a clear path to avoid consequences while minimizing the negative impact on the community. As the updates to the chronic nuisance property ordinance developed in committee, City Council members have worked to address business owners’ concerns. “The Asian American Hotel Owners Association’s Taran Patel testified. He said that he was generally supportive of the idea, but was concerned about what if a hotel reports the activity itself? Is that held against them?” recalled Novick. ” We thought that was a reasonable question, so we added an amendment to the law saying that if the property owner reports the activity themselves, then as long as they are cooperating with the police and following up on that subsequently, that doesn’t go on their record as one of the two instances that lead to invoking the nuisance law.”
In addition to the self-reporting amendment, the committee removed noise complaints from this ordinance, recognizing that such complaints are inconsistent with the other listed nuisances, which mostly focus on crimes that reduce perceived safety. “We’re removing noise as one of the chronic nuisance criteria at [Councilor] Jamie Dunphy’s request, and it’s not really what we’re worried about anyway,” said Novick. He explained that the city is trying to tackle serious issues where people suffer life-changing harms, including physical abuse and trafficking of people for sex work. Sex trafficking has become particularly apparent along NE 82nd Avenue near Leodis V. McDaniel High School and within certain storefronts advertising massage services that have spread across the region. “It identifies unlawful, non-compliant massage parlors as one of the nuisance activities. That’s a new thing, and because of the law that Representative [Thủy] Trần passed,” explained Novick. House Bill 3819, which Representative Trần co-sponsored, gave new investigatory powers to the State Board of Massage Therapists starting on January 1st, 2026, and increased maximum fine amounts. Now, the board can post a placard on the exterior of a business notifying the public if the massage facility is in violation of ORS 687.021 by using unlicensed practitioners.
Some critics of this type of legislation fear that without lodging spaces available, it will push sex work further into unsafe and exposed environments, including cars and public streets. This same perspective sometimes attributes the increase in pervasive solicitation on city streets to the 2018 passage of the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) and the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA) that shut down many online forums used for connecting buyers and sellers of sex work. Some of those online tools had reportedly made sex work safer by letting sellers check a buyer’s reputation. Since 2018, the nation has seen an increase in street-based sex work, often with associated ancillary crimes occurring around that activity. Novick explained that he heard that perspective from some people, but that counter testimony convinced him that lodging did not provide substantive protections for vulnerable sex workers. “Robin Miller, who’s a survivor and advocate, testified in favor of the proposal several weeks ago,” recalled Novick. “Her experience was that there was nothing safe about being at a motel and was beaten by a supplier [third-party seller of sex] in front of the hotel owner, and the hotel owner didn’t do anything.” That testimony, along with the councilor’s understanding of community needs, has increased his support for this update to Portland’s chronic nuisance property ordinance. “We are concerned about kids walking this gauntlet of sex trafficking,” said Novick. “So you balance interests, and if you think that there’s a community benefit to doing something —and there’s significant numbers of people most affected who think that it’s the right thing to do— I’m willing to go with what I think has the broader community benefit.”
The expressed goal of this update is to further motivate businesses to assist with the problems surrounding their operations. Landowners may not always live in the same neighborhood as their property, but the city says, with this ordinance, that they have a commitment to those communities that should not be discounted. “The underlying question is, does a property owner have some responsibility for what’s going on on their property? I tend to think that they do,” said Novick.
On Wednesday night, February 25th, community members and City representatives gathered in the cafeteria at Atkinson Elementary School for District 3’s local transportation funding open house. This is one in a series of four in-person events led by the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) to help inform the Portland City Council, which will consider new ways to fund the maintenance and operation of Portland’s streets. Mayor Keith Wilson spoke at the event, summarizing some of the alternative funding options under consideration. People interested in learning more and contributing their perspective can visit the online open houseand take a post-open house survey.
