The Portland City Council on Wednesday unanimously approved a resolution to study the city’s design review process, including possible reforms and a moratorium.

The resolution struck a compromise between the status quo and some critics who urged the council to suspend design review immediately.

“The time of stopping your neighbor’s housing development from going forward because you don’t like the color of the glass that they’re using — I think that should be over,” said Eric Zimmerman, a District 4 councilor and co-sponsor of the resolution alongside Angelita Morillo.

City Administrator Raymond C. Lee III now has 120 days to prepare a report with recommendations for the City Council.

Lee was confirmed by the City Council on Wednesday to serve as the city’s first administrator, the city government’s top nonelected position. He most recently served as city manager of Greeley, Colorado.

Zimmerman said it’s important to distinguish between design review and zoning, as he sought to quell fears of tall buildings in residential neighborhoods. He added that reform of design review will be more successful after engaging with city staff and other stakeholders.

“I think we get to win this message better if we do it in this collaborative, staff-supported way,” he said.

Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney thanked Zimmerman and Morillo for not seeking to immediately dismantle design review.

“I want us to be able to have a comprehensive discussion about design review that moves beyond a binary choice between the status quo and abolishing the system completely, and what you’ve brought us today gives us that opportunity,” Pirtle-Guiney said.

Others, however, urged the council to move faster. Councilor Jamie Dunphy said he “would have brought a resolution forward and just suspended it, personally.”

“I personally want to live in a city that is filled with interesting, vibrant buildings that are not dated by the time they are open,” he said.

Robert Pile, principal at Oakleaf reDevelopment in Portland, urged the council to consider a design review moratorium.

“This is a key opportunity to help expedite entitlements and lower production costs — two things we need to stimulate more housing supply,” he said.

The design review study, which will be due in April, is intended to complement other measures that seek to spur development, including a three-year system development charge waiver that was approved in July.

The push comes amid state and local goals to build more housing.

“We really do have to change the way that we build in Portland, and this is our opportunity to get that information so that we can make those tough choices,” Morillo said.

Councilor Dan Ryan encouraged the study to shine a light on the Historic Landmarks Commission, which he said practices a “de facto override of zoning review processes.”

Councilor Sameer Kanal said the study should consider a design review exemption for conversions of offices to housing units.

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PORTLAND — Oregon lawmakers have voted to repeal the state’s contentious wildfire hazard map, which subjected homeowners in certain areas at high risk of wildfires to stricter building codes and requirements to reduce vegetation on their properties.

The measure passed the state House with just one vote against on Tuesday, after passing the state Senate unanimously in April. Republicans had called for the map’s repeal throughout the legislative session and accused Democrats of stalling it. The bill now heads to Gov. Tina Kotek for her signature.

“Despite an incredibly frustrating political process, we appreciate the members who have chosen to do the right thing in repealing these maps,” Republican House Minority Leader Christine Drazan stated.

She added in her statement that the maps had created “chaos” in rural areas.

An updated version of the state-developed maps released earlier this year created new rules for people living in the most fire-prone areas that also border wildlands such as forests or grasslands. The building and so-called defensible space provisions impacted 6 percent of the state’s roughly 1.9 million tax lots, a reduction from an earlier version developed in 2022 but retracted after homeowners raised concerns that it would increase insurance premiums.

The building codes were set to require new construction in high hazard areas in the so-called wildland-urban interface to have fire-resistant features, and to apply to existing homes if certain upgrades were made.

The bill passed by the Legislature revokes those defensible space and building code requirements, instead directing state agencies to create model codes that local governments can choose to adopt.

The two maps showing wildfire hazard levels and the wildland-urban interface were released by the Oregon Department of Forestry and developed by Oregon State University scientists.

Under a state law passed in 2023, insurers cannot use a wildfire hazard map produced by a state agency to cancel or decline to renew a homeowner insurance policy, or to increase premiums. But many opponents of the maps said they were flawed and placed burdens on homeowners.

Experts who worked on the maps said they were an important step in identifying and protecting fire-prone areas as the state continues to contend with record-breaking wildfires. Oregon’s wildfire season last year was a record in terms of cost and acres burned, and wind-fueled blazes over Labor Day weekend in 2020 killed nine people and destroyed thousands of homes.

California, Arizona and New Mexico have had wildfire hazard maps for years. Last year, lawmakers in Washington state ordered the creation of a statewide wildfire risk map.

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