Deep in the bowels of the city of Portland’s policymaking process, Committee 3.96 went to work.

The committee’s 25 members quietly reviewed decades-old city codes meant to give neighborhoods a voice in city budgeting and evaluations of land use. The group, formed last year by a City Council directive with members drawn mostly from local activism and nonprofit groups, had a task: examine the roles of the city’s influential neighborhood associations, and recommend changes.

Committee 3.96 began meeting in November 2018, working within the city’s Office of Community and Civic Life. Then on July 18, after months of study and debate, Committee 3.96 issued its recommendations. They landed with all the subtlety of a bomb.

A four-page document approved by the committee is filled with vague language on reducing disparities and delivering just and equitable outcomes, but the recommendations are unmistakable. Proposed changes would broadly reduce the role of neighborhood associations, putting them on equal footing with other groups engaged in affinity-based, business, community or issue advocacy.

Neighborhood associations fear the changes will sideline them, rendering them voiceless to influence the surge of infill construction that has reshaped urban neighborhoods. Yet many stakeholders say it is time for a change in 20th-century city codes that favor neighborhood associations and their largely older, wealthier and whiter demographic of homeowners.

The proposed changes raise a host of questions for future development, including whether neighborhood associations would retain the right to appeal Design Commission rulings to the City Council with the appeal fee of up to $5,000 waived.

“I’m not quite sure if it’s better or worse for development, in part because we have something that we’ve been working with for many, many years,” said Sam Rodriguez, senior managing director of multifamily developer Mill Creek Residential Trust. “You kind of know what you’re dealing with. If you don’t have (a neighborhood association) structure, what are you dealing with?”

Neighborhood associations such as the Pearl District and Overlook groups often have a sophisticated understanding of the city’s design guidelines, Rodriguez said.

“This could be more of a mob mentality,” he said. Other groups, he said, “are not necessarily going to have the structure of the neighborhood association.”

In some cases, splinter groups – such as the Pearl Neighbors for Integrity in Design – have sprung up to oppose developments. If those neighborhood groups are recognized alongside neighborhood associations, it could change the dynamic.

The committee’s recommendations, which were first reported by The Oregonian/OregonLive, were overseen by the office of Commissioner Chloe Eudaly, who is in charge of the Office of Community and Civic Life.

A spokeswoman for Eudaly, Margaux Weeke, acknowledged the code recommendations had caused confusion. They are not intended to place limits on neighborhood associations, she said.

“This is not taking away neighborhood associations; this is not banning neighborhood associations,” she said. “They will absolutely continue to exist. It’s allowing other types of organizations to have a seat at the table. It’s about addition and multiplication, not subtraction and division.”

The changes are meant to empower groups such as Living Cully that are not among Portland’s 95 city-recognized neighborhood associations, Weeke said.

“Basically, the proposed changes say ‘neighborhood-based groups’ instead of ‘neighborhood associations,’ which is just to allow other types of groups to be officially recognized groups,” she said.

Some neighborhood association leaders were skeptical that the new code language wouldn’t sideline neighborhood associations.

“I don’t buy it,” said Stan Penkin, president of the Pearl District Neighborhood Association.

The committee’s report comes as city officials face demands to ease housing shortages. Neighborhood associations often campaign against proposed housing developments, and their demands for parking capacity can drive up project costs.

Rodriguez said neighborhood associations can be difficult to work with.

“They’re quite powerful and they’re less inclined to support development than not,” he said.

Penkin and other neighborhood association leaders said the groups deserve some of the criticism they receive for not-in-my-backyard politics.

“In some cases there’s a NIMBY aspect to it,” Penkin said. “I wouldn’t deny that. But on the other hand, (when) there’s a project coming to a neighborhood, the neighborhood having a say in it, we’ve got better projects and better buildings out of it from having a say.”

Committee 3.96’s report seems to raise more questions than it answers, leaving commissioners, neighborhood associations and developers wondering what the proposal actually entails.

“It’s a bunch of aspirational statements, statements of value, which are important, but there’s no process there,” Penkin said.

The code language will go before the City Council for consideration. A work session is tentatively scheduled for September.

It’s unclear whether Committee 3.96’s proposed changes have majority support on the council. A spokesman for Mayor Ted Wheeler stated that Wheeler has not taken a position.

