Portland design commissioners on Thursday grappled with how to respond to a push by the City Council to reform the design review process.

City councilors in December unanimously approved requiring preparation of a report on design review, including options for a temporary suspension of its requirements. The report will also study design review’s economic impacts, process and use of design overlay zones and historic districts.

Portland Permitting & Development and Planning and Sustainability will prepare the report for City Administrator Raymond Lee. It is due on April 9.

In 2025, the city issued only 22 new construction permits for multifamily projects amid city and state officials pushing for more housing. But design commissioners said design review should not be blamed for the slowdown in multifamily construction.

“My concern is just that if not taken with full context, certain numbers and charts can reveal different things to different people,” said Commissioner Sarah Vaz, who asked whether impacts such as rising construction costs and inclusionary housing requirements would be considered.

A senior city staffer noted that the review is part of a wider City Council effort to remove barriers to development and to encourage development.

“There’s wide recognition that there’s many factors, and I don’t think anyone is saying that design review is why we are in the situation we find ourselves in now,” Chief City Planner Patricia Diefenderfer said.

Design review gives residents a chance to be heard, Design Commission Chairwoman Chandra Robinson said.

“Design review is a time when the public is able to come provide testimony,” Robinson said. “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.”

Commissioners said members of the public are often unclear about the limitations of their power.

Design review “cannot change the heights, the (floor area ratio requirements), the zoning, the required parking or not parking, what a property owner can do with his property,” Commissioner Zari Santner said. “We cannot dictate those.”

Robinson agreed, saying residents often urge the Design Commission to require parking or a grocery store as part of a larger development — something the commission cannot do.

Santner said design review represents a “social pact” with city residents: Essentially, a promise that if residents allow taller, denser development, zoning and design review will ensure that it “improves the quality of life for people in neighborhoods where the development is happening.”

Commissioners did point out some potential improvements. Application requirements could be better aligned with project phasing, Vaz said. Applications can often require too much detail, too early in the process, when architects haven’t worked out items such as lighting, she said.

Members of the public who testified Thursday said they want to be able to weigh in early in a project’s review process, before the developer has fully shaped the development.

City staffers assigned to the forthcoming report will hold a similar meeting on Monday with the Historic Landmarks Commission. After the council receives the report in April, the group could weigh possible code changes.

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Commercial and multifamily loan originations soared in late 2025 as once-frozen credit markets resumed flowing freely, a lender said at an industry event in Portland on Thursday.

Multifamily loan originations grew 25 percent in the third quarter of 2025, while office loans nearly tripled as values reset and investors pounced, said Matt Dzbanek, a lender with Ariel Property Advisors.

Nationally, $936 billion in commercial real estate loans will mature this year, adding significant flexibility, according to Dzbanek. He predicted debt will sluice through real estate this year.

“There’s going to be a lot of liquidity in the market,” he said.

Dzbanek delivered his comments during HFO Investment Real Estate‘s annual multifamily market forecast at AVENUE on Northeast Grand Avenue. The brokerage’s 21st annual event Thursday brought together investors and others to hear from industry analysts.

Locally, the picture is mixed, analysts said. Multifamily vacancies rose to 5.47 percent in 2025, up from 4.49 percent a year earlier. But rents grew modestly in Portland’s metropolitan statistical area, from $2.04 per square foot on average in 2024 to $2.11 last year.

Rent growth will remain muted in the near term as older assets face greater price pressure, said Greg Frick, an HFO partner and the event’s moderator.

“Vintage matters more than ever,” he said.

New multifamily supply will remain sparse, with only 2,319 units permitted in 2025 through August in buildings of five units or more, according to census data.

Efforts to boost supply, including Portland’s waiver of system development charges, have yet to bear fruit.

“For market-rate (housing), the pipeline is very, very dry,” Frick said. “We do still see new deliveries being constrained.”

Frick predicted positive in-migration will continue in the Portland area this year after the population declined post-pandemic. Job growth has stabilized, he said.

