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Issuing recommendations is easy. Implementing them can be hard.

A team of staff members from Portland’s Bureau of Planning and Sustainability and Bureau of Development Services is facing a tall order: implementing ideas proposed in the Design Overlay Zone Assessment (DOZA) final report that the City Council accepted earlier this year.

鈥淲e are looking at realigning the steps,鈥� said Kathryn Hartinger, city planner and DOZA implementation coordinator.

The report was compiled by a team led by Mark Hinshaw, an urban planner in Walker Macy‘s Seattle office. The recommendations are intended to streamline Portland’s 35-year-old design review process, and include reworking design guidelines as well as running design hearings more efficiently.

鈥淲e gave them this report with a list of things that could be done,鈥� Hinshaw said. 鈥淎s soon as I mentioned them, they started working on them.鈥�

The changes have been divided into three separate 鈥渂askets鈥� 鈥� administrative, tools and process. Each one is overseen by a manager.

The likely least controversial of those baskets, administrative, will include changes such as increasing staff capacity, improving public notices and developing new tools and training for commissioners and staffers. Administrative items can be instituted without changes to city ordinances.

鈥淥ne of the things they have already implemented is changes to the notices that are sent out,鈥� Hartinger said.

City code requires that property owners be notified about projects in their area. Renters are now receiving notices as well.

鈥淐ode sets the minimum we have to do,鈥� Hartinger said. 鈥淲e can do more.鈥�

Another change already in place is highly visible to regular attendees of design commission hearings. A large clock now counts down exactly how much time people have to give testimony before the commission. Previously, they only had three small lights that counted down their time allowed.

鈥淎dministrative changes will be ongoing,鈥� Hartinger said.

Those changes will likely be the easiest to make. The audience they affect is smaller and the parties largely agree on what should be done. Few people oppose quickening the pace of design hearings or increasing public engagement.

Changes in the tools and process baskets will be trickier to implement. The tools basket will involve changes to city standards and guidelines.

鈥淎 lot of the standards were written over 20 years ago,鈥� Hinshaw said. 鈥淪ome need simplified and updated.鈥�

The challenge in updating standards and guidelines stems from the fact that over the years, the city has simply added items instead of reviewing and revising. The result has become a morass of sometime conflicting ideas between guidelines used by the design commission and objective standards used by city staff.

鈥�(The standards and guidelines) are kind of old,鈥� Hartinger said. 鈥淭hey were written and then things got added. The city kept packing on things. They should relate to each other. They shouldn’t be doing different things.鈥�

Design Commissioner David Wark, who has served through the entire DOZA process, said he sees a golden opportunity to make the city’s process clearer.

鈥淚 have confidence that the outcome will be good and the process will go smoothly,鈥� he said.

Clear definitions of nebulous phrases such as 鈥渋ntegrating the river鈥� and 鈥淧ortland character鈥� will help everyone in the process, Wark said.

Implementing such changes means merging the needs and desires of a diverse group of interests. Developers and architects want a system that is efficient, clear and where projects don’t languish for months. Neighborhood groups want rules that don’t require architecture or construction licensure understand.

鈥淚t’s so complex and hard for the average person,鈥� said Linda Nettekoven, a community activist and member of the Hosford-Abernethy Neighborhood District Association. 鈥淭hat makes it hard to keep citizens engaged.鈥�

The pace and the depth of the changes coming to the city’s building process makes tracking them difficult.

鈥淲e still don’t know what they are going to implement,鈥� Nettekoven said. 鈥淭here are so many moving parts right now. We just don’t know how those are going to fit together.鈥�

The DOZA recommendations combined with other city efforts to revamp the standards are leaving neighbors confused, Nettekoven said. The city will hold open houses during the implementation process to help educate citizens, Hartinger said.

鈥淲e are looking at public workshops,鈥� she said. 鈥淥ne of the main tenets is context in terms of what matters in different parts of the city. Going out to neighborhood coalitions and talking to them is a big part of this process.鈥�

Wark is confident that the city will be able to incorporate all stakeholders’ concerns.

鈥淧ortland is good at being inclusive and incorporating a spectrum of opinions,鈥� he said.

In the process basket, changes include amending the purpose statement for design review and realigning the steps. While the new rules will affect commissions differently, they will require coordination between the Design Commission and Planning and Sustainability Commission.

鈥淚 think the commissions are aware of what their role is,鈥� Hartinger said. 鈥淭hey are going to be doing some joint meetings. We have been trying to get both commissions on the same page. There is going to be a lot of agreement.鈥�

Once early stages of implementation are completed, changes that require revisions to city ordinance will trigger another lengthy process. First, the city will launch this month a new, public website detailing many of the proposals.

A discussion draft for process changes will be released for public comment in November. Those comments will result in a proposed draft from BPS that will be released in February 2018. The Planning and Sustainability Commission will hold hearings on the proposed draft to process changes and give BPS more changes to make. Once those revisions are made, a recommended draft will go before the City Council next summer. The council will then vote on the draft and any amendments, and the final set of rules will take effect 30 days later.

Changes for the tools will follow the same path with one exception. Changes to the standards will go before the Planning and Sustainability Commission while the guideline changes will go before the Design Commission. The recommended draft is expected to go to the City Council in June 2019.

It’s a long process that has taken many cities years to complete. Hinshaw said it’s pushing for change that can be realistically achieved.

鈥淚t’s almost like therapy,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e are trying to find a mix of things that are easy and some that are tougher. We want to push people without going too far off the edge and raising too many issues.鈥