“We are watching the process closely and will continue engaging with key stakeholders, including the Office of Community and Civic Life, to better understand the nuances of the proposal and learn more about possible outcomes should the code change go into effect,” Tim Becker, a spokesman for Wheeler, wrote in an email.

Commissioners Nick Fish and Amanda Fritz also have not taken positions on the changes, representatives said. Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The proposed changes caught many neighborhood associations by surprise.

“I just felt like it wasn’t a robust enough public process,” said Elizabeth Milner, a Sellwood-Moreland Improvement League board member.

Neighborhood association leaders said there’s value in the public accountability they provide. They often invite developers to meet with neighborhood residents in public forums. Neighborhood associations hold public meetings, take votes and publish meeting minutes and agendas. Non-officially recognized groups have no such transparency requirements.

Milner said the Sellwood neighborhood association has become younger and more diverse in recent years. The board president, Tyler Janzen, is a 27-year-old renter. Milner said she has mixed feelings about the proposed changes.

“I can understand a lot of the criticisms against the role neighborhood associations have played in Portland,” she said. “I would like to see the Office of Civic Life work with neighborhood associations as partners to craft the next chapter of civic involvement in Portland. I would like to see them engage the neighborhood associations rather than see them try to erase them systematically.”

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect the correct fee to appeal Design Commission decisions to the City Council.

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After seven years of work, this week is preparing to open Oakridge Park – the first new affordable housing in Lake Oswego in three decades.

Development of the four-story building for low-income seniors wasn’t easy, NHA Executive Director Martha McLennan said. In fact, after a neighborhood association’s opposition brought the proposal before the state Land Use Board of Appeals, a “technicality” later led to the project moving forward, according to Lake Oswego senior planner Debra Andreades.

Northwest Housing Alternatives, which has developed more than 1,600 affordable housing units in Oregon over the last 30 years, saw a need for affordable housing in Lake Oswego, McLennan said. To get the ball rolling, however, the organization needed a site.

Seven years ago, the approached NHA with a site in the Lake Grove neighborhood and an offer for partnership.

“Having the church identify a parcel that was available for development was key,” McLennan said.

NHA secured financing, enlisted architecture services of , and entered the land-use process. Then the presented a road block.

“The conversation was about preserving trees, and parking,” McLennan said. “They were very angry about the changes they saw.”

The city of Lake Oswego approved the Oakridge Park development, but the Waluga Neighborhood Association appealed that decision to LUBA in 2008, saying that traffic and parking issues were not adequately addressed. The city had categorized the building as “congregate housing,” which requires fewer parking spaces because residents are classified as possessing “life-function disabilities.”

LUBA remanded the decision to Lake Oswego, Andreades said, which then approved the project again. The neighborhood group planned to appeal, but missed a filing deadline.

However, Waluga Neighborhood Association Chairman Jeff Novak said that neighboring residents now think Oakridge Park has a nice design, and are “happy to have new neighbors.”

“(The developer) made the commitment in terms of keeping the parking issues at bay, and we’re putting our faith in them that they will keep their word on that,” Novak said.

Ground was broken on the Oakridge Park development last year, and Walsh Construction recently wrapped up work. The building is completely leased now; in fact, the 45 one-bedroom units drew more than 100 applications.

Now, NHA is working to acquire an existing affordable housing development in Lake Oswego, to rehabilitate the 30-year-old structure “in need of a little tender, loving care,” McLennan said. She believes Lake Oswego could use more affordable housing, but says aspects of the city’s process can make development difficult.

A drawn-out process also can challenge a developer working with several partners, and McLennan said it was a “scramble” to keep the project’s many funding sources on board throughout the process.

“Lake Oswego probably has a higher likelihood of a neighborhood fighting a project,” McLennan said. “And while some codes are very cut and dry, a lot of Lake Oswego code has more subjective interpretations to it. That creates more unpredictability for the developer.”

From a city perspective, the Oakridge Park project wasn’t particularly unusual, Andreades said.

“It was about four years from the time it started with the city to now, when it’s about to open,” she said. “It’s not unusual for large projects to take a long time.”

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Southwest Portland residents and JPMorgan Chase have spent several months debating the design for a proposed bank branch at 6361 S.W. Capitol Highway, in the Hillsdale neighborhood.

Now it looks like the bank may be able to circumvent much of the controversy by enlarging the branch’s building-to-parking-lot ratio with a canopy that would cover part of the lot. The “building” would not be enclosed, but it would still count toward the minimum building square footage required by city zoning code for the lot.

