Work is underway on a housing development at 3128 SE 90th Place, where a local builder will create nine new homes behind the existing 1927-era house. It features four duplex structures and one detached home, accessed from a long private roadway along the northern edge of the lot. Each of the around 1,700-square-foot homes will stand three stories tall to allow space for attached garages and four bedrooms. Developer Ken Yu updated this project from an apartment concept to better match the street’s existing design context and balance housing with tree canopy.
Yu, a longtime developer of commercial and residential projects focused in East Portland, explained he looks for projects that integrate with the existing neighborhood while making space for new members of the community. He also said he likes to balance buildings and nature. “I’m a Chinese-American, and I grew up with the idea of the yin and yang balance,” explained Yu. “I don’t like too much building or too much landscaping. I think we need to strike the balance between the two. When you walk into a neighborhood with tall buildings and concrete, all that without any green space or natural landscape, it doesn’t feel right.” His personal discomfort in overbuilt spaces encourages his use of planted natural landscape while preserving existing trees. “Those big trees, we really love them,” remarked Yu. “That’s why we went out of our way to try to retain them [at this site].” The new development will provide a dedicated communal recreation area in the southeast corner of the property, with play equipment surrounded by greenery.
When Yu first looked at this project, he imagined the site could hold three apartment buildings containing six units each for a total of 18 units. “We actually started the permit processing and submitted plans for permits,” recalled Yu. However, his team reevaluated the scale of that initial project, feeling it would not fit in with the existing housing in the area. So they decided to take a different approach focused on homeownership instead of rentals. “We had to cancel that permit and go with the four duplexes and one single detached home because we really think that this will work a lot better with the area, match the neighborhood, and also we want it to be more family-oriented,” said Yu.
The new three-level houses will have two and a half bathrooms. In addition to vehicle storage, the ground floor supports a bedroom with an ensuite bathroom at the back of the house. Yu explained this is a nice feature for multi-generation families or for people with mobility considerations. “If the family has older people that don’t want to go up the stairs, they can live in the ground floor bedrooms. making it more accessible for them.” The second floor supports a kitchen and living room along with a powder room/half-bathroom. The top level has three bedrooms and one shared bathroom.
The rescaled project took longer than expected to obtain approved building permits due to a required land use review. City code 33.120.206 says if the site is more than 160 feet deep, new dwelling units are prohibited unless the site has at least 90 feet of frontage on a street or meets certain exceptions. Yu said this 250-foot-deep site was only a few feet short of the frontage requirement, prompting a review. “They said the land use review takes six months, but it actually took a year, over a year,” recalled Yu. He said the permitting process went well with only one notable change to the proposed plans. The city requested that the shared private access road use a stamped concrete finish. That process utilizes rubber pads with a design pressed into the drying concrete to create patterns that mimic stone or brickwork. Several newly created raised medians on 82nd Avenue used this process to create a red brick appearance, while still keeping installation costs lower than using bricks.
City standards required the development to create curbs and sidewalks in front of the property as the street did not already have them. Yu was required to remove the existing driveway used by the original home to create the new curb cut leading to the private lane. Many developers install the sidewalk at the end of the project to prevent damage by construction vehicles and allow easy access as they dig up the property for utility lines. Yu likes to install the frontage improvements early on in the process when possible. “We try to do those first because we try to improve the scenery for the neighbors, shortening the disturbance as much as possible. We think that this will benefit our neighbors.” Pedestrians walking in the area can now use the less than 100 feet of new sidewalk. It will likely take over a decade for this infrastructure to connect to other sidewalks on this street, but it sets a framework for the future streetscape planned for the neighborhood. That could come from other infill projects like this one or public investment similar to the 2025 work done on SE Clinton Street.
The developer expects these homes will appeal to a range of families, as they will use sturdy materials like water-resistant luxury vinyl plank flooring and granite countertops. “I think it’s a great location, conveniently close to a shopping center and the light rail. Our vision is that these would be a great home for working families and also new immigrants that rely on public transportation or bicycle rather than having to drive a long way to get to a shopping area,” explained Yu. “This is within walking distance to Eastport Plaza and all the Asian shopping centers. So it’s a really convenient location.”
Work is underway now but tucked behind the newly updated street frontage and the existing house. Ken Yu hopes the months of construction work will not be overly disruptive to the neighborhood and that people will appreciate the project’s adjusted scale. When completed, the homes will sell under a condominium model, similar to other developments in the area that share a private access roadway.
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