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The Portland City Council on Thursday denied an appeal of the Historic Landmarks Commission‘s approval of plans for a 148-unit affordable housing project in the historic Alphabet District.

The council voted 4-0 against the appeal, giving developer Northwest Housing Alternatives the go-ahead for a project involving the historic Buck-Prager Building at 1727 N.W. Hoyt St. Carleton Hart Architecture‘s design calls for renovating the existing structure to gain a four-story addition and constructing another building with five stories.

The Historic Landmarks Commission issued its approval in September. But the Northwest District Association and Portland attorney Tony Schwartz appealed that decision to the council, saying the planned development would be too large to fit the context of the surrounding neighborhood, which features 13 single-family homes listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

On Thursday, several Alphabet District residents testified in favor of the appeal. Dan Anderson lives two blocks from the project site and said there was no guarantee the development would deliver anything other than 鈥渇ull frontal market-rate housing.鈥�

鈥淚n short,鈥� Anderson said, 鈥渨e have an incompatible building that fails to deliver affordable housing.鈥�

City commissioners, however, rejected those arguments.

鈥淚 do believe approval criteria were met; I don’t believe errors were made in the review process or if there were deviations from that process that they would have resulted in a different outcome,鈥� Commissioner Chloe Eudaly said prior to the final vote. 鈥淟ike many Portlanders, I’m overwhelmed by the rate of change in the city and I don’t like a lot of it. But in this case I actually think that this is a much more attractive new development than I have seen on our streets, and that the developer and architect have really gone to great lengths to meet the criteria.鈥�

Carleton Hart senior associate Michelle Black is the lead designer for the project. She told commissioners that attaching a covenant guaranteeing affordable housing will hinder the developer’s ability to fully fund the project.

鈥淚 don’t know how to address all the hypotheticals you’re laying out here,鈥� Black said. 鈥淚t’s already very, very difficult to provide affordable housing, and to put anything else tied to this project makes lenders very uneasy. And, quite frankly, we need as much flexibility as possible in talking to as many lenders as possible to get this project funded.鈥�

Funding remains the single largest hurdle in the project’s path.

In a turnabout from earlier Historic Landmarks Commission meetings, the list of people signed up to testify included twice as many project supporters as project opponents.

鈥淩egarding scale and height, that was a unanimous decision,鈥� Historic Landmarks Commissioner Kristen Minor told the council. 鈥淣one of the commissioners had concerns overall about the scale and height, and that’s important.鈥�

As designed by Carleton Hart, the Buck-Prager Building will be seismically enhanced and a south wing with four stories will be built and physically attached to the existing structure to provide 48 affordable units for seniors. A five-story north building will provide 100 affordable units for people making 60 percent of the regional median family income or less.

The council’s vote Thursday was tentative in nature. A final vote to uphold the decision is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. on Dec. 19, at Portland City Hall.