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Two Portland city councilors are pushing a resolution to reform the city’s design review process and perhaps provide a temporary exemption for housing proposals.

The effort represents a serious challenge to design review, which is overseen by Portland Permitting & Development. Developers have long blamed the process for delaying construction and adding costs, but supporters say it improves the design of proposed buildings that go through review and allows the public to weigh in on what’s built in the city.

Councilors Angelita Morillo and Eric Zimmerman are sponsoring the resolution, which will be discussed during Wednesday’s meeting. It directs the city administrator to deliver a report to the council within 120 days. The report would:

• include an overview of the types of design review, along with design overlay zones, design districts and historic districts to which design guidelines apply, and
• offer an economic impact analysis of design review on commercial and residential development timelines during the past five years, and projections for the next five years.

The city administrator would then provide options for a temporary exemption from design review and propose potential changes to the city code that underpins the design review process.

Design review 鈥済ets talked a lot about as a barrier, but what is the barrier gets a little fuzzy,鈥� Zimmerman said Monday.

The report will 鈥渁llow us to cut to the chase,鈥� he added. 鈥淚 would like to hear from the staff 鈥� what do they think are the most attackable problems?鈥�

The design review study dovetails with other efforts to facilitate development in Portland. In July, the City Council approved a three-year waiver on system development charges for housing projects.

It’s still an 鈥渙pen question鈥� whether a moratorium on design review would affect commercial projects as well as housing proposals, Zimmerman said.

He expressed concern that design review could deter unique proposals.

Local developers 鈥渒now what gets through design review,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hat worries me a little bit, because I want to see someone push the envelope a bit as far as awesomeness or uniqueness or density.鈥�

Permitting & Development is open to discussing design review reform, according to agency spokesman Ken Ray.

鈥淲e look forward to working with the City Council on ways to bring more flexibility into design review to ensure the process supports thoughtful growth and investment in Portland’s buildings that meets the needs of the people who live, work and do business in them,鈥� Ray stated in an email on Monday.

Design review has come under fire in other cities, including Seattle, where the process has become a roadblock to development.

鈥淲e can all agree that nice-looking buildings are a good thing and probably make it more popular to build stuff, but we can’t agree on what nice looking means,鈥� said Michael Andersen, who studies cities for the nonprofit Sightline Institute. 鈥淚t’s not something you can achieve from regulation.鈥�

Portland’s design review process isn’t as dysfunctional as Seattle’s was before the Seattle City Council suspended design review requirements in September, Andersen said.

鈥淔辞谤迟耻苍补迟别濒测, Portland Design Commission hasn’t been utterly ridiculous,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut anytime you introduce discretion, you introduce risk.鈥�

Bruce Studer, president of the Pearl District Neighborhood Association, said there’s an appetite to streamline design review in Portland.

鈥淚 think people would want a little bit smarter way to go through design review,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 don’t think just being able to block things by stalling it out is something we want to have. You want developers to be able to build things that are smart, sustainable and create lasting growth.鈥�

The Design Commission is composed of seven members who serve staggered four-year terms for up to eight years. Members hail from architecture, development, landscape architecture, arts and related fields, along with a member representing the public at large.

Zimmerman and Morillo’s resolution passed the council’s Climate, Resilience and Land Use Committee on Nov. 13 by a 4-0 vote.