Economist John W. Mitchell cited national statistics showing a “pretty dramatic slowing” in the labor market, with job openings falling. But neither are employers rapidly shedding jobs, he said.

“We’re in a no-hire, no-fire economy,” Mitchell said.

The U.S. economy grew at a 4.3 percent rate in the third quarter of 2025, buoyed by strong consumer spending. Years of rising stock prices have contributed to a “K-shaped” economy, where high-income consumers continue to spend, while lower-income consumers stagnate, Mitchell said.

Oregon continues to lag much of the nation. Job growth ranked 30th in the nation in the third quarter, while the state’s 5.2 percent unemployment rate was 47th.

One piece of good news for landlords: With high housing prices in many cities, it makes sense for many residents to rent, Mitchell said, citing a recent article in The Economist.

“For most people, it pays to rent,” Mitchell said. “That bodes well for your business.”

Melissa Wall, a certified public accountant for Aprio in Portland, discussed various real estate tax strategies for avoiding gains taxation. The 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act established permanent opportunity zones.

The investment zones — first rolled out in 2017 — allow real estate investors to avoid gains taxation if a qualified investment is held for 10 years, and provide certain lesser tax benefits if an investment is held for five or seven years.

Much of central Portland, including downtown, was designated an opportunity zone, providing an investment incentive as the area struggles with one of the highest office vacancy rates in the nation.

1031 exchanges, which allow real estate investors to roll the proceeds from a property sale into buying another piece of real estate, remain popular, Wall said. She urged investors to speak with a CPA.

“Complexity is increasing,” she said.

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The Portland Historic Landmarks Commission on Monday got its first look at the proposal for a seven-to-eight-story affordable housing development. Flatworks, at 240 S.E. Grand Ave., would have approximately 143 rent-restricted units. The site is in the East Portland/Grand Avenue Historic District.

The project is valued at $25 million, according to Portland Permitting & Development.

TVA Architects‘ design calls for eight-story dark massing clad in masonry on the north third of the block and seven-story light massing clad in high-quality fiber-cement panels on the remaining two-thirds of the block, according to the project’s narrative.

Sturgeon Development Partners is developing the project. The team also includes civil engineer Langan of Clackamas, structural engineer KPFF, landscape architect Shapiro Didway, MEP engineer Interface Engineering, and general contractor LMC Construction.

During a type III historic resource review hearing in 2020, the Historic Landmarks Commission had approved for the site a similar proposal with office space. But that proposal did not advance, and the developer shifted to affordable housing. The plug was pulled because of a lack of demand for office space, said John Jamiel, a TVA Architects senior associate.

The project team expects to seek a permit for the new proposal by April 2026.

At the ground level facing Southeast Grand Avenue, programming would include a lobby, offices, community rooms, a gym and bike parking. Eight parking stalls would be provided inside a ground-level garage with access at mid-block on Pine Street. Ground-floor glazing and active programming would generally be oriented toward Grand Avenue and on the corners, with building services at mid-block facing Ash and Pine streets.

The design team wants to offer some kind of roof deck for residents – on level 8 – and is looking into the cost of such an amenity.

Exterior cladding materials would include brick, composite metal panels, fiber-cement paneling and ribbed metal paneling. There would be five levels of wood framing over three levels of concrete.

The proposed fiber-cement material appeared to be of decent quality, commission Chair Andrew Smith said. Previously, for the office building proposal, only a couple of materials would’ve been used, he added.

“I would encourage the design team, as you move this forward, to take a hard look at that and try to simplify (the material palette),” Smith said.

Commissioner Hugo Hamblin-Agosto suggested the design team look for softer colors for the exterior instead of the dark brick so the building would blend more with the district. Pam Saftler, a TVA Architects principal, said alternatives would be a red or brown brick.

“I don’t find the dark nature of the material that has been chosen to be objectionable at all,” Smith said. “I’ve seen a couple of other buildings of this scale using that type and tone of brick and I’ve seen them be very successful.”