Though Chase may be able to go forward with its plan, the Hillsdale Neighborhood Association says it will continue to oppose it. Its concern for the site relates to a greater desire to increase density and multiuse buildings on the neighborhood’s main drag.

The design of Chase’s proposed Hillsdale branch initially called for a footprint occupying just 21 percent of the lot. But Hillsdale’s Main Street area has commercial storefront zoning, which requires that a building take up at least 50 percent of a lot.

Chase stuck with its proposal until it was informed by senior planner Douglas Hardy that the city was unlikely to approve its request for a zoning variance.

After returning to the drawing board, Chase proposed constructing a similar branch building with an additional community room for neighborhood use and a large canopy. The number of parking spaces wouldn’t change.

The strategy is OK, technically, Hardy said.

“The way the zoning code defines building coverage … it doesn’t have to literally be a building with four walls and a roof. It can be one of these canopies,” Hardy said.

“There’s some quirky things in the zoning code,” he added.

Hardy advised the bank that its proposal would eliminate the need for a variance, and that its plan wouldn’t need to be reviewed until the building permit stage. The bank hasn’t submitted a final plan to the city, according to Hardy, but alterations are not required.

Nevertheless, residents have resisted the canopy proposal. At a neighborhood association meeting on Wednesday, Hillsdale Main Street Design Committee co-chairman and neighborhood resident Richard Garfinkle said that the bank was doing the least amount possible to meet the site’s zoning requirements.

“The canopy is embarrassing,” Garfinkle said.

For residents present at the meeting, the proposed Chase bank branch – a single-tenant building on Main Street’s only vacant lot – symbolizes a missed opportunity.

“What we need most of all is apartments,” Hillsdale resident John Gould said at the meeting. “We don’t need another bank that minimizes the use (of the land).”

Residents are hoping for an eventual light-rail stop in Hillsdale, but they fear that light density could ruin those chances, Gould said.

The property is owned by Ardys Braidwood, whose family has owned the land since 1908. Braidwood is a managing partner at Wardin Investments. The company has studied the site’s potential for a two-story building with ground-floor retail and either office space or housing upstairs, she said, but “it just didn’t pencil out.”

The site isn’t deep enough to accommodate parking that would be necessary for so many tenants, she said.

Prior to the economic collapse in 2008, Braidwood helped design a four-tenant, one-story retail development for the site. After the downturn, however, interest in that project dried up, she said.

“So I sat on it, and Chase Bank came to me and asked about a long-term land lease,” Braidwood said.

If Chase can move forward with its proposed footprint despite residents’ concerns about density, the bank will still need to go through a city design review process. At the Wednesday meeting, architects from Seattle-based presented a Northwest-inspired Chase branch design that features brick, metal materials and lots of pedestrian-oriented windows – better than the “off-the-shelf” design Chase had initially proposed, according to residents.

While residents such as Garfinkle hope that Chase will change its mind about the project, the bank does not need their approval.

“Frankly, what Chase has to do is meet the code requirements,” Chase’s attorney, Gregory Hathaway of Portland-based , said at Wednesday night’s meeting. “This technically meets those requirements.”

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A project is moving forward to replace an existing Safeway store with a completely new one at Barbur Boulevard and Capitol Hill Road in Southwest Portland. Residents have some concerns, but not with the supermarket chain’s plan.

“The concerns are more frustration and disappointment with the city of Portland not enforcing their own policies,” said Roger Averback, chairman of the transportation committee of Southwest Neighborhoods Inc.

Averback and other community members were hoping bike lanes would be added to the road that will accommodate the new store’s main entrance. They say that planned traffic changes could cause hazards, and the city is not addressing them.

Safeway plans to start work when it receives city approval, and is planning to complete the project by the end of 2012, according to Safeway spokesman Dan Floyd. The Barbur store is one of the last in the Northwest that will be remade with the “lifestyle” model. The new Safeway will be larger and include more “exterior” departments – like a floral shop, sushi counter, coffee shop and deli – around the store’s walls and a smaller focus on interior shelves.

The “podium” layout calls for the supermarket to occupy the second story, and a parking lot to be built underneath. The new store will occupy more of the lot than the existing one does, and it will sit on some additional residentially-zoned parcels.

The addition of those parcels in part led to the plan entering the city’s land-use review process, where it has been slightly delayed.

