Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler seemed to believe the City Council was in for a long day at a public hearing in early February.

Thirty-six residents, mostly members of the same neighborhood association, had signed up to testify in support of an appeal of approval given to a subdivision proposal.

“You don’t have to use your full three minutes,” Wheeler told people who were signed up to testify. “You are of course entitled to your three minutes. I just want to suggest alternatives if people would prefer.”

For the next three hours, Wheeler and his fellow city commissioners saw something extraordinary. One neighbor after another testified against the Macadam Ridge subdivision proposal. But unlike other groups, their testimony was professionalized, coordinated and synchronized with a PowerPoint presentation illustrating their main points.

The property owners, the Griffith family, were pushing to build 21 homes on a 14-acre lot off of Taylor’s Ferry Road. The South Burlingame Neighborhood Association appealed a hearings officer’s decision approving the development, citing landslide risks and other issues.

Carol Hazzard went first, introducing herself as a 52-year resident of Portland. She focused on the landslide risk to existing homes built uphill from the Macadam Ridge property.

“It is my opinion this development would put hundreds of people and their homes at risk,” she said.

Then Mary Lee Carr, wearing a reflective safety vest in council chambers, testified as leader of the Neighborhood Emergency Team – volunteer first responders who are trained by Portland Fire & Rescue.

“As I assess hazards around my neighborhood, I look at houses set upon slide-prone ground as coffins,” Carr told commissioners.

By the end of the presentation, commissioners had been persuaded. They voted unanimously to uphold the neighborhood association’s appeal.

“I don’t remember a more thoughtful set of presentations,” Commissioner Nick Fish said.

In recent weeks, the City Council has proved receptive to appeals from development opponents. In addition to Macadam Ridge, commissioners upheld an appeal challenging approval of the Fremont Apartments project in the Pearl District and declined to consider a proposal from NBP Capital for a series of downtown towers.

Macadam Ridge was lower stakes: a small subdivision planned by family landowners best known for running the Riverview Abbey Mausoleum. Yet the neighborhood association’s well-organized presentation, aided by local professionals, could offer a template for other groups fighting developments.

“We conveyed the message,” said Robert Lennox, president of the neighborhood association.

The presentation was assembled with the help of Shannon Hiller-Webb, a neighborhood association member who has professional experience in marketing and advertising. She worked with other neighbors and an environmental legal group, Crag Law Center, to hone the message. They also hired Carrie Richter, a Portland land-use attorney.

The neighbors divided their presentation into storyboards, much like a film. With only three minutes allotted per speaker, they realized they could be more effective coordinating topics into a cohesive presentation.

“We realized we needed to tell a story in a narrative arc,” Hiller-Webb said. “By changing our kind of approach so we didn’t duplicate our efforts and told one story as a collective voice, we came to find that impactful.”

South Burlingame Neighborhood Association members have shared their experiences with representatives of Friends of Overlook Bluff, which is fighting to save a historic tree in its North Portland neighborhood, and the Southwest Hills Residential League, which is weighing in on plans to develop the ex-Strohecker’s grocery store property for housing.

“Every neighborhood association is having to pretty much to start from scratch, so we were hoping to inform of what we’ve learned in four years of doing this,” Hiller-Webb said.

The Macadam Ridge fight is far from over. The Riverview Abbey operators, the Griffiths, have appealed the City Council’s decision to the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals. LUBA could override the City Council and allow the development to proceed.

The Griffiths also have filed a grievance with the South Burlingame Neighborhood Association, objecting to an emergency board meeting the association held.

“They’re required to follow the rules, and the grievance basically says they didn’t follow the rules,” Stephen Griffith said. He filmed the proceedings of a recent neighborhood association meeting with his cellphone.

Lennox said the Griffith family’s grievance has little merit.

“Our feeling is they’re just looking for a thread to pull to void the City Council decision,” he said.

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The local family proposing to build a 21-home subdivision in the Southwest Portland hills will appeal the City Council’s decision last month that halted the development.

Stephen Griffith, one of four brothers who own the land behind Riverview Abbey Mausoleum Co. on Taylors Ferry Road, said the family will file an appeal with the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals.

“It is our hope that LUBA will recognize the fact that our development plan complies with the law,” Griffith stated in an email message. “Portland needs more housing options. We desire to fulfill my grandfather’s dream of building on the property that he had the foresight to purchase many years ago.”

On Feb. 7, the City Council upheld an appeal by the South Burlingame Neighborhood Association. The group had challenged development plans for the Macadam Ridge subdivision, citing landslide hazards and environmental overlay rules. Commissioners said they were also concerned about tree removal and disruption of a wildlife corridor.