One of the potential modifications is related to required building lines. The space between the building and the street lot line must be designed as an extension of the sidewalks and committed to active uses such as sidewalk cafes, vendor’s stands or developed as “stopping places,” the city’s staff report states. The proposal includes raised planter beds along most of the street frontages between the building setback and the lot lines instead of treating this area as an active space. The commissioners suggested removing the planters to allow for a communal space for residents.

Another potential modification is to the requirement of an eco-roof. Currently, one is planned on level 2.

“We’re looking at providing solar panels in lieu of providing an eco-roof,” Jamiel said, adding that stormwater would have to be managed in a different way.

Commissioners expressed support for eliminating the eco-roof as long as there would be stormwater mitigation. Smith suggested the team seek an equivalent that would provide benefits like those of an eco-roof.

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Portland city officials have approved building codes that allow for the construction of single-staircase multifamily buildings up to four stories, but a requirement inserted at the insistence of fire authorities may make the code unworkable, according to interviews with multifamily experts.

Housing advocates have long championed the potential for single-staircase buildings to provide apartment and condo units in dense urban areas such as Portland.

“It lets you put multifamily buildings on smaller lots,” said Michael Andersen, director of cities and towns for the Sightline Institute, a Seattle-based nonprofit.

On Nov. 4, Portland Permitting & Development issued new code guidance allowing for single-staircase buildings as tall as four stories, in consistency with the updated 2025 Oregon Structural Specialty Code, which took effect Oct. 1.

The prior code allowed single-staircase buildings as tall as three stories, but a fourth story adds more density and, potentially, revenue-generating units, making more projects financially feasible.

The new rules allow for up to 4,000 square feet of total building footprint, with up to four units per floor, for a total of 16 units.

But some outside experts and designers are concerned that a condition meant to provide firefighters with a second point of access to an engulfed building will render plans impossible to construct.

The requirement calls for an unobstructed street width of 26 feet, not including shoulders or parking, and no overhead utility or power lines that would be within 10 feet of an aerial fire ladder extended from the street to a building’s roof.

That could prove a challenge on Portland’s narrow streets, according to interviewees.

“If they enforce this as written and don’t provide alternatives, it makes it almost impossible to find a site to build four-story, single-staircase buildings,” said Iain MacKenzie, a multifamily designer at TVA Architects and a noted local commentator on design and public policy.

Portland’s streets typically have little more than 20 feet of clear width after parked cars and shoulders are taken into account, MacKenzie said.

“All the other conditions (code officials) put on there are totally reasonable and workable,” he said. “But this one thing is a deal-breaker, and it’s not something you can solve by design — it just makes most sites unbuildable.”

A fire official defended the requirement, saying it’s necessary to preserve two access points for firefighters.

“The fact of the matter is a single stair is already a concession to the construction and development industry to maximize livable space on maybe a constrained lot,” said Tom Walsh, assistant fire marshal for Portland Fire & Rescue. “This is already a concession. This is us working with the industry to come up with innovative solutions, but we’ve got to maintain firefighter and occupant safety for fire code.”

The requirement is an “an extrapolation of the existing code language,” Walsh said.

The fire concerns are real — no one wants to go back to the days when entire cities burned down. But housing advocates argue buildings are much more fire resistant than they used to be.

“We required sprinklers, which have been extremely effective at fire prevention, along with modern cladding, fire separation and all the rest,” Andersen said.

The single-staircase discussion filtered down from the International Code Council after several cities approved taller single-staircase buildings. Cities such as New York City, Seattle and Honolulu allow six-story single-staircase buildings, something Andersen said he’d like to see in Oregon.

“We don’t want the only way to add apartments to a block to be to completely transform it,” Andersen said. “We want there to be attractive, family-sized housing sprinkled through neighborhoods.”

