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Noel Johnson’s proposal for a subdivision of attached homes in Northwest Portland has run headlong into city code limiting buildings in residential zones to 100 feet in length.

Johnson proposes to build 14 row houses, a type of residential development common in many American cities but unusual in Portland. To do that, he needs to subdivide the approximately 30,000-square-foot property on Northwest Wilson Street between 29th and 30th avenues into 14 lots.

A staff report from the Bureau of Development Services recommends denial of the proposal from Johnson, a principal at local developer Cairn Pacific. On Monday, the proposal went before a hearings officer, Gregory J. Frank, who seemed unpersuaded to grant an exception to the 100-foot length rule.

鈥淗earings officers don’t make rulings based on great policy aspirations,鈥� Frank said. Frank told Johnson that if he didn’t like the 100-foot rule, he should ask the City Council to change it.

The proposal offers a case study in the tension between the city’s goals to encourage housing and density, while hewing to rules that often act to restrict development.

鈥淎s (Frank) suggested, this might go to City Council ultimately,鈥� Johnson said after the hearing. 鈥淚 hope not.鈥�

The proposed three- and four-story row houses would be built in two sections, at 120 feet and 160 feet in length. The applicable city code states that in the residential zone, 鈥渢he maximum building length for the portion of buildings located within 30 feet of a street lot line is 100 feet.鈥�

The architect designing the project, Richard Potestio of聽Potestio Studio, said the city’s 100-foot length limit is arbitrary. 鈥淚t’s a nice even number, but there’s no precedent for that,鈥� he said.

The development needs to be longer to accommodate 20-foot widths, Potestio said, so that each unit could potentially have all bedrooms on one floor. Frank replied that the code isn’t concerned with the interior design of homes, just their envelope.

Frank was also unpersuaded by Potestio’s testimony that much longer row house facades are accepted in other cities. 鈥淚 don’t care about New York, I don’t care about San Francisco,鈥� Frank said. 鈥淚 care about city code in the city of Portland.鈥�

Johnson has lined up support from adjacent neighbors and the Northwest District Association. In a letter to BDS staffer Sean Williams, the neighborhood group wrote that breaking up the townhome facades with a pedestrian walkway 鈥渃reates both an unnecessary interruption of the sidewalk and street envelope as well as creating an undesirable 10-foot-wide space flanked by 30-foot-tall sidewalls that would be awkward to be in, and likely to be gated and unused.鈥�

Caitlin Ranson, who lives in a nearby 500-square-foot condo, said the planned row houses fill a need for growing families between small condos and apartments, and expensive single-family homes.

鈥淲e see this project as filling that gap and were excited to hear of it,鈥� said Ranson, an associate at Hacker Architects.

The property, currently an undeveloped lot, was rezoned as residential as part of the city’s 2035 Comprehensive Plan. The site is near Forest Park and single-family homes, but an industrial sanctuary lies only two blocks to the north.

Tonkon Torp attorney David Petersen, representing the Northwest Industrial Business Association, suggested future residents sign a covenant that would hold harmless nearby businesses from engaging in industrial activity.

Johnson said he would be open to the idea. 鈥淲e’re very happy to consider some kind of good neighbor acknowledgement or covenant,鈥� he said.

At the request of Johnson’s lawyer, Renee France, Frank set an unusually long 90-day open record period as the development works through a number of sewer and utility issues. The public record will remain open until July 1 for new evidence and submittals. Then the applicants will have until July 8 to offer a response or rebuttal to any new information, and then a July 15 deadline for a final rebuttal. Frank has 17 days after that to issue a decision, which can be appealed to the City Council.