The two-hour event at 5800 SE Division Street saw visitors drop in between 6:30 and 8:30 p.m. as they moved through a self-guided arrangement of poster boards, with City staff available to ask questions and take notes. Portland transportation leaders have spent years warning the community and elected officials that its funding is overburdened by project-based restrictions, preventing 70% of PBOT’s budget from reducing a $6 billion maintenance backlog that impacts road conditions, sidewalks, bridges, signs, lights, and other infrastructure. Much of the funding sourced from Federal and Oregon State sources is for specific projects, such as new crossings or other safety infrastructure, and cannot directly fill potholes or repave roads. Even if a one-time grant were sourced to repair all of Portland’s transportation infrastructure to a “fair” condition, without an updated maintenance revenue source, PBOT assets would decline over the following decades, and a new generation of Portlanders would face the same systemic problem with infrastructure upkeep. In Wilson’s remarks, he painted a troubling picture of Portland’s $85 billion in street assets. “65% of our roads are in a state of not good repair. Most of the nation is above 50%, we are at 35% [for fair condition roads]. So we’re in trouble.”
Mayor Keith Wilson speaking to attendee at the February 25th transportation funding open house
The primary reason for the funding shortfall is inflation, with the presentation material noting that the costs of transportation, construction labor, and materials have increased rapidly while general funding sources have not kept pace. The mayor also pointed to the inequity and ineffective nature of a fixed gas tax that federal legislators have not increased since 1993. “I think we all know that fossil fuels and liquid fuels are going out of style. I drive an electric vehicle myself, and I don’t pay gas taxes. So when we think about paying our fair share, we have to think about the new generation, the new century, and not look to the last century for a failed taxing policy,” said Wilson. He explained the City is looking at “dozens of different options from around the country and the State” to evaluate for Portland transportation funding.
In the open house materials, PBOT has surfaced several proposals that may lay the groundwork for future street funding. Visitors read information about a possible “Street Damage Restoration Fee” that would be charged to utility companies, contractors, or other entities that excavate or trench in the public right-of-way, damaging streets and sidewalks. These crews, including other Portland bureaus, must repair the damage. However, that work often fails to adequately restore the full integrity of a street or sidewalk, and those assets can fail prematurely, a decade or decades earlier than expected.
Presentations also asked attendees to consider a “Transportation Utility Fee” as a funding source, as 31 other Oregon cities have implemented. It could be a monthly fee added to existing public utility bills, which residents and businesses pay. That money collected would support basic road maintenance, such as fixing potholes, and requested safety improvements. A “Retail Delivery Fee” concept would require major retailers to pay a fee for packages delivered to customers through the city’s transportation network. This would come from companies like Amazon, Walmart, Home Depot, Target, and eBay. Colorado and Minnesota have programs like this, but Portland could be the first city to enact this if the City Council adopts this idea. This approach could cover prepared-food transportation in addition to, or in place of, packages with a “Third-Party Food Delivery Fee” similarly proposed.
Asset graphic courtesy PBOT
The open house materials also stressed accountability through audits and transparency. Mayor Wilson’s remarks also centered on shifting taxes rather than simply layering new revenue sources on residents. “The one that we’re gonna be talking about is the transportation utility fee that is going to be a replacement for a gas tax… It’s a real fair way that all houses and/or businesses will pay a portion. My promise to you is if council passes this, I will work to phase out your gas tax for fixing our streets because it’s just not fair, and we have to start rethinking how we’re gonna move our city forward.
PBOT encourages people to visit portland.gov/pbotfunding for more information and share feedback by noon on Wednesday, March 4th, 2026. After that date, extending into May, Portland City Council members will deliberate on the presented materials and community feedback.
Correction: Updated a percentage in Mayor Wilson’s quote clarifying a statement that most cities in the nation have more than 50% of streets in “fair” or “good” condition and Portland is at 35%.
Promotion: Montavilla News is supported by contributions from businesses like Otter Wax, a neighborhood producer of small-batch specialty goods handcrafted in Portland. Using only natural ingredients, they make modern care products that are steeped in tradition. We thank them for their support.
The property, bordered by the Interstate 205 Multi-use-path on two sides, is currently secured with plywood “due to prior break-ins while vacant,” according to a real estate flyer. A modest commercial parking lot provides three parking stalls in front of the single-story building and one driveway leading to the eastern entrance. A gated back courtyard faces south and provides separation between two dormitory wings, each with a bathroom at the end. The most recent configuration of the space included five bedrooms, along with laundry, kitchen, office, and storage spaces. The north end of the building features an equally sized “family room” and “living room” flanking the large kitchen, which features residential-style appliances.
