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An effort to analyze the Portland city design process that began more than a year ago culminated with Mark Hinshaw, an urban designer at Walker Macy, submitting his team’s report to the Portland City Council on Wednesday afternoon. The council voted unanimously to accept the report.

鈥淪ometimes people from outside don’t appreciate the passion with which people care about this place,鈥� Hinshaw said. 鈥淭here are other places where that is less so, frankly.鈥�

The Design Overlay Zone Assessment (DOZA) team spent more than a year on its analysis. City officials hope that the recommendations can be followed to accelerate development of projects subject to review.

鈥淭here are certainly very thoughtful development teams that are sincere in their efforts,鈥� Hinshaw said. 鈥淭hen there are those that are simply getting a project in the ground.鈥�

The city’s goal is to streamline the review process, but also ensure that it continues to improve projects’ designs. To that end, the DOZA team formed nine primary proposals.

The most controversial idea calls for changing the threshold at which projects would go before the full Design Commission rather than face a lower level of scrutiny. New projects could be classified for review by size while alterations would be classified by dollar value. Other possible criteria included height or sensitivity of the site.

鈥淚t would allow more time to be spent on higher-impact projects,鈥� Hinshaw said.

Some commissioners expressed concerns that basing thresholds on those criteria would betray earlier promises the council made when height rules were increased last year during zoning discussions.

鈥淚 am concerned about bait and switch,鈥� Commissioner Amanda Fritz said. 鈥淭he whole of last year when we were discussing heights and appropriate zoning, there was the fail-safe that things would go through design review.鈥�

The Design Commission’s option to refuse to allow a building to reach the tallest height allowed by city code benefits the city, Fritz said.

Another proposal would reduce the number of factors that the Design Commission could consider in its decisions. The recommended changes would help reduce the workload burdening city design staff as well as the commission, Hinshaw said.

鈥淲e are not trying to point the finger at the commission,鈥� he said.

City commissioners also voiced concern about the impact of design review on affordable housing projects. Hinshaw said that while the review process did add to the cost of affordable housing, it was not the primary reason why housing costs continue to rise in the city.

Some of the DOZA team’s proposals regarding process can be enacted without legislative action. Those that require changes to city code could take up to 18 months, according to city staff.

That drew the ire of Commissioner Dan Salztman, who criticized that estimate and pushed for quicker action.

鈥淚 hate to be skeptical, but sometimes I think we do these projects because we want to keep people employed and keep people busy,鈥� he said. 鈥淚’m really going to be disappointed if this is dragging out 18 months, and two years from now and we are still talking about ways to improve the design process.鈥�

The full report is available .