A double-staircase design tends to force architects into a design with a long corridor, with a staircase on each side, resulting in units that have windows facing only one direction, MacKenzie said. Think of a hotel.

Housing advocates say single-staircase buildings result in more corner units, and more multiple-bedroom units.

“The single stair is the international standard,” said MacKenzie, who hails from Scotland.

Designers of some smaller projects have found solutions to fire access. Two projects designed by QUAD Architects on Southeast Division Street have no aerial access because of power lines and other obstructions, but they were allowed to build with a large roof hatch and a ship ladder. However, both of those projects are only three stories.

The hatch-and-ladder design requires a fairly flat roof, so firefighters can walk atop it, said Armin Quilici, co-founder and partner of QUAD Architects. The hatch-and-ladder solution, he said, was “pretty simple to do.”

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A property in Salem that formerly held city hall from 1895 to 1972 is gaining a 78,855-square-foot multifamily development.

Construction crews broke ground on the six-story building, Citizen Apartments, on Thursday at 277 High St. N.E. Deacon Development is developing the $25 million project and Dalke Construction of Salem is the general contractor.

“We chose the name Citizen Apartments to honor that history (of the former city hall) and the people who shape the city today,” Kathy Delarosa, development manager at Deacon Development, stated in an email.

Studio 3 Architecture of Salem designed the project. The team also includes civil engineer Westech Engineering of Salem, structural engineer Harper Houf Peterson Righellis, landscape architect Laurus Designs LLC of Silverton, and geotechnical engineer GeoPacific Engineering of Tigard.

Last year, Dalke Construction completed the Rivenwood Apartments in Salem for Deacon Development. Partnering with a local contractor means most of the subcontractors are local as well, Delarosa stated. All subcontractors have been selected.

“This helps strengthen the community, stimulates local economic growth and aligns with our company values,” Delarosa stated.

Citizen Apartments will have 105 units, including studios, one-bedroom units and two-bedroom units. Sixteen will be affordable units as part of the city’s Multi-Unit Housing Tax Incentive Program. Tall window bays will let ample natural light into the units.

The building is designed to feel at home in downtown Salem while still looking fresh and modern, Delarosa stated. The first floor of the exterior will be brick veneer to complement surrounding older structures, while the upper floors will have a mix of metal panels and fiber cement siding to create a contemporary look. Offsets in the siding and balconies are intended to add texture and break down the overall scale.

At street level, glazing and canopies were designed to activate the street corner and create pedestrian-oriented frontage, according to Delarosa.

Building amenities will include a coffee bar, a mail room with parcel lockers, a fitness center, secure bike storage, a pet wash station, Electric vehicle parking and charging (on level 2), a co-working lounge with a private work pod, a community room equipped with a kitchen and games and a semi-private theater room, and a roof terrace with a barbecue area and city views.

The project team received land use approval in May 2024. Construction is expected to wrap up in spring 2027.

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Oregon is implementing a new regulatory framework for energy efficiency that will significantly impact the commercial and multifamily real estate sectors. As part of this new framework, the Oregon Department of Energy (ODOE) recently finalized rules regarding an incentive program for early compliance with Oregon’s new Building Performance Standards (BPS).

HB 3409, signed into law in 2023, included the establishment of an Energy Performance Standard policy for commercial buildings. This is otherwise referred to as the BPS. The goal of the program is to reduce energy use and emissions from existing commercial buildings requiring many large commercial buildings to enhance energy management practices and implement various efficiency measures over the next several years.

Applicability and “Tier” System

The program applies to buildings classified as either “Tier 1” or “Tier 2”; the type of building determines its respective compliance requirements and deadlines.

Tier 1 includes large nonresidential, hotel, or motel buildings with at least 35,000 square feet of gross floor area. Tier 1 buildings must collect and report 12 months of energy usage data, calculate their building’s “energy use intensity” (EUI), and meet performance targets set by the ODOE. If a building fails to meet its target, the owner must conduct an energy audit and develop a plan to implement cost-effective energy efficiency improvements.

