When temperatures soar, city dwellers feel the impact more than anyone else. The heat island effect can cause a city core to become as much as 20 degrees hotter than rural areas.

“More and more, it’s definitely an issue,” said James Hencke, a landscape architect and urban designer at David Evans and Associates. “The news is concerning about environmental issues. Those of us in planning and urban design, it is something (we) hear about.”

A variety of factors influence the extent of the heat island effect. Vivek Shandas, a professor in urban studies and planning at Portland State University who has studied the phenomenon since 2005, has found that temperatures around the city can vary by as much as 20 degrees, depending on tree canopy, surface types and colors of buildings.

“We have done empirical assessments when the airport is reporting 100 degrees and been able to capture temperatures (in other parts of Portland) ranging from 90 to 112,” he said.

The intersection of Southeast 82nd Avenue and Powell Boulevard, for example, tends to be one of the hottest areas in town, Shandas said. The worst heat islands tend to form in places with a lot of concrete, a high number of big buildings and few large trees, he added.

The people designing city infrastructure and buildings are responding by making adjustments to the kinds of materials they use.

“It’s something we think about,” Ric Battaglia, a project architect at Bora Architects, said. “For the most part, we try to meet or exceed LEED heat island standards.”

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards are guidelines intended to minimize buildings’ impacts on microclimates as well as human and wildlife habitats. The goal is to prevent buildings (especially their roofs) from absorbing heat. When a building absorbs heat during the day, it radiates that heat out at night, increasing temperatures during cooler evening hours.

There are a couple of ways the roof of a building can meet LEED standards. At least 75 percent of the roof can be covered with reflective material, or at least 50 percent of the roof can be covered with vegetative material. If a combination of reflective material and vegetation are used, a total of 50 percent of the roof must be covered.

Architects also are changing building materials used on structures to keep cities cooler. For example, insulating materials can be used on exteriors and exterior shades can be installed over windows – all with the goal of reducing how much heat a building absorbs.

Buildings aren’t the only structures sending city temperatures climbing, though. Sidewalks and streets have long been identified as heat-absorbing culprits in cities.

“We can use different materials to make more reflective sidewalks,” Battaglia said.

Some cities have experimented with painting their streets with reflective materials. Los Angeles, for example, recently covering black asphalt with a material called CoolSeal. Hencke is among those tracking how the material functions a real-world situation.

“It’s fascinating,” he said. “That material is so white, I am curious about glare. It will be interesting to see how that works.”

Many methods of reducing heat have proven benefits, Hencke said.

“Heat island effect is one of the many issues we try to include in doing good planning,” he said. “Greening the city is one of the best ways.”

Greenery is one area where Portland excels. The city has 220,000 trees along streets and 1.2 million trees in parks, according to Jenn Cairo, an urban forester with Portland Parks and Recreation‘s urban forestry division. That number doesn’t include trees on private property.

Managing Portland’s urban forest gives Cairo an opportunity to help regulate temperatures throughout the city.

“It can determine where the priority for planting for trees is,” Cairo said. “How much shade is in that part of town? How much higher are the heat issues there? Trees are one of the most straightforward ways to mitigate heat.”

In the realm of building projects, mitigation of heat can be an important factor when seeking a building permit, Cairo said. In areas with a lot of asphalt and concrete, trees make a measurable difference in temperatures, she said.

Concerns about climate change and increasing occurrences of heat waves are expected to place a growing emphasis on how urban planning and design can be tapped to help keep cities cool.

“Ten-plus years ago … it was on people’s minds,” Hencke said. “Now, it feels like we have reached a point where city councils are demanding action. The planners were advocates, but the call to action wasn’t well received just 10 years ago.”

The post Keeping cool by design appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Let’s up our game in regional transportation planning

Last time I talked about the need to get more assertive in thinking about the long-term infrastructure needs of the city of Portland and the region. While water and environmental facilities should be considered, the transportation network is the one we all think about every day, and it’s where the biggest issues will be in the future.  The increasing congestion of the last few years has been a wake-up call, and it will only get much worse with a projected large population increase in the coming years.