The Neighborhood Association delivered to the council a three-hour presentation with coordinated testimony from more than 30 neighbors.

The council overturned a favorable decision by hearings officer Melvin Oden-Orr “based on an emotional appeal by the Neighborhood Association,” Griffith stated.

The 14-acre property, purchased by Willard Griffith in 1945, is a rare undeveloped plot of land within Portland’s urban growth boundary. Stephen Griffith said the family intends to establish a preliminary plat and sell the property to a homebuilder. Each new home would be about 3,500 square feet and cost approximately $750,000.

At the February council meeting, Mayor Ted Wheeler said some development on the land is inevitable.

“It is my view that this is a complex site, for obvious reasons – it has all of the overlay issues – but ultimately it is a developable site, and it is my belief it will be developed,” he said. “So now the question is: How do we shape that development and how do we take that from here?”

Griffith said the family has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars during the past four years to develop the property.

“It’s so extremely costly,” he said. “Between us and development partners, it’s close to a million dollars now.”

Starting over in the city’s approval process would only add to the costs, according to Griffith.

“It’s basically cheaper to appeal than to start a new application,” he said.

Griffith said he expects to hear a decision from LUBA in about 70 days.

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The Portland City Council on Wednesday upheld a neighborhood association’s appeal of a hearings officer’s decision that had opened the door for development of a 21-home subdivision in Southwest Portland.

City commissioners expressed concerns about substantial tree removal, landslide hazards and an undefined disturbance area on the 14-acre lot located off of Taylors Ferry Road.

The commissioners’ unanimous vote was a rare rebuke of plans for development on land zoned for that purpose. The result came after more than three hours of testimony, mostly from South Burlingame Neighborhood Association members who organized a coordinated presentation.

The development proposal is from the Griffith family, which has owned the parcel adjoining Riverview Abbey Mausoleum Co. since 1945.

“We’re not out-of-state developers,” said Stephen Griffith, who is co-owner of the mausoleum and part of the development effort. “We’re just a family that’s owned land for 70 years.”

The proposal calls for homes on 4 acres of the parcel. The remaining 10 acres would be donated to the city of Portland. The property is part of an environmental overlay zone; portions of the lot are heavily wooded, and Stephens Creek and Ruby Creek run through the property.

Stephen Griffith, who owns the land with his brothers – Robert, David and Mark – said the family intends to establish a preliminary plat and sell the property to a homebuilder. Each new home would be about 3,500 square feet and cost approximately $750,000, which Stephen Griffith called “middle income” (the median sale price of a Portland-area home was $379,900 in 2017).

The parcel is one of the last potential locations for a new single-family subdivision within Portland city limits, and plans for Macadam Ridge come as Mayor Ted Wheeler and other city officials have pushed to expand the city’s housing stock.

“It is my view that this is a complex site, for obvious reasons – it has all of the overlay issues – but ultimately it is a developable site, and it is my belief it will be developed,” Wheeler said. “So now the question is: How do we shape that development and how do we take that from here?”

The Griffiths planned to remove 470 trees while preserving 1,400 others. The family also agreed to build a bus stop requested by TriMet and make frontage improvements along Taylors Ferry Road. The development would create a short stretch of new public road that would link with Southwest Taylors Ferry Road, Hume Street and Ruby Terrace. The Griffiths also pledged to replace failing stormwater systems.

Commissioners were not sold on the proposal.

“I have significant concerns about the wildlife corridor, the landslide issues and the trees,” Commissioner Chloe Eudaly said.

Commissioner Nick Fish suggested the Griffiths start over.

“We want to get to a better design that has full engagement of everyone from the beginning,” he said.

The neighborhood association appealed a Dec. 27 decision by Portland hearings officer Melvin Oden-Orr, who found the environmental review requirements could be met with conditions. Oden-Orr has since been appointed to Multnomah County Circuit Court.

Neighbors zeroed in on landslide risk. The land is located within a city-defined potential landslide hazard.

A landslide in the area is “an identified threat to our resources, and we need to protect against it,” said Robert Lennox, president of the neighborhood association.

Plans to remove trees on the parcel would make a landslide more likely, Lennox said.

“By removing 500 trees, you remove 500 water pipes off the site,” he said.

Neighbors said the trees also lower temperatures in the two creeks that traverse the property.

The Griffiths may appeal the City Council’s decision to the state Land Use Board of Appeals, or submit a reworked land-use application to the city.

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