Tier 2 includes buildings with a gross floor area (excluding parking garage area) of at least 35,000 square feet that are used as multifamily residential, hospital, school, dormitory, or university buildings. Tier 2 also includes buildings where the gross floor area for hotel, motel and nonresidential use is between 20,000 square feet and 35,000 square feet. Tier 2 buildings are not yet subject to performance targets but must report energy and emissions data starting in 2028.

Some buildings are exempt. For example, historic buildings, certain buildings qualifying for exemption under “financial hardship,” some agricultural buildings, and some buildings with less than 50% occupancy may be exempt from these compliance requirements.

The following graphic from ODOE provides a high-level overview of how ODOE has categorized buildings for purposes of the BPS:

Important Compliance Deadlines

HB3409 required ODOE to establish a BPS to meet performance targets; the ODOE finalized the initial standard in December 2024 based on a national standard, with Oregon-specific amendments.

Compliance deadlines for Tier 1 buildings are phased based on size:

• Buildings greater than or equal to 200,000 square feet have until June 1, 2028.
• Buildings with 90,000–199,999 square feet have until June 1, 2029.
• Buildings with 35,000–89,999 square feet have until June 1, 2030.

Tier 2 buildings must submit their first data report by July 1, 2028, and every five years thereafter. ODOE will use this data to recommend future standards for Tier 2 buildings by 2030.

For those who do not comply, the ODOE is authorized to impose civil penalties for noncompliance, with fines up to $5,000, plus an amount to be determined for the duration of a continuing violation, which is capped at $1 per square foot of gross floor area (Tier 1 buildings only).

New Incentive Program Rules Released by ODOE

To encourage early participation, ODOE is launching an incentive program where building owners can apply to receive incentives for voluntarily meeting the program standards before the statutory deadlines.

To be eligible, a building must meet certain energy use requirements. Exempt buildings are not eligible for the incentive program.

• The incentive amount can be up to $0.85 per square foot for compliance for Tier 1 buildings, and $0.35 per square foot for compliance for Tier 2 buildings.
• Tier 1 buildings can receive up to $50,000, while larger Tier 2 buildings can receive a maximum of $35,000. There is also a limit of two awards per building owner, subject to increase based on funding.

To apply for this program, applicants must submit building data, energy use, utility territory, and compliance actions as outlined in the rules. This is anticipated to be a competitive review with priority being for high EUI buildings, multi-tenant buildings not in qualified utility territories, rural buildings, and multifamily affordable housing.

Deadlines for early compliance are one year before the regular compliance deadline:

• Tier 1 Buildings greater than or equal to 200,000 square feet: by June 1, 2027.
• Tier 1 Buildings with 90,000–199,999 square feet: by June 1, 2028.
• Tier 1 Buildings with 35,000–89,999 square feet: by June 1, 2029.
• Tier 2 (all sizes): by July 1, 2027.

These rules are effective August 5, 2025. The ODOE is expected to publish an opportunity announcement for the incentive program soon, with the application period open for 45 days.

BPS programs are an emerging policy solution in the United States for facilitating energy efficiency and greenhouse gas emission reductions. For real estate professionals, Oregon’s BPS program introduces new compliance responsibilities—but also opportunities. Early knowledge of these standards and prompt action can mean buildings owners can benefit from incentives and avoid penalties for noncompliance.

Anna Reutin is an associate member of the firm’s Real Estate group in Portland, Oregon. Mario Nicholas is a partner in the firm’s Construction group. Contact Anna at anna.reutin@stoel.com or Mario at mario.nicholas@stoel.com for legal guidance on Oregon’s Building Performance Standard’s Incentive Program.

The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed in the preceding commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the Daily Journal of Commerce or its editors. Neither the author nor the 91��Ƶ guarantees the accuracy or completeness of any information published herein.

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Two middle housing buildings are being constructed two blocks apart on Division Street in Portland. The projects, E and Hutch, are designed by a small firm made up of two experts in multifamily housing.

