The East Portland building that for 34 years housed the Old Wives’ Tales restaurant may soon be razed to make way for a new four-story building.

David Mullens, a representative of Urban Development Group, on Sept. 30 applied to the Bureau of Development Services for a commercial building permit to construct a $7.2 million mixed-use building that, according to listed plans, would include 69 units and an unspecified number of parking spaces for motor vehicles and bikes.

The property, at 1300 E. Burnside St., sold in mid-June after former restaurant owner Holly Hart decided to retire.

The Daily Journal of Commerce was unable to reach Mullens or UDG owner Dennis Sackhoff for comment.

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When Holly Hart decided to close her restaurant, Old Wives’ Tales in East Portland, it was bittersweet … somewhat.

“It is and it isn’t,” she said. “I put in 34 years, and I’m a hands-on, on-my-feet owner. I didn’t sit in an office, and (at) 67 years old, even though I’m in good health, I was starting to notice physical limits. I couldn’t do all the lifting I used to do, or all the running I used to do.”

Then a couple of key employees moved away, leaving Hart short-staffed as the busy Mother’s Day holiday approached. She was already considering retirement, and so rather than hire and train new employees for mere weeks, she decided to close shop early – on May 4.

That was just about the time that a local apartment developer asked Hart about purchasing her property at 1300 E. Burnside St. Hart told The Oregonian last week she was under contract to sell the property, and now the name of the would-be buyer has surfaced.

Dennis Sackhoff‘s company, Urban Development Group, has applied to the Bureau of Development Services for early assistance with a potential project at the Old Wives’ Tales address. City records do not indicate a planned project size or scope, but Urban Development Group has constructed numerous mid-rise apartment buildings throughout the city. UDG project manager David Mullens declined to comment, and Sackhoff could not be reached.

Hart said the sale is scheduled to close mid-June. Meanwhile, she’s making a big push of her own. Last week, she heard on NPR about a retiring hardware store owner who was donating the contents of his store to charity. A light bulb went off.

“I had been trying to figure out how to dispose of 34 years of equipment and furnishings for a 170-seat restaurant,” Hart said. “We have a lot of stuff here, and at one point we were doing really high volume, so we have just an incredible amount of kitchen equipment.”

Rather than auctioning off her equipment for pennies on the dollar, Hart is donating it all – pots, pans, tables, chairs and more – to local charities. She already has offered truckloads to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Portland Metropolitan Area, the Community Warehouse, the St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church Dining Hall, and Sisters of the Road. But more items remain, and Hart is encouraging other interested groups to send her an email at oldwivestales@qwestoffice.net.

“To me, (it’s about) disposing of the assets in the way that they can be the most socially productive,” she said. “They may not add to my bank account the most, but the best use of these assets is not through a commercial auction, but giving them to groups that can put them to good use feeding people in this community.”

Hart also plans to eventually make available some of her more popular recipes.

“I feel like it’s kind of a moral duty to my customers,” she said. “I mean seriously …”

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When Carole Lower bought her home at 3535 N.E. 45th Ave. in 1964, she never thought to ask about the zoning for either her property or the surrounding block. It was a residential neighborhood, and it was hard to imagine it could ever be anything else.

Lower, 75, has seen her fair share of changes in the past half century, but nothing like the four-story wall that construction crews soon will begin building a stone’s throw from her backyard, at 4425 N.E. Fremont St. She is one of many area residents who are struggling to come to grips with the 50-unit multifamily project.

“I’ve lived in this neighborhood since I was four years old,” Lower said. “Change is difficult for older people to accept, but I think I could accept the change if it was not for (the developer’s) basic attitude of, ‘Well folks, get over it. This is the future; you just have to deal with it.’ ”

Less than two months after a neighborhood petition to the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals brought construction of a multifamily project on Southeast Division Street to a halt, Beaumont-Wilshire Neighbors for Responsible Growth is planning to appeal this one on Northeast Fremont Street. And while neighbors attest that their voices are being ignored, others contend that such grassroots campaigns are setting a damaging precedent.

Demolition has begun on the site; its permit is “under inspection,” according to the Bureau of Development Services website. Neighbors have voiced their opposition to the project’s lack of both parking and retail on the ground floor. On April 17, BWNRG filed with LUBA notice of its intent to appeal the project’s permit, but hasn’t offered details on why specifically.

Wally Remmers of Everett Custom Homes and his son Victor are developing the 50-unit project, which is called Beaumont Village.

