Comments on: Apartment complex the ‘Norm’ going up in Northwest Portland /news/2011/10/04/apartment-complex-the-norm-going-up-in-northwest-portland/ Building and Construction News in Portland, Oregon and the Pacific Northwest Thu, 06 Oct 2011 17:04:52 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.6 By: Brian Owendoff /news/2011/10/04/apartment-complex-the-norm-going-up-in-northwest-portland/#comment-98770 Wed, 05 Oct 2011 17:02:19 +0000 /dailyblog/?p=74929#comment-98770 Due to Fannie and Freddie, apartments are one of the few things that are financial. Unfortunately the City of Portland has TRIPLED system development charges (“SDC”) on apartments. In 2009 when my Opus team delievered Ladd and Park19, SDCs were +/- $6,500 per unit. SDCs are now a whopping $17,000 per unit! This will have the unintended consequence of killing much needed new apartment projects. This will also disproportionately hurt elderly and lower income as rents in even lower end apartments will rise due to virtual 100% occupancy.

The City should consider reducing or temporarily eliminating SDC charges on newly constructed apartments of 675 square feet or smaller.

The math is easy: 100% of nothing is nothing. No ground breaking on much needed apartments, no income to City and increase in homeless that will put an even bigger burden on already stressed social services in our region. We need the City to help create jobs. Decision to almost triple SDC will result in continued high unemployment in construction and real estate industry.

Brian M. Owendoff

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