The city of Portland is continuing to find unallocated money within the Housing Bureau, and the latest discovery brings the total to more than $106 million.

Currently, the Portland City Council is considering how to handle the discovery last summer of a $20.7 million surplus within the Housing Bureau. On Wednesday, the council voted 8-4 for the city administrator to release public records tied to the surplus by Feb. 20 and schedule an oversight hearing for no later than March 6.

But the passage of follows the council being informed Feb. 1 of an additional surplus of $24.9 million unbudgeted in sub-funds within the Housing Investment Fund. Then on Friday, the city administrator announced another discovery of $62.1 million unbudgeted in four other PHB funds.

The $20.7 million is from the Portland Housing Bureau‘s Rental Services Office. Money accrued over the past several years as fees were paid by landlords as part of the city’s Residential Rental Registration program. The PHB discovered the money in August 2025 and then notified the council in November.

The City Council is considering what to do with the funds, but initial targets included several rent assistance programs, eviction prevention services, emergency housing vouchers, landlord/tenant education for tenant protections, affordable housing stabilization, and down payment assistance.

On Feb. 18, the City Council will vote on a full resolution addressing the $20.7 million. Previously, on Jan. 28, the council voted 8-4 to approve an amendment that removed emergency housing vouchers from consideration. Instead, $5.6 million would be appropriated for the Broadway Corridor affordable housing project, $1 million for the Williams & Russell project, and $1.5 million for Self Enhancement Inc.‘s Northeast 13th Avenue affordable homeownership project.

The most recent discovered surpluses – the $24.9 million and the $62.1 million – are not being addressed in .

Several councilors on Wednesday voiced support for the city administrator and Mayor Keith Wilson to hire an outside investigator. Council President Jamie Dunphy said the best option is to hire an outside investigator, but it would be expensive and the investigation would require one or two months to accomplish.

“I think this is entirely backward looking,” Councilor Steve Novick said. “What I want to know is what steps the administration is taking to ensure that we know, and they know, what money is available in various pots.”

Councilor Loretta Smith said the oversight hearing needs to focus on the full unaccounted funding ($106 million) and not just the $20.7 million. Councilor Mitch Green noted that the resolution would not prevent the council from discussing the full amount.

PHB interim director Michael Buonocore said the bureau’s finance team, which submits financial details to the city’s budget office annually, has eight or nine people. Smith said they should provide testimony during the hearing.

Following an initial oversight hearing some time before March 6, others could follow.

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A 235-unit affordable housing community in downtown Portland is undergoing renovation; work is expected to finish this summer.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has provided Section 8 project-based rental assistance at Rose Schnitzer Tower. But that contract was set to end in December 2027. Via recapitalization, developer Guardian Real Estate Services preserved the subsidy for the next 20 years.

Portland has properties totaling more than 1,000 affordable housing units with regulatory agreements approaching expiration.

“Preserving existing buildings and preserving existing subsidies is huge, and frankly, just as important as new construction,” said Tom Brenneke, founder and president of Guardian Real Estate Services.

Rose Schnitzer Tower, at 1430 S.W. 12th Ave., was constructed in 1979. The 17-story building has one-bedroom units for low-income seniors. Residents pay 30 percent of their adjusted income for rent and utilities, while HUD provides a monthly subsidy payment to the owner to cover the remaining cost of maintaining and operating units.

The $9 million rehabilitation is addressing critical building systems and accessibility. The building envelope, mechanical and fire/life safety systems, accessibility features, interior common areas and designated mobility units are receiving improvements. Site work will include landscaping and entryway upgrades.

Approximately 12 residents will be temporarily relocated to available vacant units within the building or to nearby hotel rooms with kitchens.

The project team includes architect Leeb Architects, interior designer Tello Interiors, Denver-based construction manager and consultant Marx Okubo, general contractor R&H Construction, and relocation specialist Peregrine Relocations.

Guardian Real Estate Services recapitalized and executed the project for Robison Jewish Home, a Portland-based nonprofit. The company assisted with the building rehabilitation.

“We are a co-general partner, they (Robison Jewish Home) are a co-general partner, and a new tax credit investor, Royal Bank of Canada, is a limited partner,” Brenneke said.

Harold and Arlene Schnitzer donated the property to Robison Jewish Home around 20 years ago, Brenneke said, and the nonprofit will continue to own the property.

The project owner is Rose Schnitzer Tower Affordable Limited Partnership, which includes Robison Jewish Home, Guardian Real Estate Services, and tax credit investor Royal Bank of Canada.

Guardian Real Estate Services closed on financing for the project in December. A Freddie Mac Tax-Exempt Loan combined with 4 percent Low-Income Housing Tax Credit equity and $37 million in housing development revenue bonds from Oregon Housing and Community Services were used to complete the recapitalization.