Gated back courtyard
A buyer could reconfigure the space and update the dated quarter-century-old interior in many ways, but the site’s residential zoning limits it to single-family, single-room occupancy housing, or similar group home uses. A new owner could also redevelop the large 16,460-square-foot lot into townhouses or other middle housing to increase density. Its location next to the pedestrian I-205 crossing bridge leading to the MAX light rail station and proximity to the Multi-Use-Path make it a good candidate for Transit-oriented Development.
Image of 9350 SE Taylor St from Portland Maps
Home Forward—renamed from Housing Authority of Portland in May 2011—is an independent Public Corporation that contracts with the federal government to administer housing programs. It owns around 110 properties. In past years, it has worked with partner groups to build affordable housing. This land, if fully redeveloped, would likely not be an impactful source of affordable housing for the organization that oversees 6,678 units. However, with an asking price of $499,999, selling it will not generate a significant sum to stave off operational budget shortfalls at the nonprofit. In a different financial landscape, Home Forward could have reinvested in this property for a similar group home use or other affordable housing option. The future buyer of this unique property will have an opportunity to reshape this residential block abutting the I-205 border of the neighborhood.
Article and Photos by
Jacob Loeb
Promotion: Montavilla News is supported by contributions from businesses like Otter Wax, a neighborhood producer of small-batch specialty goods handcrafted in Portland. Using only natural ingredients, they make modern care products that are steeped in tradition. We thank them for their support.
Leaders across Oregon want developers to build more homes. Governor Tina Kotek set a statewide housing production goal in 2023, aiming to add 36,000 units per year, and although that goal was not met, it remains a key talking point for the administration. Locally, past and present Portland City Council members, along with the Mayor, have tried to reorganize the City’s permitting structure and suspend specific fees to incentivize housing construction, which has declined post-pandemic. At a time when housing production targets and efforts to increase affordability would benefit from high-unit-count apartment construction within the Urban growth boundary, developers have reduced multifamily unit production, with outside investors choosing to build in other cities instead. Regional housing creators have likewise experienced diminished production, but recently, some Portland builders are finding a way to put crews back to work by reducing project unit counts to lessen permitting hurdles and bring in specialists who can navigate the convoluted City permitting process.
DK Homes owner Damir Karin began building Portland projects in 1991 and has remained a prolific housing developer in the region over the last 35 years. He points to the complex and opaque permitting process as the reason many of his projects have stalled over the past five years. However, he feels this is changing and anticipates a return to pre-pandemic levels of development for his company. Karin explained this change was not due to streamlined building code or reduced fees. Instead, he points to a new role within his company that focuses on breaking through the building permit bureaucracy while scaling down projects to get past “unexplained” rules that have caused years of delay. “What helped me is I hired a guy who just does permits for me, nothing else. He is running around, calling the City, and bothering them,” explained Karin.
380-foot-deep-by-80-foot-wide property at 2721 SE 101st Ave where DK Homes will build 8 new houses
Utilizing the added staff support for building permits, DK Homes intends to break ground in the next few months on three multi-unit developments in the Montavilla and surrounding areas, with a fourth from 2020 potentially reactivating as a smaller project. Karin appreciates the State and City efforts to make Middle Housing more enticing for housing producers. The Residential Infill Project (RIP), parts one and two, in effect since June 2022, added rules allowing many housing density options on parcels formerly restricted to single-family residences. It also ushered in Middle Housing Land Divisions within Single-Dwelling zones that allow houses to be on their own lots even if they are not directly connected to a city street, avoiding the need to create a condominium with homeowner fees. That has provided DK Homes with an avenue to convert its larger-unit projects into detached single-family homes that can sell for enough to cover the added expenses of holding high-interest-rate construction loans for a prolonged period and meeting the growing costs required by the City code.
