The Portland Design Commission on Thursday got its first glimpse of one of the last remaining pieces of the Con-way Master Plan. Slabtown Savier will be a two-block development in the northeast corner of the Slabtown neighborhood.

The north building, on Block 261, at the corner of Northwest 20th Avenue and Savier Street, would be five stories and hold 138 residential units. U.S. Route 30 is directly north of the site. Across from Savier Street, Block 262 would have a six-story building with 214 residential units.

Thursday’s hearing was for design advice. The applicant, Kurt Schultz of SERA Architects, filed the request on behalf of project owner LMC (Lennar Multifamily Communities).

As submitted, the buildings would be designed in quarter-block and eighth-block segments to break the massing down. Varied heights and an exterior brick skin would be used on the different segments to emphasize this more.

“The goal is really to break this façade (20th Avenue) into really what feels like a variety of buildings that meet the street in a different way,” Schultz said.

The project is early in its design phase, Schultz said, and was brought to the Design Commission to work out kinks early.

The most concern and conversation surrounded the required pocket park between Block 262 and its neighbor to the east, St. Patrick Catholic Church. The Con-way Master Plan stated a “breath” of room was needed between the two properties. The pocket park would be on private property and serve as a community space.

Commissioner Brian McCarter expressed concern over security of the park and its proximity to the highway.

“There’s a lot of social problems underneath the freeway,” he said. “It’s a continual thing that moves for a few weeks, and then it reappears. I hear comments about this courtyard becoming public and who’s going to occupy it – what kind of activities are going to happen out there.”

The pocket park was proposed as a 30-foot-wide space with large trees to help buffer the building’s height in comparison to the church. Father Tim Furlow, representative of St. Patrick Catholic Church, said that the new building should step back and the park should be widened to 50 feet.

“I think the idea of expanding the open space to give it more breathing room – it’s sort of a double-edged sword,” Commissioner Zari Santner said. “Given the social problems that exist in that area – whether to what extent do you want to make the design of this space look, as public as it can get.”

If the design team were to widen the park, then a significant massing shift would be needed to accommodate the units lost in that space. All design commissioners were in agreement that moving the units to the top of the 20th Avenue face would widen the park and benefit the overall development.

Further discussions are needed between the design team and St. Patrick Catholic Church representatives to decide on the public versus private nature of the pocket park.

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