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A large multifamily development proposed for the Kerns neighborhood needs additional design work before it can proceed.

Though the Hacker-designed Dairy Apartments received a design review hearing on Thursday, the Portland Design Commission declined to even vote whether to approve the project.

As proposed, the seven-story, 271-unit building would be constructed on a 0.92-acre site 鈥� the former home of Sunshine Dairy 鈥� between Northeast 20th and 21st avenues and Pacific and Oregon streets. The site is a block south of Interstate 84 and three blocks north of Sandy Boulevard. Plans call for ground-floor retail space and residential units slightly above grade.

On Thursday, the same issue that was raised during a design advice hearing this past summer came up again.

鈥淢y primary concern is the height of the stoops,鈥� Commissioner Zari Santner said. 鈥淚 encourage you to look into reducing the six-foot stoop down to four-feet-five inches or even four-feet-eight.鈥�

The question of stoops for the ground-floor apartments and their impact on the public realm is one of the largest outstanding issues for designers to resolve. By contract, design commissioners praised other project aspects, including the use of weathering steel paneling on the exterior, as well as the massing.

鈥淭he massing is fantastic 鈥� it’s great, it’s courageous and it does frame the Telegraph Building, which is a landmark in that neighborhood,鈥� Commissioner Sam Rodriguez said.

Eastbank, an affiliate of property owner NBP Capital, is developing the project. NBP Capital purchased the site and adjacent property in February for $8.1 million.

A single-level, full-block, underground parking garage is proposed, with access from Northeast Oregon Street to the south. Two loading spaces would also be provided at the parking garage level.

Several other adjustments have been requested by the Hacker team, including reduction of total vehicular parking required from 240 to 90; reduction of window area on the ground floor; increase of fac抬ade articulation; and reduction of spacing of long-term bike racks on site to allow planting areas between the sidewalk and the street.

Parking may be the stickiest of those issues. City code requires multifamily developments not in close proximity to public transit to provide roughly a one-to-one ratio of parking spaces to units. In this case, however, the building would be just one block away from meeting the definition of 鈥渃lose proximity,鈥� and applicants wish to house all vehicle parking in a single-level parking garage. Many neighbors oppose this plan, and several of them wrote letters to the Design Commission expressing their concerns. One other individual testified during Thursday’s hearing.

鈥淚t looks like it’s going to be a beautiful building, but my major concern is the reduced parking,鈥� said Scott Eckelman, who owns a business less than a block away from the development site.

The project team is now scheduled to return before the Design Commission at a hearing on Dec. 19.