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Plans to build a homeless shelter underneath the Broadway Bridge have been appealed to the Portland Design Commission.

A $1.6 million new construction permit for the Navigation Center was previously issued by the city, and a ceremonial ground-breaking event took place last month. Deacon is set to serve as the general contractor. But now the Design Commission will now hear the appeal on April 18. The appeal was filed Feb. 25 by Portland resident Kurt Sorensen and gives three major reasons for challenging the Type II staff approval, which was finalized just four days prior.

Sorensen contends the project: 1, does not meet the definition of a mass shelter or a temporary use and thus is not exempt from review or entitled to expedited permitting; 2, does not properly fall under authority of the city’s housing emergency declaration; and 3, does not comply with relevant city River District design standards.

鈥淲hether characterized as a mass shelter, a temporary shelter, or a short-term shelter,鈥� Sorensen writes in the appeal, 鈥渢he proposed navigation center does not meet the code definitions and thus should not be approved.鈥�

Oregon Harbor of Hope, a nonprofit, is looking to build the shelter on a vacant 1.17-acre parcel along Northwest Naito Parkway, slightly north of the Broadway Bridge. The 60-foot-by-150-foot, Quonset-style prefabricated structure would have a fabric membrane tent roof.

The Navigation Center, designed by Opsis Architecture, is intended to house up to 100 men for up to 100 days at a time. Plans call for dormitory-style sleeping facilities, food prep and serving areas, office space, toilets, showers and storage space. Staffers at the facility would help temporary residents 鈥渘avigate鈥� their way to social services such as mental and physical health care, housing placement and job training.

Plans for the shelter have drawn criticism from neighbors. That includes a pending lawsuit filed last year by Portland developer Jim Winkler over an environmental cleanup plan approved by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.

鈥淭he objection is not to a shelter,鈥� Sorensen wrote. 鈥淚t is to a project that is an ad hoc mixture of leased or used prefabricated structures cobbled together in a way that does not respect architectural character and land use within the neighborhood.鈥