Lower said Remmers has not been receptive to residents’ concerns, but she acknowledged that he reduced the number of units from 65 units. The developer has since added a commercial element but has resisted parking, according to the neighborhood website.

That’s because it’s not financially feasible, Remmers said. As a mid-block site, the development would be best served by underground parking, which is cost-prohibitive. But even if he were to provide at-grade parking, it would eliminate the retail space neighbors sought originally. He thinks that will be an unintended consequence of the new minimum parking requirements that city commissioners adopted earlier this month.

“With the new code, I think you’ll see people going back to not doing retail and doing parking garages,” Remmers said.

In February, LUBA revoked a building permit for an 81-unit apartment project on Southeast Division Street, because of an appeal made by Richmond Neighbors for Responsible Growth. The project’s developer was Dennis Sackhoff, who is Wally Remmers’ business partner at Beaverton-based Arbor Custom Homes. Sackhoff’s project sat idle for more than a month before he could reapply for a new permit.

Margaret Davis, another neighborhood representative, said she is concerned about not only parking, but also pedestrian safety and traffic congestion. Davis believes that part of the problem stems from old zoning codes that allow for new, high-density apartments that don’t mesh with infrastructure systems built long ago – such as narrow, two-lane streets that are becoming major thoroughfares, but aren’t wide enough to allow for, say, a bus and a fire truck.

“It just seems like there is no transition between this ultra urban thing and infrastructure that doesn’t support it,” Davis said. “We have had some assurances from the city that, ‘Yes, we see the problems,’ (and) ‘Yes, they’re being fixed with the comp plan.’ But there was a feeling that we had to do something more immediately. What’s in place is kind of a joke.”

To try and massage the urban barrier between Beaumont Village and the rest of the neighborhood, residents asked Remmers to reduce the building’s height to three stories. But that’s also not feasible, Remmers said, because the price he paid for the property was based on its zoning and development potential (four stories of multifamily).

Remmers said he’s willing to work with neighbors, and has placed a call to their attorney, Ty Wyman of Dunn Carney Allen Higgins & Tongue LLP, to set up a meeting to discuss the issues. Remmers finds the situation frustrating – his team worked for more than six months and spent more than $600,000 preparing the building permit application.

“We went through the process of everything being checked, and rechecked, and rechecked again to make sure everything complied with zoning,” he said. “There were no discretionary decisions whatsoever.”

Brian Owendoff, a senior vice president at Capacity Commercial, also voiced concern. He’s been involved in Portland apartment construction totaling more than $100 million, and thinks the practice of revoking a building permit after issuance by the city will make lenders hesitant to issue construction loans because of heightened entitlement risks.

He said that while many projects benefit from neighborhood input, the developer is the only stakeholder with multimillion-dollar risk on the line (in Remmers’ case, it’s approximately $5 million). Owendoff said that neighbors need to realize that not every recommendation makes sense, or is financially feasible. Changing the rules mid-construction is kind of like “Lucy pulling away the football just as Charlie Brown goes to kick a field goal,” he said.

For Beaumont Village, the city must file the building permit with LUBA by May 1. The petitioners then will have 21 days to file their brief. Davis declined to share the details of the petition until it had been filed with LUBA. Construction may continue during the duration of LUBA’s proceeding.

Beaumont Village will be market rate, but the units will be smaller to make them more affordable. Remmers believes his project is getting a lot of flak simply because it’s the first sizable apartment complex to join the neighborhood. More are expected.

“Development has impact,” Remmers said. “Nobody ever wants it in their backyard. The comments we get are: ‘We want affordable housing, but this isn’t the place to do it.’ … “There is need for that, and this is an expensive neighborhood … There are a lot of people that want to live there that can’t afford to live there right now.”

 (Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect a correction in the spelling of Carole Lower’s name and to include comments by Wally Remmers, one of the developers of the project.)

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For building codes, a single word can make a big difference.

Dennis Sackhoff‘s 81-unit apartment project on Southeast Division Street should resume in about a month, but this time without the “nonresidential” component. That word was added as part of a series of code amendments that Portland city commissioners adopted on Wednesday in response to residents’ complaints about multifamily projects like Sackhoff’s being built without parking for tenants.

That simple addition provided a simple solution to a big problem for the developer.

“Once we eliminate that commercial space, the main entrance requirement goes away,” said David Mullens, a project manager for Sackhoff’s Urban Development Group. “It was the most sure-proof way of filing a new building permit.”

In late February, the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals revoked the building permit because the development did not provide a main entrance to each tenant space on Division Street, as required by code. The rule was supposed to apply only to nonresidential spaces, but the word “nonresidential” had been left out.

