Oregon Museum of Science and Industry‘s vision for a one-of-a-kind neighborhood gained unanimous approval from the Portland Design Commission on Thursday.

The decision comes after roughly 16 years of planning, two design advice meetings and three design review hearings. The site encompasses approximately 10 city blocks in the lower eastside from Clay Street to Caruthers Street, and from the Willamette River to Union Pacific Railroad tracks. Portland Community College’s CLIMB Center and the Hampton Opera Center are also partial owners in development of the master-planned site.

The 34-acre site could potentially hold approximately 3.4 million square feet of development – a mix of institutional, commercial, retail and residential, including up to 1,200 units of housing. A third-of-a-mile waterfront park also is planned.

“I do congratulate the team for taking it out to the finish line,” Commissioner Zari Santner said.

The master plan was formally submitted to the city of Portland in December 2021, and was nearly approved a year later. A straw poll taken by commissioners at the end of the December 2022 hearing indicated that all would approve the master plan proposal, but a final vote was not held pending review by city bureaus.

In Thursday’s hearing, deliberation between the commissioners was short since most issues had already been discussed. One condition attached to approval added Thursday was to include contributions from indigenous communities and development partners.

“I just don’t want that to get lost,” Santner said. “All of these elements can be done in a variety of ways but what really excited us about this development was that collaboration with the tribes and the inclusion of … some of the cultural histories, heritage, or arts within that development.”

Another condition is meant to help break down the massing of future buildings on the large blocks that range in length from 230 feet to 750 feet. The potential for a “visual wall” between the Central Eastside and the river caused concern early in the land review process. To prevent such a result, building setbacks and step-downs were added to certain development sites.

Two more additions were made Thursday to help break down buildings’ long façades. One would require articulation at 250 feet or less (a requirement that is similar for downtown Portland city blocks but adjusted to accommodate the master plan’s larger blocks); the other would require minimum spacing between two towers sharing a podium to allow for light, air and potential views from any direction through the district.

“Of course, it’s complicated a little bit by the fact that we have such a wide range of building site shapes and sizes that are not orthogonally related to the grid,” ZGF Architects principal Nolan Lienhart said.

More than 7,000 construction jobs are expected to be created by development in the district. At full build-out, the new neighborhood would produce more than $11 million in annual property tax revenue and generate $22 million in annual income tax revenue, according to a report by EcoNorthwest.

“I look forward to walking through this someday,” Commissioner Jessica Molinar said.

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A master plan for a one-of-a-kind neighborhood around the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry is on the verge of gaining the Portland Design Commission‘s approval.

A straw poll taken of commissioners at the end of a land use hearing on Thursday indicated that all would approve the proposed master plan – if the project team were to make some slight tweaks.

At full build-out, as proposed, the 34-acre area of Southeast Portland would hold an approximately 3.4-million-square-foot mix of institutional, commercial, retail, and residential development – including up to 1,200 units of housing. There would also be a third-of-a-mile waterfront park along the Willamette River.

“We want it to truly be a manifestation of the mixed-use district with a lot of different opportunities for people to come here but also to live here and work here,” OMSI CEO Erin Graham said.

The site spans over 10 city blocks from Clay Street to Caruthers Street and includes Portland Community College’s CLIMB Center and the Hampton Opera Center.

In the previous hearing for the proposed master plan, in August, commissioners expressed concerns over whether the uniquely shaped developable tracts would create a “visual wall” between the city’s Central Eastside and the river. If approved, the master plan would create eight new tracts with total allowable building heights of 250 feet with bonuses, and podium heights of 50 feet.

Due to the area’s location between Union Pacific Railroad tracks to the east and the Willamette River to the west, the building sites are larger than most Portland city blocks – ranging in length from 230 feet to 750 feet. That led to two notable changes being made: The massing envelopes at Tract C and E (southern end of the master plan) now step down to the river and additional upper-story step-backs are proposed.

Most of Thursday’s hearing was spent ironing out the finer details while the master plan continues to be reviewed by city bureaus, including transportation, water, and parks and recreation. Commissioners, project team members and city planners treated the hearing more like a work session than a formal affair, methodically going through each condition of approval and striking redundancies and fixing nuances to the written code – so conditions did not read as suggestions but rather requirements.

A debate surfaced between commissioners and project team members during a discussion about heights of building passageways on whether it is sufficient for a condition to have more qualitative parameters such as saying it should be “inviting,” “safe,” and “well activated,” rather than being tied to a numerical value.

The difficulty with a qualitative parameter, Design Commission Chair Sam Rodriguez said, is “how do phrase this in a way that you know as a commission – 10 years from now (we) can interpret it without having to have 10 lawyers in the room.”

Commissioners settled on inclusion of at least a minimum dimension within the condition as a best practice. All future developments in the master plan would be required to go through either a Type II or Type III design review process – where more specifics can be determined.

The next hearing date for the OMSI Central City Master Plan has been tentatively scheduled for early February 2023. Then the city bureaus’ reviews of the site will be discussed and a vote on potential approval will likely be called.

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