Portland design commissioners are girding for battle as they begin to confront a push to suspend the city’s mandatory design review process for two years.

The procedure is advancing quickly, and city staff anticipate the City Council will consider legislation to suspend design review as soon as December.

The Portland Planning Commission will weigh a suspension of design review on Aug. 25 as a prelude to council action. Design commissioners said Thursday they plan to write letters and perhaps testify in person at that meeting.

The time has come for design commissioners to make their case, said Tim Heron, a senior city planner who works with the Design Commission.

“So, it’s go time,” he said after laying out the calendar during a brief Design Commission work session on Thursday.

Two bureau directors, Eric Engstrom of Planning and Sustainability and Eric Kutch of Permitting and Development, sent councilors Angelita Morillo and Eric Zimmerman a letter May 7 outlining a potential two-year suspension of design review. That was prompted by councilors ordering a report on design review this past December.

Design review has attracted criticism for adding delays and expense while elected officials — including Gov. Tina Kotek and Mayor Keith Wilson — have made housing production a priority, to little effect. Other cities, including Seattle, have suspended design review.

Policy efforts have shown little progress to date. In 2025, the city of Portland approved only 22 new construction permits for multifamily projects.

The proposed suspension would affect only mandatory design review. Developers still could opt in if they prefer design review to a standards-based approval process.

Several Permitting and Development staffers who work on design review would be reassigned and integrated into a Planning and Sustainability project team, according to the directors’ memo. The directors also requested additional funding for the staffing during the two-year period to make up for reduced design review revenue.

The two bureaus, prompted by the December directive from the City Council, published a joint report on design review in April. The 119-page report painted a picture of a broad economic pullback. “… Development activity has steadily declined and, in 2025, experienced an even more precipitous decline. This multiyear decline has not been limited to projects in the Design and Historic Resource Overlay Zones but has been reflected citywide for almost all types of housing and commercial development.”

Design review proponents say the process benefits projects, often making buildings better and giving the public a voice.

“Design review is a time when the public is able to come provide testimony,” Design Commission Chairwoman Chandra Robinson said in February. “It’s the time when they’re able to get their voices on the record, and I think it’s an important part of the process that they’re able to share their thoughts on proposals in their neighborhood.”

They also say design review unfairly takes flack when national and regional macroeconomic conditions — interest rates, development cycles, construction costs — matter far more. The April joint bureau report also cast blame on larger factors.

“Development within the city remains at historic lows due to various factors including high interest rates, high apartment vacancy combined with stagnating rents and an aversion by institutional capital to investing in Portland due to real and perceived safety, taxation, regulation and market factors,” the report states.

On Thursday, Robinson said she would draft a letter to the City Council, either on behalf of the Design Commission or individually.

Commissioner Joe Swank said the Design Commission may want to write a different type of letter than one with typical dry, technical language, as it’s fighting for its life.

“I agree with a different approach,” he said.

The Historic Landmarks Commission is also expected to weigh in with its own concerns.

Design commissioners are expected to consider their response during an Aug. 6 meeting before transmitting it to the Planning Commission and City Council.

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The Metro Council on Thursday passed a resolution that directs staff to create a Housing Production Accelerator Fund through which $5 million from Metro’s Construction Excise Tax (CET) will be used to accelerate housing production. The program will be designed to provide technical assistance, local staffing capacity, and predevelopment support.

Current estimates show that Portland still needs 27,000 more homes to support its existing population and 151,000 more to keep up with forecasted population growth over the next 20 years, a Metro staff report states.

In a work session last month, the Metro Council supported the $5 million investment of CET reserves to accelerate housing production in the region. Funding will be made available to regional partners.

Also last month, the council adopted the regional housing coordination strategy for collaborative work with cities and counties. The accelerator fund will help advance five strategies: funding pre-development activities necessary to unlock public properties and others whose owners are interested in developing affordable housing but lack the expertise required, expanding resources available for brownfield assessment and exploring grant opportunities for small-scale remediation that leads to middle housing and multifamily housing development, assisting cities and counties with approved housing production strategies, offering technical assistance to support planning and implementation of housing production and affordability and choice, and exploring regional land bank strategies.

Metro staff will design the grant and technical assistance programs, hold listening sessions to get feedback on program design and effectiveness of strategies, and increase management capacity.