DK Homes purchased a nearly three-quarter-acre property at 2721 SE 101st Avenue in 2017 with the intention of creating 11 homes. Now, the project will offer eight units off a shared driveway along the south edge of the property, with each house featuring a small garage, three bedrooms, two full bathrooms, and a half bath on the main level. “It was supposed to be 11, but going through the permit process and dealing with the City, fire code, this code, that code; they cut me to eight,” said Karin. “I want to do 11, but they cut to eight, I guess because of some fire rules.” He felt City staff never fully explained to him why the only way forward on this project was to offer less housing. Particularly because all homes on the 380-foot-deep-by-80-foot-wide property will have sprinkler systems to reduce the risk of fire spreading. Additionally, the driveway will extend to the back of the property in both designs. However, he is less interested in pushing against the rules and is instead trying to focus on moving these projects through the permitting process so he can start building again.
Portland Maps aerial view of DK Homes project sites on SE 101st and 103rd Avenues near SE Clinton St
The delay in development on the SE 101st Avenue project allowed him to use a new form of land division introduced through the RIP updates called cottage clusters. This project will not be a condominium with a Home Owner Association (HOA). Each home will have its own lot. The driveway and utilities will cross the adjoining homes’ easement, allowing access to the buildings located in the center of the large block. “It’s going to be separate houses, average is 1,400 square feet each,” said Karin. “But they are counting the garage, so it is 1,200 plus 200 [square feet] for the garage.” Most of the projects DK Homes has underway in the area will include attached vehicle storage as part of the design. Karin acknowledges that garages take up space in the home’s footprint that could serve as living space, and says his approach may be “old-fashioned,” but he feels it better serves his customers. “The City is pushing for no garages. I think Portland is not ready for that; people still have cars, especially in that area. So I decided to do houses with a garage. The people can park their car or use it like a storage unit,” explained Karin.
DK Homes will start a similar project one block over on the southwest corner of SE 103rd Avenue and Clinton Street. Because that site is on a corner, three houses will face SE Clinton Street, each having a driveway connecting to the city street. The other three homes will use a shared driveway accessed from SE 103rd Avenue. The 14 new homes on SE 101st and 103rd Avenues will use the Homebuyer Opportunity Limited Tax Exemption (HOLTE) Program. That affordability program for Single-unit homes lets qualified buyers take a property tax exemption on structural improvements for up to 10 years, as long as the property and owner remain eligible per HOLTE Program requirements. This provision will limit homebuyers for these projects to those earning at or below 100% of the Median family income for a family of four in the area. That income cap can increase for larger households.
2719 SE 103rd Ave vacant lot where DK Homes will construct 6 homes
Whenever possible, DK Homes will preserve the original homes on the development site and add newer units within the undeveloped yard space. However, the lack of building during COVID and the slow recovery left its structures south of SE Division Street unoccupied, attracting squatters who damaged the homes significantly. Karin opted to demolish the nearly unrecoverable original homes and remove the incentive for people to trespass.
47 NE 87th Ave post renovation
The dangers of sitting empty did not impact DK Homes’ project on NE 87th Avenue. The team worked to preserve the interior of the 1909-era house at 47 NE 87th Avenue as much as possible and refinished the basement for added living space. Karin Split that property back into two distinct lots and is now selling the renovated century-old house. On the vacant lot at 43 NE 87th Avenue, DK Homes will create two attached homes. One of the common-wall homes will have four bedrooms with three and a half baths. It will have one bedroom on the ground floor with a full bathroom, making it suitable for multi-generational homebuyers or those with other accessibility needs. On the top floor are the other three bedrooms and two baths. The neighboring unit will have a similar layout without the lower-level bedroom and ensuite bathroom. They will both have attached garages with a split driveway running down the center of the property. A later land division will create separate properties for the new houses.
43 NE 87th Ave awaiting permit approval for two attached townhouses
This project, just off os East Burnside Street, is different than his other work south of the site. It is less focused on maximizing land and may not include affordability incentives. “I can go all the way to four [units on the property], but then you bring four families [on a smaller lot], and it’s gonna be a problem for neighbors,” remarked Karin. “I’m still trying to figure out all my costs to see if I will be able to build under the tax abatement.”