Most of the residents’ concerns are with traffic. Multnomah Neighborhood Association Chairman Moses Ross last week outlined in a letter to the city’s hearings officer some other concerns: how trucks will enter and leave the store’s loading docks, how bikes will move on Capitol Hill Road and across busy Barbur Boulevard, and how pedestrians will cross Multnomah Avenue without a crosswalk.

Most discussions are focusing on the bike crossing issue. The main entrance to the new Safeway will be on Capitol Hill Road, a smaller neighborhood street than Barbur Boulevard, where many cars enter the existing Safeway parking lot.

principal engineer Chris Brehmer said in testimony that removing the Barbur entrance was a “major concession” aimed at improving bike and pedestrian access.

“We went the extra mile to make that happen,” he said. “We believe this is a multimodal solution.”

However, one result of closing the Barbur entrance will be an increase in traffic on Capitol Hill Road, and residents are concerned that some drivers will use it as a shortcut to other destinations.

Safeway’s traffic projections expect daily trips along Capitol Hill Road to increase from the present 3,200 to 3,800. On the part of Capitol Hill Road between Barbur Boulevard and the new store entrance, Safeway is expecting between 6,000 and 8,000 new trips each day.

“Average daily traffic is important, because that’s what you use to determine what sorts of bicycle facilities are required,” said Keith Liden, who describes himself as a “concerned citizen” and has served on the city’s Bicycle Advisory Committee.

Those facilities can include “sharrows” – shared-lane markings to aid cyclists – or bike lanes.

Liden believes Capitol Hill Road should receive bike lanes, particularly because of the expected increase in traffic because of the modified Safeway entrance. For cyclists, Capitol Hill Road is a particularly important street in the area because it is one of the few crossings over busy Barbur Boulevard and Interstate 5.

“There are so few routes that cross both of those major streets,” Averback said.

Safeway has agreed to add sharrows to Capitol Hill Road, but the city won’t require bike lanes because the road isn’t designated as a “bikeway” in the documents that outline the city’s transportation plan. As such, the road is not due to receive an upgrade that would include bike lanes.

Residents were hoping that the redesign could lead to more right-of-way being required from Safeway; however, Liden acknowledges that may not happen because Safeway in its land-use agreement is offering some additional right-of-way along Capitol Hill Road. At a hearing on Sept. 7, city representatives said that the right-of way Safeway is offering would be enough to account for road improvements – including possible bike lanes – in the future.

A rebuttal comment period is under way for the project. The applicant will have until Oct. 5 to submit testimony, and the city’s hearings officer is expected to issue a decision thereafter.

“An OK from the city is the last domino we need to move forward,” Floyd said.

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Chase representatives have requested, again, that the city of Portland delay its decision about the bank’s application to build a branch in the Hillsdale neighborhood in Southwest Portland.

“We made this decision in an effort to continue to try to work with the neighborhood association to find a solution that will work for everyone,” Chase spokeswoman Darcy Donahoe-Wilmot wrote in an email.

Douglas Hardy, a planner with the city’s Bureau of Development Services, said he called Chase officials at the end of last week to “give them a heads-up” that the city would likely not approve the application.

Chase is seeking an adjustment request, to build a branch building that occupies only 21 percent of the site, instead of the 50 percent required by the commercial storefront zoning in place in the Hillsdale Neighborhood Town Center.

“It’s just too far from the minimum building coverage standard,” Hardy said.

The Hillsdale Neighborhood Association last week submitted a letter to the city expressing its opposition to the request. Association President Mikal Apenes told the 91��Ƶ previously that the organization opposed the application because it had not been able to discuss it with Chase representatives.

Chase representatives met with residents in early August; however, after initial concerns were raised, residents’ requests to meet with Chase officials to discuss an alternate “design plan” did not result in meetings, according to HNA member Robert Hamilton, who was tasked with setting up the meetings.

The comment period for the application was set to end Sept. 19, but it was extended an additional 30 days, with the city slated to issue a decision around Oct. 26. Chase will have the option to change its proposal in the interim, but if the application is significantly different, then it may need to start over, Hardy said.

“(Chase officials) are re-evaluating their alternatives for the proposal,” he said. “They’ll be getting back to me.”

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Portland City Council on Thursday reached a consensus to approve a Central Catholic High School expansion plan, despite opposition from the Buckman Community Association. The association had expressed concern about Central Catholic’s proposal to add a 15-space parking lot across the street from its main buildings.