“We also want to avoid predetermining funding allocations across the five actions,” said Hau Hagedorn, community investment manager for Metro. “Instead, we intend to offer technical assistance on a first come, first served basis to move funds quickly to projects ready for development and award grants to jurisdictions that are ready to move projects forward that are aligned with the actions.”

Allocation of funds is expected to take about three to five years, but the goal is to do so as soon as possible, said Malu Wilkinson, planning, development and research deputy director for Metro.

Councilor Mary Nolan said that time frame is not as urgent as she believes it should be for a $5 million investment. She also asked about measurements for success. As the program is designed, Hagedorn said, staff will inform the council what is expected to be accomplished this year and beyond.

“As we work more with our partners around the region to define this so it is most useful for them, we will be defining those metrics that we can bring back to you to talk about how successful and how much impact this $5 million will have,” Wilkinson added.

The resolution passed by a 6-1 margin, with Nolan voting no. Staff will return before the council to provide an update on program specifics.

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The city of Portland has tasked its city administrator with aligning existing policies to create a unified housing strategy related to housing production, preservation and stabilization.

The strategy will be designed as an implementation tool with defined tasks and metrics. It will address homelessness and sheltering, permitting and development, land use and zoning, anti-displacement, workforce development and other innovative housing approaches, including social housing.

The Portland City Council on Wednesday voted 11-1 to approve the resolution (Councilor Dan Ryan voted no).

The city’s Homelessness and Housing Committee in May chose to send the resolution to the council for adoption. The city administrator will provide periodic updates to the committee, as well as submit a full draft of the strategy by Dec. 1.

According to American Community Survey data from 2023, half of Portland renters are cost-burdened, spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing-related costs, while 28 percent are severely cost-burdened, spending more than 50 percent of their income on housing-related costs, the city’s resolution states.

In response to the housing emergency, the city has adopted and implemented numerous policies to address homelessness and housing instability. They include the Housing Production Strategy, the Housing Needs Analysis, the Anti-Displacement Action Plan, the Portland Inclusionary Housing program, the Affordable Housing Tax Increment Financing Set Aside Policy, and others.

The intent of the housing strategy is to see where gaps exist in the city’s policies. For example, the Housing Production Strategy did not address sheltered housing transitions. Councilor Loretta Smith asked for the strategy to identify gaps by district.

The strategy will be informed by cross-jurisdictional plans and agreements with Multnomah County, Metro, and the state to eventually create a regional system to address the housing crisis.

Ryan asked for rent regulations to be added to the plan, because it was not included in the resolution but discussed during the committee meeting. Councilor Candace Avalos said the overall objectives, including rent regulations, will be discussed further by the committee.

Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney said Portland has some of the smallest units in the U.S. being delivered to the market. She would like to see the strategy include housing for families of all sizes, she added.

The unified housing strategy draft will be presented to the Homelessness and Housing Committee by Dec. 1.

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Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek has established a new state office to support housing production and enforce housing production laws.

The Housing Accountability and Production Office (HAPO) stems from legislation enacted in 2024. The office will bolster housing production by creating a more predictable regulatory environment and providing resources to local governments, the governor’s office stated in a news release on Tuesday.

HAPO can be a “missing catalyst” to boost housing production, Kotek stated.

“My North Star is for every Oregonian to be able to afford a home,” she stated. “Our economic prosperity depends on it. I believe that we can get this done. And, it is still a monumental task. Many counties, cities, and builders have leaned in to tackle this generational crisis, and the state should do everything possible to make it easier.”

HAPO is a joint office of the Department of Land Conservation and Development and the Building Codes Division, which is part of the Department of Consumer and Business Services.

The office will offer technical assistance but also enforce state housing production laws by investigating noncompliance and working with local governments to address issues. The office will also work to identify state resources for developers and local governments, and conduct research on housing production.

HAPO is jointly managed by Joel Madsen and Tony Rocco. The new office was created by Senate Bill 1537 in 2024.

“The Housing Accountability and Production Office will serve as a bridge between our local government partners and our housing developers and builders across the state,” Rocco stated. “We have the tools to support collaboration on the foundational goal we all share of building more safe, efficient and cost-effective housing for all Oregonians.”

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