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A 41-unit workforce housing project was sent back to the drawing board by the Portland Design Commission on Thursday.

The building, as designed by Bora Architecture + Interiors for developer HMS Development, would step down from five to four stories and be constructed on a vacant L-shaped site, at 1122 S.E. Ankeny St., among existing homes in the Buckman neighborhood. Modular studio units would be used to facilitate similar projects in the future.

The development, YBP Ankeny, is a collaboration with Self Enhancement Inc. The project team is seeking to create opportunities for Black architecture, engineering and construction professionals via both housing and mentorship.

Thursday’s hearing before the Design Commission was the second for the project team; it previously received design advice last year. The team has since had to make changes due to costs of materials, Bora principal Brad Demby said. Juliet balconies were removed and the amount of space for amenities was reduced.

From a massing perspective, the structure, with 20,285 gross square feet, would fit well within the neighborhood, commissioners said. A four-story portion would front Southeast 12th Avenue and a five-story portion would face Ankeny Street; they would be connected via a bridge inside the building.

However, the proposed layout of the building’s amenity spaces concerned commissioners. That layout, Demby said, derived from cost constraints. The team needed to not exceed a floor area ratio that would trigger the eco-roof requirement, Demby said. The added cost of the eco-roof would essentially kill the project, he added.

To work within that floor area ratio, the team had to place all mechanical space on the ground floor as well as make one room a laundry/lounge hybrid. Also, bike storage would be on the fourth floor.

鈥淗ow awkward is it for everyone to wheel their wet, dirty tires through the front door, down the hallway, into the elevator, and out the hallway to this bike parking thing on the roof?鈥� Commissioner Brian McCarter said. 鈥淵ou know, for the six months a year that it’s rainy and dirty outside 鈥� that just feels really awkward.鈥�

Another questionable component was the building’s 鈥減orch鈥� planned on the 12th Avenue frontage, which design commissioners in the end deemed to not be a porch. The building’s covered setback was an attempt to blend into the neighborhood of Queen Anne style homes, according to the team, but it would not be elevated in the same way.

Design commissioners encouraged the project team to reshuffle the building’s programming and consider a different exterior color than white.

The nearly 5,300-square-foot property sits within a complicated area with homes to the south designated as significant historic resources, another home to the north, and commercial buildings along Ankeny Street.

鈥淭his project has always been pretty complex and a little problematic,鈥� Commissioner Don Vallaster said. 鈥淏ut I think over time the Design Commission has accepted the context.鈥�

YBP Ankeny residents will enter a three-year professional apprentice program led by Self Enhancement Inc. They will be mentored, gain leadership skills and work for local architecture, engineering and constructions firms.

The project team will return before the Design Commission later this year.