91视频

An Old Town Chinatown revitalization plan approved recently includes incentives for developers to build apartments in the neighborhood for middle-income residents.

The Portland City Council last week approved the Portland Development Commission‘s Old Town/Chinatown Five-Year Action Plan. It calls for a waiver of the city system development charge for construction in Old Town of up to 500 units for renters who earn up to 100 percent of the region’s median family income, or $48,580 for one person.

The aim is for the development subsidy 鈥� estimated to total $7 million over the next five years 鈥� to diversify the neighborhood’s housing stock, said Jillian Detweiler, policy director for Portland Mayor Charlie Hales‘ office. Currently, 72 percent of apartments in Old Town are restricted to low-income renters, compared to 6 percent citywide.

SDC waivers for middle-income apartments would apply only to new construction and be similar to those the city currently offers to encourage development of low-income housing, Detweiler said.

While PDC officials were developing the Old Town revitalization plan, neighborhood residents and other stakeholders pointed out that the area already has a high percentage of low-income housing, but lacks market-rate apartments, she said.

鈥淭hey identified something that didn’t come up in other places,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hey were looking for a tool to introduce more market-rate housing. They’re saying we’re oversaturated (with low-income housing).鈥�

Old Town has already attracted some private investment in middle-income housing. Portland-based developer Gerding Edlen is planning a $37 million, six-story mixed-use development on the corner of Northwest First Avenue and Davis Street that will include 58 units of workforce housing. The project would qualify for the new SDC waiver, and the developer has expressed interest in applying for it, Detweiler said.

Another proposed PDC program in the action plan would provide $5 million worth of incentives to encourage seismic retrofits of the neighborhood’s unreinforced masonry buildings.