“We believe it’s part of an incremental expansion of the school,” Buckman Community Association member and spokeswoman Linda Gerber said.

Despite residents’ concerns about impacts on traffic, livability and property values, the council is expected to allow Central Catholic to expand. However, the private school agreed to some legal restrictions for future expansion, even on properties it now owns.

The master plan calls for an expansion of 40,000 square feet of floor space to school buildings, though Central Catholic expects a net gain of only one classroom. In addition, the school says it won’t expand student enrollment beyond the present 800-850.

The master plan includes architectural additions, some adjustments to setback rules and road improvements. The most controversial part of the plan, however, is the expansion of the campus to two lots adjacent to the school, which Central Catholic plans to turn into a parking lot.

The school’s new lot would replace some on-campus spots that would be eliminated because of additions and renovations at existing buildings. A landscaped lot would hold 15 vehicles during school hours and 35 vehicles in a “stacked” organization during weekend events.

Presently, Central Catholic provides only 17 off-street parking spots; most commuting students and staffers park on nearby streets. The school has created a series of “good neighbor agreements” with the community, and has agreed that students should park on Stark Street rather than in front of homes.

Central Catholic attorney Stephen Janik said that the proposal for a new parking lot was a response to residents’ concerns about parking that were raised during the public involvement process for the master plan.

Gerber said that residents think the main problem with parking is one of enforcement and monitoring on behalf of the school: If staffers told students and event attendees where to park, an extra lot would not be needed. The neighbors believe that the parking lot proposed by the school would negatively affect the neighborhood.

“(The parking lot) will impact livability on the block and property values of houses,” Gerber said.

“Nobody wants to live next to a parking lot,” Buckman resident Charlie Christensen said.

Additionally, the Buckman Community Association is concerned that the school’s proposed parking lot is one step of a bigger plan to expand further – possibly to three additional lots, where residential houses exist – on land the school owns and rents.

The additional lots owned by the school became a concern when a paragraph mentioning possible future plans to use the buildings for administrative uses and classes was discovered by residents in one version of the school’s master plan application. But that paragraph doesn’t exist in the latest version.

At Thursday’s council meeting, Janik said that the school would agree, as part of its master plan, to not use the houses in the future for anything other than residential purposes.

Janik agreed to put that intention in writing as a “restrictive covenant,” which will be required as part of a condition of approval for the rest of Central Catholic’s master plan for expansion.

City planner Douglas Hardy said the agreement was unusual, particularly because the properties in question were not within the footprint of the school’s master plan. However, he agreed that the covenant could be added as a condition of City Council’s approval of the plan.

The new parking lot, and the rest of the school’s 10-year, conditional-use master plan, will be subject to a vote by City Council on Oct. 5. The council will add conditions to its approval, including a legal agreement regarding the homes owned by the school, and another that the new parking lot be closed during hours it is not in use.

As of Thursday, the Buckman Community Association was not sure whether it would appeal City Council’s decision to the state Land Use Board of Appeals. That decision will be made by the association’s board at an upcoming meeting, Gerber said.

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A disagreement about the format of a proposed new Chase bank branch in Southwest Portland’s Hillsdale neighborhood seemed to be moving toward a potential compromise. After meeting with multiple groups of stakeholders, Chase had extended the deadline for public comment on its application by a month.

As the comment period comes to a close, however, Hillsdale Neighborhood Association members say their requests for meetings with the bank were denied, and that the HNA plans to oppose the bank’s application.

Now city staffers will decide whether to approve or deny Chase’s request for adjustment. And neighborhood representatives say approval would undo years of work to shape their town center.

The “storefront commercial” zoning that governs Hillsdale Town Center requires that buildings occupy at least 50 percent of their lots. But in Chase’s proposal, the building would take up only 21 percent of the lot; 44 percent would be used for vehicle parking and 35 percent would be dedicated to landscaping and pedestrian circulation.

Ray Lindley, a Chase market manager, said the adjustment is needed to provide “adequate parking and easy access” to the branch, but residents strongly object to the idea.

“People in the neighborhood have worked long and hard to establish the commercial storefront zoning and to develop the Hillsdale neighborhood town center,” HNA President Mikal Apenes said. “(The bank’s adjustment) would be a giant step back from the whole process.”

HNA member Robert Hamilton said the proposed size of the parking lot contradicts the neighborhood’s goals to achieve greater density and encourage use of public transit in the town center.

