The Portland Design Commission voted 6-0 during a hearing on Thursday to approve plans for the Multnomah County Behavioral Health Resource Center, setting aside concerns from downtown business interests.

The project planned at 333 S.W. Park Ave. will combine a homeless shelter and transitional housing with services such as laundry, showers and restrooms.

Not all parties have welcomed the project, at a time when homelessness has become a top political issue and downtown businesses have had to deal with pandemic-related closures and destructive protests.

Jordan Schnitzer, president of Harsch Investment Properties, wrote a letter dated Nov. 4 asking the city to prohibit “tents, ancillary items and street activity” outside the site. Schnitzer expressed concern about activity “that will negatively impact the surrounding business district, tenants and staff surrounding the site.”

Patricia Gardner, a local resident who said she represented neighboring property owners, said at Thursday’s hearing that the county had made little progress toward a “good neighbor” agreement.

Multnomah County project manager Brett Taute acknowledged the county had not initiated a good neighbor agreement for the downtown shelter, blaming pandemic-related delays. However, the county “remains committed” to reaching an agreement with neighbors, he added.

“We intend to continue that into next year,” he said.

The Design Commission is limited in its ability to regulate what happens outside of a site, Chairwoman Julie Livingston said.

Project plans call for adaptive reuse of a four-story structure that was completed in 1905. Carleton Hart Architecture is designing the project, and Mortensen Construction will serve as general contractor. The building will essentially be gutted, and a seismic retrofit will be done.

The county acquired the property from developer Tom Cody for $4.34 million in 2019. The county also purchased an adjacent parking lot for $1.5 million.

Thursday marked the third time design commissioners had considered the project. Corey Morris, a senior associate at Carleton Hart, responded to earlier criticism by folding two proposed accessory buildings into one.

Commissioners avoided discussing political issues outside of their purview, instead delving deeply into an extended discussion of landscaping.

Commissioner Brian McCarter, a ZGF Architects principal and landscape architect, pushed to amend a condition proposed in the staff report that “at least one evergreen huckleberry or highbush cranberry shall be planted in the stormwater planter for every two linear feet of stormwater planter, as measured along the sidewalk edges of the planter.”

McCarter successfully lobbied to require two highbush cranberry viburnum shrubs per planter space.

Some commissioners fretted that the planters would be put to use as benches or restrooms.

“The planters – they’re pretty much at urinal height,” Commissioner Don Vallaster said. “So either make it taller or make it shorter.”

None of the issues raised prevented a unanimous vote (Commissioner Jessica Molinar was absent).

With the viburnum coverage and planter height decided, Vallaster said he was satisfied.

“We’ve worked it pretty hard,” he said. “From my perspective, I’m willing to give it a rest and move on to the next project.”

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A homeless shelter and services center project planned in downtown Portland will have to wait a while longer to advance after the Design Commission found fault with the proposed design.

The current design of the Multnomah County Behavioral Health Resource Center falls short of public realm and context guidelines, design commissioners said during a hearing Thursday. They criticized a proposed fenced courtyard that would allow clients of the public facility to spend time outdoors in an off-street setting.

The county’s aim is for the facility, designed by Carleton Hart Architecture, to address a critical shortage of social services for the homeless. Drop-in day services such as laundry and showers will be combined with a shelter for people with mental and behavioral health issues as well as transitional housing.

The adaptive reuse project will involve a thorough renovation of a 115-year-old, four-story building at 333 S.W. Park Avenue. Multnomah County tapped Mortenson Construction to handle the work, which will include a seismic retrofit.

The county acquired the property from developer Tom Cody for $4.34 million in 2019. The county also purchased an adjacent parking lot for $1.5 million.

Corey Morris, a senior associate with Carleton Hart, said the plaza on the north side of the property would allow clients to “be outside without being hassled to move along.” Plans call for a number of environmentally sensitive aspects meant to reduce the building footprint and provide a positive atmosphere for users.

Commissioners were wary of the plaza design, which they said could create an inactive ground-floor frontage. That’s a particular concern at this location on the Park Blocks, where vacant O’Bryant Square, windowless facades on a CenturyLink building and the rear of the Union Bank Tower create a lifeless streetscape, commissioners said.

“It’s basically a non-pedestrian area – has been for years,” Commissioner Don Vallaster said. “All of the surrounding buildings are dead on the ground floor.”

Numerous commissioners questioned the plaza design.

“It is absolutely critical that every single project do a good job at that ground floor, and it’s tough with a program like this,” Chairwoman Julie Livingston added.

Commissioners asked several questions about the planned ground-floor operations in the building. The design includes spaces for users to bring in their personal items. Some individuals have everything they own in a shopping cart and will not leave it unattended outside, Morris said.

The plaza also includes two small storage buildings, creating another challenge for ground-floor activation.

“Accessory buildings should not take over an entire piece of property,” Commissioner Chandra Robinson said. “It’s not a great use of space.”

Morris asked commissioners not to take a vote on Thursday. He instead asked them and Bureau of Development Services officials if the land-use case could essentially be split in two. That would allow the building design to advance and a building permit application to be submitted. Then the more troublesome plaza portion could wait and be resubmitted as a separate land-use application.

“We have folks who would love to get off the street and into the building,” Morris said.

Commissioners and BDS staffers said they were amenable to that approach. Another hearing for the project is scheduled for Nov. 5.

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