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After more than six years of planning, construction at the Con-way Commons site in Northwest Portland may be just around the corner.

Following a lengthy discussion last week, design commissioners said they were ready to approve the Block 296 development, which involves conversion of a 36,000-square-foot warehouse into a New Seasons Market and construction of a 130,000-square-foot mixed-use apartment building with 114 units. C.E. John Co. plans to break ground in January and is shooting for a delivery date of spring 2015.

Bureau of Development Services staffers are preparing to amend a report to recommend approval prior to an official vote on Thursday. Previously, the BDS was concerned about one issue.

C.E. John plans to include a limited number of parking spaces within a pedestrian pathway that will bisect the block and separate the market from the surface parking lot. The Con-way master plan calls for a system of privately owned pedestrian pathways throughout the 17-acre site. Parking is not specifically prohibited in these areas, but neither is it identified as an intended use, according to BDS.

“This is a great project,” said Kara Fioravanti, a senior planner at BDS. “There are so many approvable components to it, but unfortunately this has been an issue from the beginning and remains so.”

GBD Architects and Holst Architecture countered that additional parking was needed to make the project work for New Seasons. Phil Beyl, president of GBD Architects – which crafted the master plan over the course of three design advice requests, three design reviews and 64 neighborhood meetings – said the plan was designed to be flexible. He urged commissioners to consider the greater good of the project as a whole.

“Among many other things, the master plan was written to be a response to the marketplace,” Beyl said. “We didn’t have a user; we didn’t have a program when it was put into play. It needed to be able to respond to changes in market conditions.”

During the meeting, Craig Boretz, the vice president of corporate development for Con-way Inc., and John Bradley, a representative of the Northwest District Association, also testified in support of the development. But without a clear standard on the matter, the question over whether parking would be allowed in the pedestrian pathway became a philosophical debate.

Commissioner David Wark specifically questioned whether the use – as well as the adjacent surface parking lot – would set a dangerous precedent for future development.

“Is the surface parking lot in the tool kit of building an urban environment?” he said. “Are these the city’s guidelines, or are they a retailer’s? I think the architecture is brilliant, absolutely brilliant, as is the adaptive reuse. You have two wonderful bookends, (but I have) reservations about parking in the heart.”

The six-story building – named the L.L. Hawkins after pioneer and preservationist Lester Leander Hawkins – envisions a modern, industrial facade divided into sections of white and charcoal brick. Open, rooftop spaces feature wooden walls and views of Forest Park. For Wark, parking remains the sole issue.

“There’s so much more it could be than it is, and that’s what’s disappointing to me,” he said. “It’s just not what an urban environment should be starting out with.”

In addition to 64 tuck-under and surface parking spaces, Block 296 will have 76 below-grade parking spaces for apartment tenants. Jeffrey Stuhr, a co-founder of Holst Architecture, pointed out that while Block 296 could become a dense, urban site, it’s on the fringe of the downtown core. Progression requires baby steps.

Most of the commissioners present agreed, noting the importance of initial development as a catalyst for future projects. Commissioner David Keltner also pointed out that the pedestrian pathways were not public spaces, but rather private ones that allow public access. As such, he felt parking was an allowable use. Commissioner Jeff Simpson concurred.

“I think the spirit and intent of the master plan is being met here all day long,” he said. “I think the master plan speaks throughout the document about the uniqueness of the grocer … and if you need parking ratios to make grocery successful and that grocery is key to development, then that makes sense.”