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The Portland Design Commission gave the Design Overlay Zone Assessment (DOZA) a mixed review during its Thursday meeting.

鈥淭here are things we are in disagreement on,鈥� Design Commission Chairman David Wark said.

Mark Hinshaw, a Walker Macy principal urban designer who authored the report, said that the city’s attitude is generally upbeat about what the process is trying to accomplish. He also found that there is a collective shared value system about what the system should accomplish.

鈥淵ou are in the pool of cities that is dealing with very rapid pace of development,鈥� Hinshaw said. 鈥淎 lot of development is of a greater magnitude and scale, density and intensity than is around it. It’s a different form of development than we have seen in the past.鈥�

The review process for that development has generated conflicts and project delays. Walker Macy, a Northwest landscape architecture, urban design, planning and sustainable design firm, was tasked with determining how the process could be streamlined.

The DOZA project took more than a year and involved interviews with residents, city staffers and commissioners who oversee development within design overlay zones.

鈥淚 worked in a lot of communities where there is a widespread negativity,鈥� Hinshaw said. 鈥淚t’s a negative sour attitude that things are out of control and how do we stop it. I didn’t see any of that here.鈥�

Parts of the process can be improved, Hinshaw said. One of the top recommendations of the assessment is to adjust the thresholds for design review. As proposed, larger projects would get a higher level of review and smaller projects would get a lower level of review. That recommendation bothered many commissioners.

鈥淩educing review of projects based on size is a recent lesson learned,鈥� Wark said. 鈥淚 don’t think we should reduce the review just because they are small.鈥�

Neighborhood activists also took issue with that recommendation. Linda Nettekoven, who serves on the Hosford-Abernethy Neighborhood District Association‘s board and works with the Division Design Initiative, said that reducing review simply because of a project’s economic value wouldn’t make sense.

鈥淔or one thing the thresholds are concerning,鈥� she said. 鈥淏asing them on geography, size or on economic threshold is a problem. Under that threshold, most of the things built on the (Division Street) corridor wouldn’t get reviewed.鈥�

Another issue stemming from the report for commissioners was the possibility that certain low-income housing projects could be removed from the design review process. Many of the commissioners felt the report affixed too much blame to the commission to for driving up costs, delaying projects and driving affordable housing out of the design overlay region.

鈥淭he document lacks what the applicant can do to improve,鈥� Commissioner Tad Savinar said. 鈥淭he low-income thing came up today. It’s a real hot issue right now. I think it needs to be clarified.鈥�

Other recommendations that were less contentious focused on streamlining and focusing hearings, and improving communication with neighborhoods. The report also recommended considering creation of a second design commission. Nettekoven favored that possibility.

鈥淪et up a second design commission now,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hat would help stop the worst of the worst and encourage the best of the best. People are wishing for something sooner rather than later.鈥�

The final report will be presented to the City Council on April 26. Several commissioners had hoped to first incorporate their input; however, they will instead submit a group letter responding to the recommendations.

鈥淚sn’t there a way we can make our comments in time that our remarks can be folded into the document so that the commission can say we are so in favor of this thing?鈥� Savinar said. 鈥淣ow my fear is the Design Commission is kind of a whipping post. Us having to testify against it is a bad thing.鈥�

Hinshaw said he wasn’t surprised by the commission’s reaction.

鈥淭his has been their bailiwick,鈥� he said. 鈥淓veryone needs to make changes and rethink what the process is about.鈥