Metro is beginning the planning process that will lead to the development of the , which is very timely. However, in order for us to really figure out how to avoid further deterioration in our future mobility, it is important that the process be even more visionary than it has been in the past

Although the Portland region has been a leader nationally for how to do this kind of inclusive regional planning, there are other places that recently have embarked on even broader and more sophisticated processes to address the future of transportation.  One of those is San Francisco, where ex-Portland Planning Director Gil Kelley launched a “scenario planning” process that fully embraces current technologies for forecasting and displaying the implications of different land use/transportation futures.   This, in turn, will enable a much more robust and accessible assessment of what’s needed to develop realistic plans for the future.

Given the scale of the problems and challenges we face, Metro needs to up its game and, with the active help of the regions residents, determine how we’re going to provide the best mix of transportation systems for the region’s long term health along with the means to pay for it.

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Jim Kessinger, owner of Plumper Pumpkin Patch & Tree Farm LLC, was reappointed this week by the Multnomah Board of County Commissioners to the county planning commission to another four-year term. His previous term expired last month.

The nine-member volunteer commission serves as an advisory board to county commissioners on unincorporated Multnomah County.

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As I noted in my last post, good urban planning starts with a regional concept that, based on the best information available, has the greatest chance of achieving a high quality of life for its residents over the long term. The Portland Metro region made a choice 20 years ago to accommodate growth by building at higher densities rather than spreading out onto valuable farmland (see oregonmetro.gov).  Every jurisdiction in the region has created regulations to guide the development process toward that end.

But local governments have a very limited role in actually building that future.  The private market develops property using the regulations as a baseline, but in most areas has great latitude about the final product.  With few exceptions the private market builds and owns housing. Local governments have very limited tools to help create or preserve housing that is affordable to the vast majority of their residents.   The only legal way for them to influence the housing market at present is to reach an agreement with a developer in redevelopment areas to provide lower-priced units in exchange for something they value, like allowing more units overall.  They cannot require affordable units.  (That may change soon, though, if an “inclusionary zoning” bill passes in the Oregon Legislature.)

Likewise, cities can do very little to maintain housing affordability.  The bottom line is that gentrification is basically a natural result of the private real estate market.

Portland has made the most of its limited tools to keep some housing affordable. Good planning can help by controlling where and how many new units are built while also placing reasonable limits on redevelopment.  But in our private market based system, it is essential to understand the limits of government to dictate the exact outcome.  Placing blame on government for issues like affordable housing is to misunderstand the way the private market works.

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In the past I’ve talked a lot about the main areas of growth and development for Portland’s long-term future – the urban centers and major corridors. But recently a number of controversies have surfaced within neighborhoods about the impacts of changes (teardowns, incompatible design, etc.) that are ongoing as redevelopment occurs in those areas composed of mostly single-family houses. Is anything happening to address these issues?

With the Comprehensive Plan update nearly complete, attention at the city staff level over the next year or two will turn to implementation measures – most prominently the zoning code, which sets the regulatory structure for development and redevelopment. The code update will follow the direction of the Comprehensive Plan and concentrate on the centers and corridors (the Mixed Use Zones discussed previously) in the coming year; however, there are proposals in next year’s budget to address these ongoing issues as well.

Specifically, there is a proposal to revise the standards for single-family areas to address compatibility concerns, lot coverage and height requirements, “skinny lot” development, while providing some flexibility for needed infill development and redevelopment. A companion proposal would update the historic resources inventory over a period of years in order to provide a more rational basis for determining which buildings merit retention, and where redevelopment is appropriate.

Finally, there is also a need to update the standards for multifamily-zoned areas, especially as the existing stock of apartment buildings is aging and will need significant upgrades in the future.

Over and above basic zoning standards, one of the much discussed ways to address these neighborhood concerns is to expand design review outside the central city. However, state law restricts where that can occur. In future posts I’ll talk about how and where that might make sense.

