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After several years of work, debate, state legislative action, extensive outreach and more work, the Residential Infill Project (RIP) is ready for final review and adoption by the Portland City Council early next year. What this project basically recognizes is that Portland’s inner-city neighborhoods, like those in other popular and growing cities, have become the preserve of the affluent – and that has helped dramatically increase the price of housing for all. It has also led to smaller homes being increasingly torn down and replaced by much larger ones even as family sizes have decreased.

RIP addresses these issues by proposing several dramatic changes. It would allow up to four units to be built on most of the traditional single-family zoned lots in the city, but it would do so only if some very strict new size and design limits are followed. These new rules would apply to all of the traditional single-family zoned lots (R7, R5 and R2.5) in the city, except for those in hazardous or sensitive natural areas. However, under the new size limitations for a 5,000-square-foot lot, for instance, where you could now build a 6,750-square-foot house, the total for up to four units could not exceed 4,000 square feet. There are also other design constraints that restrict height, other building features and parking.

These changes have been discussed and reviewed extensively since 2015, when it became apparent that we had an immediate crisis caused in part by a historic injustice. Throughout the 20th century, single-family zoning fostered both economic and racial segregation. RIP presents the opportunity, at least in part, to right those wrongs. And it’s now required for all of the larger cities in Oregon by House Bill 2001 adopted in the most recent legislative session.