Hamilton tried to set up meetings with Chase to discuss the issue, and delay the bank’s application further, until the neighborhood and the bank could agree on a footprint that was “satisfactory, if not acceptable” to both parties, he said. Though multiple emails were exchanged between Hamilton and the bank, that meeting didn’t happen.

Lindley acknowledged that residents tried to set up a meeting, but added that Chase believes they were primarily concerned with “design elements,” and not the zoning issue.

“We are not even at the point of design,” Lindley said.

In his requests for meetings with Chase, Hamilton said he wanted to discuss a “design plan.” In his mind, the property would ideally hold a multistory structure to house multiple retail businesses and condominiums, to help meet density goals.

“The adjustment was the primary concern of the neighborhood association,” Apenes said. “I thought we had been pretty clear on that with Chase bank.”

The Hillsdale Neighborhood Association is drafting a letter of opposition to the adjustment application, Apenes said.

City staffers will make a decision about the adjustment application around Sept. 26, according to Bureau of Development Services spokesman Ross Caron. An appeal would go before the city’s adjustment committee.

Caron could not speak about the details of the Chase case, but said that staffers decide whether to approve applications based on whether applicants “meet the intent or the purpose of the regulation they’re asking to modify.” Comments from the neighborhood association and the public would be taken into consideration as they apply to the approval criteria, he said.

Lindley said that Chase is eager to move forward with the project. The new location would serve Chase customers who don’t have a local branch, he said. The closest one to the proposed Hillsdale site is approximately one mile away, inside the Burlingame Fred Meyer store.

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In the past 10 years, Salem‘s population increased by 13 percent – a rate that outpaced both the state and the nation, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. But the neighborhoods that sprouted in Oregon’s capital city didn’t include businesses needed to support them.

City officials want to change that imbalance.

Salem City Council on Monday voted 6-2 to pass an ordinance that creates a new zoning type –Neighborhood Center Mixed-Use. Most of the councilors believe the code change will help attract neighborhood-style businesses, and preserve open spaces and pedestrian-friendly streets.

“This will allow the return of the mom-and-pop store – not strip malls, but small, neighborhood retail,” Councilor Dan Clem said. “To get ready for the next upswing, we need to be ready with tools in the tool kit. This is one of those tools.”

Neighborhood Center Mixed-Use zoning will be allowed on residentially or commercially zoned properties that are between three and 15 acres in size, and located an eighth of a mile or less from a major intersection.

The zoning type is flexible in that it allows residential, retail and services, office, and institutional uses. But limitations exist. At least one acre of the site must be dedicated to residential use, with a maximum density of six dwelling units per acre, or eight if extra environmental mitigation is conducted. Additionally, between one and five acres of the site must be dedicated to employment use and at least 20 percent of the site must be dedicated to open space.

For example, a developer who dedicated half of a 10-acre site to employment use and met the 20-percent open space requirement would be allowed to build between 60 and 80 units on the remainder of the site.

Don Homuth, co-chairman of the West Salem Neighborhood Association, said he supported the plan because of the flexibility it offers to landowners and the public input it requires. A public hearing and Salem Planning Commission approval is required for the zoning change and the mandatory master plan before development can occur.

“The ordinance as it is drafted now isn’t perfect, and there are several concerns that need to be worked through,” Homuth said. “But we can get through all that. We approve of this because we don’t feel like it’s being rammed down our throat. We were involved in it from the beginning.”

The idea came out of the West Salem Neighborhood Plan, which was developed in 2005. The neighborhood association was aware of a residential building boom, and sought a way to ensure that essential services and retail would be near residents.

“We were seeing single-family subdivision after single-family subdivision in West Salem,” said Glenn Gross, urban planning administrator for the city. “It’s not a bad thing, but it’s homogeneous.”

City officials decided to step in and help. They approached owners of lots that fit the bill and who were potentially interested in a zoning change. One such property owner emerged: John Mistkawi, who represents the Bone Estates – a 35-acre parcel at the Northwest corner of the intersection of Orchard Heights and Doaks Ferry Road.

In exchange for working through the process with the city, Mistkawi would be granted a zoning change from residential to Neighborhood Center Mixed-Use for up to 15 acres of the property. Mistkawi isn’t a developer and has no immediate plans to develop the property, but he wanted to work with the city.

In 2008, after a few years of public hearings and exchanging ideas, Gross said city officials decided that the Neighborhood Center Mixed-Use zoning concept was feasible citywide.