The two architects, founder Armin Quilici and partner Keith Fugate, partnered last year on Quilici’s firm, Quilici Architecture, which is now QUAD Architects. Both architects have a combined 50 years of experience in multifamily housing.

QUAD Architects is a small firm that specializes in multi-family development and provides a range of services, from initial feasibility studies to comprehensive architectural and planning services. The firm is mainly focused on projects in the Portland area.

Quilici and Fugate first worked at Bora Architecture & Interiors in the late 1990s and moved on to different firms in the early 2000s.

Quilici started his firm, Quilici Architecture, in 2016 when Portland developer Jim Winkler, of Winkler Development Group, asked for help on a Southwest Portland project, The Gabe. Quilici said he always liked the idea of starting his own firm and liked smaller firms.

“It’s just a little bit more exciting to do all aspects of a project rather than specializing on part of a project,” Quilici said.

The project was put on hold but came back online around 2020 and was twice as big as originally proposed, with 121 residential units. Quilici was looking for some help and Fugate started doing contract work for the firm when construction began.

“We found that we both fill out each other’s weaker spots,” Fugate said. “He’s more the designer; I’m more the project manager.”

The two became official partners and transitioned the firm to QUAD Architects in the fall of last year.

Fugate said multifamily housing is the firm’s “bread and butter.” The firm also works on smaller tenant improvements, some single-family housing and education projects, such as student housing.

“The way things are in Portland, (with the economic downturn), we’re really focused on smaller TIs and things like that, which are kind of backfilling what was multifamily housing over the past 10 years,” Fugate said.

Fugate said the firm is always in contact with developers they have worked with historically and continues to check in with them about work, which lately has been improvement projects. Because of its smaller size, the architects can work directly with clients at each step of a project.

On the boards, the firm has a couple of warehouse tenant improvements, potentially a wine bar project in Dayton and some food cart studies.

Quilici said the firm has seen a demand for middle housing lately. The firm’s middle housing projects, E and Hutch, are currently under construction. The E and Hutch are two separate buildings located two blocks apart, with the same floor plans. The E is at 2515 SE 30th Ave. and the Hutch (also known as 32D) is at 2508 SE 32nd Ave.

These buildings fulfill the need for middle-housing, which is defined as more denser development than duplex housing, but smaller than the more typical four- to five-story double loaded corridor style housing, according to the firm’s website.

The three-story buildings are 12,500 square feet each with 11 residential units, plus 3,000 square feet of ground floor retail space that could be a café or similar use. The buildings include a single staircase. Quilici said the design could be replicated on other lots, with different exteriors.

“The idea of this design is that you can repeat the basic layout in different lots,” Quilici said.

Quilici said it is a simple and efficient smaller-scale apartment building and that the basic layout makes sense for the 5,000-square-foot lots.

The project team includes civil engineer Humber Design Group Inc., structural engineer Aman Structural Engineering and owners/developers and general contractors Don Mutal and Aaron Jones. QUAD Architects led landscape design.

The total project cost is $7.12 million. Construction began in the fall of 2024 and is on track for a Dec. 31 completion.

“We know coming out of this housing and construction recession we’re going to be building more middle housing, small-scale apartments,” Quilici said. “We can help out.”

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In California, builder’s remedy has become a handy tool for housing developers to skirt local zoning rules. Now, Gov. Tina Kotek is weighing whether to bring the policy to Oregon.

Such a rule would add to other housing policy tools the governor has enacted in Oregon, such as establishing a statewide housing production goal and requiring each city to produce a housing needs analysis.

In California, builder’s remedy allows housing developers to bypass local zoning if a city is out of compliance with its housing element — a formal, adopted plan for where in a city housing may be built. Under Gov. Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta, the state has aggressively pursued enforcement of the rule for cities without certified housing elements.

