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The St. Johns neighborhood feels it has been burned by developers before, says Joe Purkey, an architect who lives there, but now people are getting more involved about what goes up in their community.

A good example was a July 7 between about 60 St. Johns area business owners and architect Alan Jones of Jones Architecture. Jones is working on a design for a three-building, mixed-use project in the business district of St. Johns. It will include 100 apartments, 20,000 square feet of ground floor commercial space and underground parking at North Lombard Street and North Charleston Avenue.

The project, to be called The Union at St. Johns, will be mostly small apartments and may include some affordable housing. Construction could start as early as January. Shapiro Didway is the landscape architect for the project. The developer is Milwaukie dentist Dr. Farid Bolouri, who also was at the meeting.

Purkey said businesses and residents in St. Johns have gotten more involved in asking questions about the design of buildings rising in the area since he feels they 鈥済ot burned鈥� when a large storage facility was built in the retail center of the neighborhood.

鈥淭he storage unit wasn’t the most appropriate thing for downtown retail, and community leadership wasn’t well-versed on how the process worked,鈥� Purkey said. 鈥淭hey were pretty upset.鈥�

Another project the neighbor had some gripes about was the construction of the Marvel 29 apartments at the foot of the St. John’s Bridge, according to Purkey. The project met the design rule for the neighborhood of no building over 50 feet wide by putting up strips of bricks every 50 feet.

鈥淭he city of Portland accepted the architect’s argument that the brick stripes break up the building, but it really doesn’t,鈥� Purkey said.

AMICABLE DISCUSSION

While Jones was peppered with questions from the audience at July 7 meeting, it ended amicably, with both sides agreeing to meet again to continue the discussion.

More meetings between developers and citizens can keep development surprises from being sprung on a community, Purkey said.

One of the biggest concerns at the St. John’s meeting was the effect of traffic interruption on businesses along Lombard Street, but Jones said those would be minimal and the street will be kept open during construction. People also asked questions about bike lanes, traffic signals and more.

鈥淲e’re not reconfiguring any streets, but we are reconfiguring some traffic signals,鈥� Jones said.

Denny Hassler, a salesman at The Man’s Shop, asked if Jones could provide a construction schedule that could be shared with other St. Johns merchants. He said business owners would also like to see some signage directing people to the downtown shopping area.

Hassler said he is concerned about traffic slowdowns affecting business.

鈥淥ur customers aren’t going to ride a bike to buy a suit,鈥� he said.

Hassler also asked the developer for email communications about when and where any disruptive work would be going on.

鈥淲e will give you a week’s notice, at least,鈥� owner Bolouri promised.

The work will include removing a slip lane on Lombard Street and relocating the right turn lane, which might take a couple of months, Jones said, but the street will be kept open and will only close for one- or two-hour intervals.

Construction will be in two phases, Bolouri said, starting with work on the right turn lane. Care will be taken about when big trucks make deliveries so as not to disturb the neighborhood, he said. Jones also noted that the construction site is near a school and a library, but the work will be kept out of sight behind a fence.

Bolouri said he understood the concerns of business owners.

鈥淚 enjoy development, but I’m a dentist and I’m out of business if my patients can’t get in and out,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he last thing I want to do is surprise (anyone).鈥�

Jones said he and Bolouri plan to meet several more times with business owners and will continue to meet with the St. John’s Neighborhood Association about the project.

Jones said a regular practice during design review is to have at least one meeting with neighborhood representatives, but he believes in doing more.

鈥淲e expect to present for design review in September 2015, with construction commencing the first quarter of 2016,鈥� Jones said.

PRESERVING CHARACTER

Purkey said he and others have gotten involved in engaging developers and designers about future projects because they don’t want to see their neighborhood’s 鈥渟treetcar era architectural style鈥� turned into something else. He said other neighborhoods, such as along North Mississippi Avenue and Division Street, were 鈥渃hanged drastically鈥� by developers.

鈥淭he residents lost their neighborhood to a completely new neighborhood,鈥� he said. 鈥淪t. John’s residents have been watching (other developments) and want to make sure our community culture and architectural character remains intact as much as possible as growth happens,鈥� he said.

鈥淒evelopers coming into St. Johns really need to be answerable to the community and hopefully to other communities throughout Portland.鈥�

So far, Jones and Bolouri have been extremely cooperative in working with St. Johns residents, Purkey said.

鈥淭hey have been pretty willing to meet with the community and the community encouraged them through letters and lots of emails,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e are pretty engaged at this point.鈥�

That only makes sense, Purkey said, because more communication can lead to less conflict between developers and residents.

The Marvel 29 apartments became a 鈥渢ipping point鈥� that led more citizens to get involved with development planning, he said.

Although plans are not yet finalized, business owners attending the July 7 meeting said the design so far for Bolouri’s project seems to fit into the character of the neighborhood.

The three buildings will each be set back at varying distances from the sidewalk along Lombard Street, Purkey said, although there will still be a long wall along Charleston Avenue.

鈥淚t is not perfect but better than Marvel 29 at breaking up the massing,鈥� Purkey said.