The post BLOG: Teardowns and other hot neighborhood issues appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Financing infrastructure is always a challenge – and nowhere more than in Portland where we are in front-row seats to a slugfest led by Mayor Charlie Hales and City Councilman Steve Novick.

The challenges that are being dealt with by the interested parties demonstrate that this issue is not a slam dunk. The inability to quickly pass an additional source of revenue for repair of infrastructure that everybody uses tells us that Portlanders don’t see this as an issue worthy of significant public support.

This additional funding request is not a particularly forward-thinking concept. It is needed to take care of matters of immediate concern, such as sidewalks on busy streets to be sure that our children can get safely to school. Walking is, after all, a legitimate form of transportation.

The contradiction between providing for fundamental maintenance of an existing infrastructure system and the spending of additional dollars for new systems is glaring. The Portland-Milwaukie Light Rail Project is a multibillion-dollar investment in forward-thinking transportation planning. Once built, however, will it fall victim to a similar attitude on maintenance and capital reinvestment as the street system has? Will it also not be upgraded in the future when new planning strategies suggest that the existing system does not meet the contemporary requirements of its future day?

After all, that is exactly what the street fee issue is all about. It is about upgrading a system put in place perhaps a half a century ago to meet the lifestyle and economic requirements of 2015.

The history of the construction of major projects has always been that projects are permanent. It may be, however, that this premise is itself obsolete. Systems and projects may not decay or wear out, but become functionally obsolete. They simply don’t suit people in the way that they choose to live today. Furthermore, the one-size-fits-all approach is not capable of meeting the diverse needs of today’s Oregonians.

The mindset deriving from the difficult economic conditions of the past several years has appropriately conditioned Portlanders to examine expenditures more carefully and to demand accountability from those who are in charge. Recent economic trends, however, indicate that the national economy is on a significant recovery trajectory. The challenges of the last few years must not be forgotten, but put in context.

The very nature of our technological advances has disrupted the funding source that has traditionally been a reliable foundation for infrastructure maintenance. As technology reduces gasoline consumption, a significant revenue source will no longer be able to provide the support it has. While tolls are not acceptable as a revenue source to this local population, the current conversation about fees is no different. The questions are the same: how much must be paid, what will be spent, how much will be spent and who will look over the expenditures.

Christian Steinbrecher is president of Columbia River Port Engineers Inc. and the immediate past president of the Oregon Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers. He is the editor of ASCE Oregon’s Report Card on Oregon’s Infrastructure. Contact him at cfs@carpengrs@.com.

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In the past I’ve written quite a bit about the reliance the city of Portland has placed on its “centers and corridors” strategy to absorb most of the new residential growth the city is anticipating in the future. It’s a strategy that has its roots in the city’s 1972 Downtown Plan, has been enshrined as the cornerstone of Metro’s regional growth strategy since the adoption of the 2040 Growth Concept in the mid-1990s, and is a major element of the new draft Comprehensive Plan.

In the last few years we have begun to see a major surge in three-to-five-story buildings with commercial space on the ground floor and apartments on the upper floors, especially in many parts of inner east Portland such as Southeast Division Street and North Williams Avenue. These areas are changing dramatically as a result, and there has been a good deal of controversy, particularly about potentially increased traffic and taller buildings adjacent to single-family houses. As part of the new Comprehensive Plan and accompanying zoning code revisions, the city has been working on the Mixed Use Zones Project, which aims to completely overhaul the way it regulates these types of projects.

The new Comprehensive Plan proposes to revise what’s been allowed in most commercial areas, creating a vibrant mix of uses throughout the central city, in smaller commercial centers, and along major transportation corridors throughout the city. The MUZ project directly addresses concerns about how these mixed-use projects will integrate into the fabric of existing neighborhoods. The early concept work looks very promising, with major attention to building heights and transitions to adjacent housing, basic design standards, and incentives for community benefits such as affordable housing, historic preservation, and key community services such as grocery stores, day care and publicly accessible outdoor space.