“The idea was that if it can work in a developing area like West Salem, it could probably work in established areas too,” Gross said. “While other towns have these types of zoning, it’s a different thing for Salem and there were some fears of taking away residential land. It’s taken time to convince residents of the benefits.”

Many residents testified in support of the code change at the public hearing, but councilors Brad Nanke and Bob Cannon voted against the ordinance. Nanke had concerns that future councils may force the zoning upon property owners who wouldn’t want it. Cannon said he thought it was a good idea, but didn’t believe his constituency would support it.

The council will hold a second reading of the ordinance and take a final vote at an upcoming meeting.

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Central Catholic High School has stood in Southeast Portland, at Stark Street and 24th Avenue, for 72 years. If enough money can be raised, school officials would like to update campus buildings – many that were built in the 1940s.

But the private school sits in the middle of a residential neighborhood – and residents dislike the amount of traffic generated by more than 800 students, many who commute. Some park along neighboring streets when parking lots on the school’s grounds fill up.

The conflict has escalated so quickly – according to residents, at least – that a group called Immediate Neighbors of Central Catholic High started an effort to encourage the school to leave the neighborhood.

“We did this online petition asking the school to sell (its) property, and take the money and build a state-of-the art school that’s not in the middle of a high-density neighborhood,” said Charlie Christensen, a member of INCCH.

As of Tuesday, the petition had 68 signatures.

“They have dismissed that out of hand,” Christensen said.

The parking issue is particularly divisive. Christensen said INCCH suggested that the school build a lot either above or below a sports field within what he calls the school’s “traditional boundaries.”

“Ideally, if they had parking for even half of their vehicles, we wouldn’t be having these discussions,” Christensen said.

“Like a lot of other schools that find themselves in a residential area, our issue is trying to balance the needs of a school and what goes on during a typical school day and evening with the concerns of the neighbors, as regards to traffic,” Central Catholic President John Harrington said.

Central Catholic’s proposed master plan does call for adding parking on a lot the school owns; however, that proposal doesn’t appeal to residents.

“(The lot has) been a park for 25 years and that’s been part of the fabric of the neighborhood,” Christensen said. “The park is what we’re used to. Neighbors are totally against the school expanding into the neighborhood.”

Even if the master plan were approved as proposed, Central Catholic wouldn’t increase enrollment, according to Harrington. The plan calls for adding 48,000 square feet to the school’s campus in three phases, but much of that area would be common space, or classrooms that would replace some smaller, windowless ones.

In the first phase of the master plan, the school would build a “link building” to connect its two academic buildings and enclose a courtyard. The school would add a new “learning commons” for large group meetings and social events, and a choir and music room. Music groups presently use a room that was once a locker room – with showerheads still in place.

“As a catholic school, they have a lot of meetings, which they don’t currently have space for,” said Chris Linn, a Boora Architects principal who is the project designer.

The first phase also would add a counseling center and space for a new student support services program.

“This would support students with learning challenges and disabilities – kids who need support and want a catholic high school education,” Harrington said. “This is something we haven’t been able to do in many catholic high schools to this point.”

In the second and third phases, the school would renovate old classrooms and add some on a new second story.

“I’m not real excited about them adding a second story to that building,” Christensen said. “Two and a half sides of that school are big, blank concrete walls right now. Certainly the second story they’re adding is handsome-looking, but just the scale of it for that residential neighborhood, where most of the houses are single-story bungalows, is a monumental size that is way out of character for the neighborhood.”

Linn said the goal of the design was to add space on the interior of the existing footprint. “We’ve come up with some clever ideas of adding more multiuse educational space within the block so it has no impact on the neighborhood,” he said.

INCCH and school officials have engaged in multiple meetings mediated by a dispute resolution organization, and have discussed updating a “good neighbor agreement” between the affected parties. So far, those talks have not progressed, Christensen said.

On June 6, residents will be able to officially voice their concerns about the school’s conditional-use master plan during a public hearing before the city’s Bureau of Development Services. School officials need city approval for the project because it would be on land zoned residential, and the new building would be larger than presently allowed by zoning.

If the plan were approved, the school would still need to raise money to implement it. Harrington was hopeful that the work would take place in the next 10 years.

“Frankly, we didn’t think they were going to move out of the neighborhood,” Christensen said. “(The petition is) a show of how frustrated neighbors are living next to a school that doesn’t even pay lip service to mollifying the neighborhood.”

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