Richmond Neighbors for Responsible Growth had filed an appeal with LUBA in part to challenge the Division Street project’s lack of parking. LUBA did not take issue with that aspect, but rather with the main entrance. Commissioners have since clarified the code.

Also, because commissioners did not adopt new parking amendments as an emergency ordinance, Sackhoff’s project is not subject to minimum parking requirements. Mike Hayakawa, a supervising planner for the Bureau of Development Services, said elimination of the ground-floor retail aspect makes the building’s use entirely residential, and therefore not subject to LUBA’s decision.

The space formerly pegged for retail will now be used as lounge and lobby area. Mullens said that Urban Development Group may apply for a new building permit to add retail later, but for now it’s just concentrating on construction.

“Until the new code changes take effect, and we get the building completed, we can’t put retail in,” he said. “It’s kind of a shame because that’s what we wanted, and I know it’s what a lot of people wanted … but (the neighbors) are the reason for it not being there anymore. That’s just the way it had to work out.”

Mullens said there is a chance that neighbors could again appeal the permit, but he doubts they would have any grounds to stand on. Judah Gold-Markel, a representative of RNRG, said neighbors are still discussing whether to proceed with any kind of challenge to the new permit.

“I think that Dennis Sackhoff lost an opportunity to really impress people within the Portland community on how dedicated he could have been in making these apartment buildings dynamic, and making them an important part of our infill growth,” Gold-Markel said. “Instead, he just chose to continue with profiting with minimal overhead.”

Mullens said he’s looking forward to getting the project over with.

“I kind of wish the neighbors would just move on,” Mullens said. “I mean, we’re going to build the building, and complete the building. Somehow, I just wish they would realize that now. But they’re still against us and pretty much anything we do.”

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Despite heavy criticism from neighboring residents, an 18-unit apartment building likely will replace a Northwest Portland home built more than 100 years ago.

Last May, Creston Homes and appeared before the city’s Historic Landmarks Commission to present plans for a three-story apartment project at 2124 N.W. Flanders St. The proposal faced resistance from people concerned about the potential impacts on the rest of the Alphabet Historic District.

On Monday the project team presented essentially the same proposal in a land-use hearing, and this time it is expected to win approval – as long as the design team revises its plans for windows and doors.

“I think it’s too bad,” said Donald Genasci, a member of the Northwest District Association. “They’re tearing down a building that is in the character of the neighborhood, and their proposed building will ultimately cut out a considerable amount of light from the neighbors on both sides. It doesn’t conform to city code.”

When the proposal drew opposition last year, Don Sowieja of Myhre Group Architects speculated that some of the objections were not to the specific project, but to the precedent it could set for future projects in the neighborhood.

“I believe the neighbors oppose the project because they think it will encourage more development in the district, which I believe they oppose,” Sowieja said last May.

The Alphabet Historic District has a high concentration of middle-class apartment buildings and small-scale commercial buildings constructed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. But the existing home at 2124 N.W. Flanders St., which since 2007 has been owned and rented out by Dennis Sackhoff, ‘ president and CEO, is evaluated as a “non-contributing” resource in the national register documentation for the district.

The Historic Landmarks Commission felt that proposed modifications to the district’s building setback regulation and height limit were justified, according to city planner Dave Skilton. But the planned vinyl windows and fiberglass doors raised concerns from the commission.

“The whole thing kind of hinged on the quality and appearance of the proposed windows and doors,” Skilton said. “The commission was unanimous on not wanting to approve the flatter profile windows.”

The proposed windows and doors are considered modern assemblies that would stand out inappropriately among neighboring historic homes. If the designers were to switch to traditional wooden windows and doors, or at least some visually similar to wood, then the commission would be expected to approve the project on Feb. 13.

The multifamily project is being developed by Creston Homes’ David Mullens, who is also working on the new apartment complex going up next to the Hollywood Theater. Mullens declined to comment on the Flanders Street project because of ongoing review by the Historic Landmarks Commission.

If the commission were to approve the proposal, opponents would have an opportunity to appeal.

One potential issue surrounds the existing home’s designation as “non-contributing,” according to Peggy Moretti, executive director of the Historic Preservation League of Oregon.

“In our opinion, the property should have been designated a ‘contributing’ building in the historic district, and had a little more research been done into the history and significance of the building, it would have been,” she said in a written comment to the 91��Ƶ.

However, if the building will not be rehabilitated, Moretti said the proposed infill design seems generally compatible with the HPLO’s recommendations for new construction in historic districts.

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