As this work progresses I’ll be commenting further about how it will be helping to transform Portland as it grows.

The post BLOG: Making higher density work appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

I made another trip to Houston last week, which provoked some thoughts about the contrast between what has happened as a result of planning in Portland over the last few decades, and the situation in Houston.

As mentioned before, Houston has long been the anti-planning poster child for its lack of zoning as an implementation tool. They do have a planning department, though I definitely will have to find out what functions they perform if I keep writing about the city.

In the inner-ring neighborhoods around downtown, the lack of coordination between land use and transportation planning combined with the lack of any zoning controls on land use is enabling widespread unplanned redevelopment. Houses throughout these neighborhoods from as early as 1890 are being torn down and replaced with townhouses and apartment developments; most have no access to transit within a mile or more, and even then it’s spotty. In some cases massive apartment complexes are being erected with no transit service within any reasonable walking distance.

Portland has been criticized lately for allowing similar redevelopment projects in certain areas. However, the major difference is that these projects are allowed only where there is significant transit capacity within easy walking distance. Metro just renewed, through the November ballot, its commitment to protect the integrity of single-family neighborhoods throughout the metropolitan area while encouraging higher intensity land uses, including significant housing density, in high-capacity transit corridors.

The difference between the two regions could not be more dramatic. Houston will continue to see massive traffic buildup in these newly popular inner areas to match their suburban traffic nightmare, while Portland will show much greater increases in density while maintaining a much higher quality of life in similar inner neighborhoods.

The post BLOG: Houston vs. Portland appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Milwaukie hasn’t gained a mixed-use development since 2006, when Tom Kemper built the four-story North Main Village. But city officials, anticipating increased pedestrian traffic when TriMet opens its orange light rail line late next summer, are working to make the town more inviting for entrepreneurs.

“We’ve been working for about the last two or three years, at least, to take advantage of opportunities related to the new light rail station,” Milwaukie Community Development Director Steve Butler said. “In the last three or four months it’s like someone really flipped a switch. We’ve seen a lot of interest from businesses looking to set up locations.”

The orange line’s 7.3-mile corridor runs southeast through Portland, ending in Oak Grove after passing through downtown Milwaukie with a station between Main Street and Southeast 21st Avenue.

Butler mentioned four businesses – Molly Muriel Apothecary, Painted Lady Coffee House, textile store Roger & Ives and wine bar Wine:30 – that opened within the past year in the downtown area with sights set on the light rail line’s arrival.

“We have been working over the last year to update policy and zoning standards because the old zoning map and its standards didn’t reflect what we wanted to see,” Butler said. “Downtown Milwaukie is even more business-friendly than in the past since we’ve worked to streamline the development process.”

Kemper said he hopes the city modifies zoning standards to allow a greater range of businesses on Main Street. Since North Main Village opened, he said, 2,300 square feet of ground-floor space has sat vacant because city code restricts the uses allowed. North Main Village has five retail spaces below three floors of one- and two-bedroom units.

“The residential part of the property has been very successful,” Kemper said. “But what’s been tough, and I hope they (address), is allowing some flexibility. They wouldn’t allow any sort of office activity on the ground floor facing Main (Street).”

Butler said the city contacted Kemper to gauge his interest on developing another mixed-use project in Milwaukie. Kemper said that for now he’s not interested, but the option isn’t off the table. He currently is the executive director of Housing Works, the Central Oregon housing authority serving Crook, Jefferson and Deschutes counties.

Meanwhile, Milwaukie Mayor Jeremy Ferguson said city officials are working to develop for downtown a new zoning plan that they’d like to have in place by the end of the first quarter of 2015.

“We have a lot of developers looking at Milwaukie right now,” he said. “I think some are waiting on the orange line and others are waiting to see what comes of our ‘Moving Forward Milwaukie’ project.”

