Portland design commissioners are girding for battle as they begin to confront a push to suspend the city’s mandatory design review process for two years.

The procedure is advancing quickly, and city staff anticipate the City Council will consider legislation to suspend design review as soon as December.

The Portland Planning Commission will weigh a suspension of design review on Aug. 25 as a prelude to council action. Design commissioners said Thursday they plan to write letters and perhaps testify in person at that meeting.

The time has come for design commissioners to make their case, said Tim Heron, a senior city planner who works with the Design Commission.

“So, it’s go time,” he said after laying out the calendar during a brief Design Commission work session on Thursday.

Two bureau directors, Eric Engstrom of Planning and Sustainability and Eric Kutch of Permitting and Development, sent councilors Angelita Morillo and Eric Zimmerman a letter May 7 outlining a potential two-year suspension of design review. That was prompted by councilors ordering a report on design review this past December.

Design review has attracted criticism for adding delays and expense while elected officials — including Gov. Tina Kotek and Mayor Keith Wilson — have made housing production a priority, to little effect. Other cities, including Seattle, have suspended design review.

Policy efforts have shown little progress to date. In 2025, the city of Portland approved only 22 new construction permits for multifamily projects.

The proposed suspension would affect only mandatory design review. Developers still could opt in if they prefer design review to a standards-based approval process.

Several Permitting and Development staffers who work on design review would be reassigned and integrated into a Planning and Sustainability project team, according to the directors’ memo. The directors also requested additional funding for the staffing during the two-year period to make up for reduced design review revenue.

The two bureaus, prompted by the December directive from the City Council, published a joint report on design review in April. The 119-page report painted a picture of a broad economic pullback. “… Development activity has steadily declined and, in 2025, experienced an even more precipitous decline. This multiyear decline has not been limited to projects in the Design and Historic Resource Overlay Zones but has been reflected citywide for almost all types of housing and commercial development.”

Design review proponents say the process benefits projects, often making buildings better and giving the public a voice.

“Design review is a time when the public is able to come provide testimony,” Design Commission Chairwoman Chandra Robinson said in February. “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.”

They also say design review unfairly takes flack when national and regional macroeconomic conditions — interest rates, development cycles, construction costs — matter far more. The April joint bureau report also cast blame on larger factors.

“Development within the city remains at historic lows due to various factors including high interest rates, high apartment vacancy combined with stagnating rents and an aversion by institutional capital to investing in Portland due to real and perceived safety, taxation, regulation and market factors,” the report states.

On Thursday, Robinson said she would draft a letter to the City Council, either on behalf of the Design Commission or individually.

Commissioner Joe Swank said the Design Commission may want to write a different type of letter than one with typical dry, technical language, as it’s fighting for its life.

“I agree with a different approach,” he said.

The Historic Landmarks Commission is also expected to weigh in with its own concerns.

Design commissioners are expected to consider their response during an Aug. 6 meeting before transmitting it to the Planning Commission and City Council.

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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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