2719 SE 103rd Ave vacant lot where DK Homes will construct 6 homes
Damir Karin said that he feels the overlapping and contradictory building codes, along with infrastructure improvement requirements placed on housing creators, are driving up costs and incentivizing people to build for higher earners. “They’re talking about affordable housing and a shortage of space for people to live, but on the other hand, all the rules they bring up just hold back developers and make each project cost more. More requirements add more expenses,” explained Karin. “When we have to spend an additional hundred thousand to improve the sidewalk and curb or add a bioswale, somebody needs to pay. As a professional trying to make my living, if I spend $100,000, I have to somehow get some money back.” He points to years of changing requirements that have added to the cost of a detached home, and he feels it is even harder to make apartment projects profitable.
2020 rendering of proposed 12-unit apartment building at 2444 SE 90th Ave provided by Concept Design & Associates
Karin points to his long-delayed apartment project at 2444 SE 90th Avenue as an example of one he could not get built in Portland. It started as a 12-unit apartment building with tuck-under parking. It faced delays and eventually became a smaller, five-unit project for sale rather than as a rental near a commercial corridor. “We have five attached townhomes, and my permit is in its fifth year with the City,” said Karin. After downsizing the unit count, the permits began moving forward. However, he said officials recently told him he will need to build a half-street improvement on the curbless section of SE 90th Avenue. He explained that this provision will require more engineering and further drive up costs, leading to fewer units at higher prices for future buyers.
Some builders are getting back to work as recent City programs have helped drive the creation of middle housing. Still, even a developer like Karin will point out that the number of projects underway is not the best measure of a successful housing policy. When the building permit process discourages apartment building density by adding costs and delaying project approval, builders will target lower-density land uses to get the project moving. He wants to build more housing units per property where it is appropriate, offering more affordable options for price-constrained buyers. He notes density is needed within Portland, recognizing that “no one is making more land,” but he needs the City to help builders like him navigate the system to deliver those projects. Not many local development companies can afford a dedicated person to shepherd projects through the permitting process, and they may still need to make unit-count concessions to gain approval.
People can expect to see work underway at the three DK Homes project sites in 2026.
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On November 6th, the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) opened its fourth round of the Community Charging Rebates (CCR) program, which subsidizes the cost of installing electric vehicle (EV) chargers for businesses, nonprofits, public entities, Tribes, EV service providers, and owners of multifamily home complexes. Large sections of Montavilla and East Portland reside within the project’s “Priority” area, and organizations that add to the charger network could receive $8,000 per Level 2 charge port installed or up to 80% of eligible expenses.
EV Chargers in the Portland Community College Southeast Campus parking lot
Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality won a $197 million federal grant for its “Climate Equity and Resilience Through Action” program in 2024. From those funds, ODOT will disperse $10 million to support the installation of Level 2 vehicle chargers in priority communities by providing rebates to eligible public and private entities. Past versions of the charger program, launched in 2023, used state funds. Officials plan to fund future rounds of the program with combined state and federal money.
EV Chargers in the Glisan Landing parking garage
The program aims to fill gaps in Oregon’s EV charging infrastructure by reducing the cost of installing charging stations in multifamily housing, public parking areas, and workplaces. People interested in the current funding round have until March 31st, 2026, to participate. However, the program reimburses eligible applicants on a first-come, first-served basis. Eligible projects can start the application process before they complete charging-station construction, as long as the unit is operational within 300 days. Otherwise, they could wait until work is complete and apply for a rebate within 90 days of installing an EV charging station.
ODOT Community Charging Rebates Program priority map showing Montavilla
Interested groups can visit ODOT’s Community Charging Rebates Program webpage or reach out to a Portland nonprofit partner, Forth, which is working with the Oregon transportation agency to provide technical assistance and support for applicants interested in installing EV charging on their property. Representatives from Forth are reachable at ODOTchargingrebates@forthmobility.org or (503) 724-8670. Residents in multifamily housing located within the priority area may want to contact building management to see if this program would incentivise building ownership to add a charger, and business owners with parking could also look into the feasibility of supporting EV charging for guests, as many area grocery stores have started offering in recent years.
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