City planners have been working on “,” since 2009 with the goal of assessing different city parts – residential, commercial and industrial – to develop and refine the vision for area character and function as well as encourage development.

“We’ve had two developer roundtable meetings; both were well-attended, but one had 23 developers,” Ferguson said. “We heard from multiple developers that they’d like the zoning changed, and I’m sure that would be something that would come before the planning ���dz������������Dz�.”

Ferguson said the downtown area currently has seven different sub-zones, making development confusing and difficult.
“We want to broaden the uses allowed downtown,” he said. “We’re also addressing issues of building heights and taking a look at different urban renewal ideas, like granting tax exemptions or credits for certain types of developments in the hopes that we increase foot traffic.”

Kemper agreed that the lack of foot traffic downtown has stanched development in Milwaukie.

“The only two employers they’ve really got is Moda (Health) and (Dark Horse Comics),” he said. “The rest are real small businesses, and there’s not a lot of housing. To kick-start the area what they really need is the housing.”

Branda Tiffany, owner of Molly Muriel Apothecary, moved her wholesale business into a space on 21st Avenue in October 2013 and opened the storefront in February. She said she hardly gets any foot traffic.

“This little downtown area isn’t ready to rely on foot traffic yet, but there’s just a buzz in the air and I feel like the (orange) line is going to bring people,” she said. “Those people will bring more people and they’re going to stop and explore.”

Tiffany has lived in the Sellwood area for about 10 years and said she’s had her eye on Milwaukie as the right location for her business.

“It’s becoming a younger crowd down here, which is good for my type of business,” she said. “It’s just going to take a few more businesses opening – maybe a few restaurants.”

Kemper said he thinks the addition of the orange line will spur the type of growth Tiffany is hoping for.

“It’s an up-and-coming area that’s close to downtown (Portland),” he said. “It’s got an incredibly beautiful waterfront and now the light rail is coming; it’s going to change that town.”

The city in 2012 began work on the $3 million enhancement project at Riverfront Park. Butler said construction is nearly complete – ahead of the Christmas Ships Parade on Dec. 20.

“We’re finishing up on the major renovations,” Butler said. “We’ve added a boat ramp, expanded the park and enhanced the trails.”

The changes to Milwaukie’s downtown are drawing a younger crowd to the area, Butler said.

“People are realizing we have a small-town character and feel. We’re seeing people in their 20s and 30s moving here who maybe want to buy a house, settle down and have a family,” he said. “We’re small enough that it’s still possible to get involved in the community. That’s also true on the development side.”

The city is trying to find developers interested in three parcels it owns – two 40,000-square-foot tracts and one 8,000-square-foot piece – near downtown.

The post Milwaukie prepping for orange line appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

The last couple of posts I’ve talked about some of the planning issues in Houston, including issues having to do with “walkability” and livability generally. I also recently spent time in France, and it’s always interesting to revisit those special places Americans have come to love as examples of great livability – specifically, those classic features of both big cities and small villages that make it easy to walk to take care of one’s daily needs in a very charming setting.

But the last few times we’ve been in Europe, it’s evident that elements of an auto-centric life are starting to creep in. We stayed with friends in the village of Labastide-d’Anjou in southern France for a couple of days, and it had all the elements of a thriving small town – the bakery, café, small grocery stores and other services all concentrated within a few blocks of the town square and church. But right at the edge of town, just off of the regional highway, was a new strip mall with a large amount of convenient parking right in front of seven or eight stores, including a supermarket.

France has tried very hard to preserve what it recognizes as its most valuable asset – the scenic beauty, vibrancy and quality of life of its countryside. More than almost any other factor, that is what has made France the most visited country on Earth. And it has happened only because of extensive direct subsidies to French farmers, keeping them on their land and making good use of it. But the corollary policy has always been to keep the towns and villages compact and economically vibrant as well.

If either is eroded, France will lose a major economic mainstay. If a successful strip mall leads to a hollowed-out town center, the consequences for that village, and eventually others, may be quite unfortunate.

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