Builder’s remedy was added to California’s law books in 1990 but was little used until the 2020s. In recent years, California developers — backed by state leaders — have used builder’s remedy to advance projects in cities that have rejected land use approvals for housing projects or dragged their feet in the process.

“I’d say it’s the number one tool that’s led to the creation of housing in California in the last 10 years,” said Ezra Hammer, a Jordan Ramis attorney and shareholder who has practiced in California and Oregon.

Past Oregon governors have looked to California and Washington for housing policy, and Kotek is following suit. Builder’s remedy was recommended by the Multifamily Housing Development Workgroup, which was convened this spring by Kotek and Portland Mayor Keith Wilson.

Upon the recommendations’ release in May, Kotek “committed to exploring” how builder’s remedy “could work to bolster housing production in Oregon.”

The work group’s builder’s remedy recommendation came alongside other well-worn housing policies such as cutting permitting wait times and encouraging office-to-housing conversions.

“Anything that’s helping clear the decks and make way for approval of additional housing, especially in communities where local officials are not keeping up with housing production, is a good thing in our state,” said Sarah Zahn, managing director of Security Properties. Zahn was a member of the housing policy work group.

Developers have pushed for builder’s remedy projects in cities such as Beverly Hills, Redondo Beach and Santa Monica. The Golden State’s largest cities — Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose and San Francisco — have compliant housing elements.

“There’s an inherent friction between states that have a housing crisis and want to see housing built immediately, and cities that want to maintain local control over zoning decisions,” said Spencer Kallick, a land use attorney with Allen Matkins in Century City, California, who has worked with builder’s remedy developers.

“Some cities get it and understand that they need to relax certain zoning standards to provide much-needed housing close to jobs and transit,” Kallick added. “Other cities should get it, but for community and political needs they are more reticent to give up local control.”

Kallick said California cities that do not have compliant housing elements fall into three categories: cities with small staffs and meager financial resources to update their housing element, cities that don’t mind builder’s remedy taking effect to encourage housing and, finally, cities that have battled the state over their housing elements.

At least 20 percent of units in builder’s remedy developments must be affordable. Developers have used it to propose projects such as One Redondo, which would bring more than 2,000 housing units and mixed-use development to Redondo Beach. The city has resisted construction of housing on the site of a defunct power plant, and the developer has launched a series of lawsuits.

Kallick warned that builder’s remedy is not a panacea, and it still requires great patience to get projects built.

“The developers who are doing builder’s remedy projects are ones that deeply understand the intricacies of the law and have the commitment to see projects through because they see the need for new housing in the state,” Kallick said.

Housing experts said it remains to be seen how builder’s remedy would work in Oregon. In California, not-in-my-backyard (NIMBY) politics remain hugely influential, and opposition to development is sometimes boosted by concentrated wealth among residents.

Builder’s remedy probably doesn’t make sense outside of the Willamette Valley population centers, Hammer said.

“Builder’s remedy is going to be a tool in a few places,” he said. “It’s really built around multifamily housing. That’s going to work in Portland, maybe some of the larger suburbs around Portland, and it’ll work in Eugene. And that’s it.”

Oregon developers will have to wait at least until 2026 for the state to adopt builder’s remedy. Legislators did not consider it during this year’s session.

Developers have expressed interest in building townhomes or garden-style apartments that currently run afoul of Portland’s minimums for floor area ratio, Hammer said. Those regulations dictate building size relative to lot size.

City regulators, Hammer said, have “taken this tool that’s built for extremely hot markets and overlaid it on portions of the city where we would be blessed to have housing development.”

Builder’s remedy could sweep aside that type of zoning restriction, Hammer said.

“Portland would be ripe for it,” he said.

The post Oregon considering use of builder’s remedy to boost housing appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

As nearly a billion dollars of bond money was invested in affordable housing projects in the Portland-metro area, architects found paths to success. Don Sowieja, a principal with Ankrom Moisan Architects, and Trish Nixon, president and managing principal of LRS Architects, shared their thoughts on how different approaches to the design process can help push multifamily projects toward construction.

The city of Portland has taken major steps to encourage development, Sowieja said. One of these steps was consolidating permitting functions into a single bureau: Portland Permitting & Development.

“Prior to that shift in policy organization, you might expect three to four months before you go your first round of (plan review),” Sowieja said, adding that it now takes around six weeks.

Also, the Portland City Council last year passed its Housing Regulatory Relief Project, which temporarily suspended development and process standards that apply to building projects, such as bike parking, bird-safe glazing, and landscape standards. State legislation also has provided relief from requirements and contributed to the success of LRS Architects’ projects, Nixon stated in an email.

When it comes to the overall timeline for a project, Sowieja said the design process is critical.

“One of the things we’ve found is to keep it simple,” he said.

Keeping a layout and overall composition basic allows a project to move through the process more quickly, Sowieja said. Oftentimes a proposal’s details may be unclear to city staffers, so it’s important to keep an open line of dialogue with them, he added, to navigate the approval process. Communicating early with city staff ensures there are no surprises during the design review and permitting processes, Nixon stated.

The simpler the design, the simpler the compliance, Sowieja said. For multifamily housing, unit size and type matter.

“If you have three unit types – studios, one bedroom and two bedroom – and you have one each of those types of unit plans, that’s as easy as it gets for the city to understand, as well as for the developer to demonstrate in compliance,” Sowieja said.

Designing projects that require a minimal number of requests for modifications or variances helps improve timelines and overall efficiency, Nixon stated. Before starting to design a project, LRS Architects works diligently with clients to understand all requirements and minimize adverse impacts, she added.

For projects subject to design review, Sowieja said teams should know the rules and follow them.

“It’s right there on the page,” he said. “Reading what it says and doing what it says is the best way to move quickly through a subjective process.”

Although inclusionary housing is relatively new to Portland, many cities on the West Coast have similar criteria. In Portland, inclusionary housing requires all residential buildings proposing 20 or more new units to provide a percentage of them at rents or sale prices affordable to households at 80 percent of the median family income or below, the city’s website states.

Development teams should embrace the fact that it is a requirement for multifamily projects, Sowieja said. While there was consternation at the outset, most of the development community has figured out that it is a financial and organizational impact, he added.

Meanwhile, all LRS Architects apartment projects within the city of Portland in the past five years have been 100 percent affordable, Nixon said.

Demand for multifamily projects has declined in the past 2.5 years, Sowieja said, following a roller coaster of economic cycles, including the COVID-19 pandemic, inflation and interest rate increases. However, that has begun to change in 2025, he added.

“The design side is really picking up,” he said. “That takes a while to translate into construction starts, and construction is the big money and the larger economic driver.”

On the other hand, LRS Architects reports something different.

“We are seeing more exploratory activity, but not necessarily project starts,” Nixon stated, adding that such activity is taking place in the suburbs and not in the city of Portland.

LRS has seen a decrease in market-rate projects, according to Nixon. But the firm is involved in several active affordable housing projects in Portland. These include Garden Park Estates, which includes renovation and new construction (LMC Construction is the contractor), Jamii Court (O’Neill/Walsh Community Builders is the contractor), and Barbur Apartments (Todd Construction is the contractor).

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Based in Keizer, The Continental Construction Contractors provides residential renovation and remodeling services in Oregon and southwest Washington. Juan (Raul) Portillo’s work includes new construction development and both exterior and interior improvements to homes, apartments and condominiums.

Exterior services range from weatherproofing and demolition to framing, house wrap and siding installation. The company also builds decks, patios and balconies to provide clients with functional and stylish outdoor spaces. Interior services include drywall, texture and painting.

“I love doing carpentry, I love working with my hands and I love learning new things,” said Portillo, who currently is working as a sub for a large general contractor on a 26-building multifamily project in Washington. He adds that he enjoys lining up the scope of work for the independent contractors he hires for each project.

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