“To really understand the way the state funding goes, you’ll find what I would characterize a very lopsided set of funding resources where around 75 percent of it is going toward new buildings and 25 percent is going for preserving existing affordable housing projects,” Brenneke said. “I’m an advocate for maybe some more balance here.”

Crafting a deal to preserve affordable housing is an enormous effort, Brenneke said, and it usually comes with rehabilitation.

Construction began in December and is expected to finish in July.

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The Portland Design Commission on Thursday discussed a draft of the .

Bureau of Planning and Sustainability (BPS) staff presented an overview of approximately 18 potential amendments to the comprehensive plan, zoning code maps, zoning code use allowances and development standards that are intended to facilitate housing production and revitalization in the Central City. The draft will be open to public review through Feb. 13.

The project is responsive to other efforts to revitalize the Central City, BPS Chief Planner Patricia Diefenderfer said.

“BPS began to research ways to maximize housing, including the analysis of current density allowances, floor area ratios and maximum building heights, specifically on how to structure bonuses to encourage large multi-bedroom units,” she said.

Amendments to the Central City 2035 Plan could include increasing allowable heights in certain areas, providing additional floor area ratio (FAR) bonuses, and more. Since the plan was adopted in 2018, the downtown area has experienced unprecedented trends in retail and office vacancy, according to the project’s website.

Other possible changes include rezoning parts of the Central City to provide greater development flexibility and encourage new housing, expanding land use allowances in Central Commercial zones to accommodate a broader mix of uses such as light manufacturing, repealing prohibitions of housing in parts of Central Employment zones, expanding allowances for retail and other uses in Open Space zones to support parks, adding a FAR bonus to encourage the development of multi-bedroom units, expanding allowable locations of food carts and pods, and providing more flexibility for temporary surface parking.

Since the pandemic, there has been a desire by the city to let food carts operate outside of surface parking lots, Senior City Planner Troy Doss said.

“The reason food carts have been in surface parking lots for so long is because they are regulated as a vehicle,” he said. “They can only be in vehicle areas or legally created parking lots.”

The food carts in Pioneer Courthouse Square were grandfathered in before provisions were changed, Doss said. The proposed change would be citywide and not just in the Central City.

BPS also proposes changing the requirement of 60 percent coverage of eco-roofs in the Central City to allow a mix of eco-roofs and solar panels, Doss said.

Another possible change would be to reduce the coverage of prohibition of ground-floor housing units. Commissioner Zari Santner expressed concern about potential losses of active uses at ground level. A reduction in the number of streets with prohibition of ground-floor units would need to come something that addresses quality-of-life issues, she said.

Improving livability in a neighborhood requires additions of amenities such as retail spaces and health care facilities, Commissioner Tina Bue added. The main goal of the project is to make sure the zoning code is not standing in the way of such development, Diefenderfer said.

People can submit comments on the discussion draft through Feb. 13. BPS will then create a proposed draft in March.

The Design Commission on Jan. 29 will finalize ideas to incorporate into a letter to the Planning Commission and the City Council with its recommendations. The Design Commission plans to vote on the letter during its meeting on Feb. 5.

A Planning Commission hearing will take place in April. Any revisions will be included in BPS’ recommended draft, which will go before the City Council in late summer or early fall. A final decision on the draft is expected by the end of the year.

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The Portland City Council on Wednesday unanimously approved a resolution to study the city’s design review process, including possible reforms and a moratorium.

The resolution struck a compromise between the status quo and some critics who urged the council to suspend design review immediately.

“The time of stopping your neighbor’s housing development from going forward because you don’t like the color of the glass that they’re using — I think that should be over,” said Eric Zimmerman, a District 4 councilor and co-sponsor of the resolution alongside Angelita Morillo.

City Administrator Raymond C. Lee III now has 120 days to prepare a report with recommendations for the City Council.

Lee was confirmed by the City Council on Wednesday to serve as the city’s first administrator, the city government’s top nonelected position. He most recently served as city manager of Greeley, Colorado.

Zimmerman said it’s important to distinguish between design review and zoning, as he sought to quell fears of tall buildings in residential neighborhoods. He added that reform of design review will be more successful after engaging with city staff and other stakeholders.

“I think we get to win this message better if we do it in this collaborative, staff-supported way,” he said.

Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney thanked Zimmerman and Morillo for not seeking to immediately dismantle design review.

“I want us to be able to have a comprehensive discussion about design review that moves beyond a binary choice between the status quo and abolishing the system completely, and what you’ve brought us today gives us that opportunity,” Pirtle-Guiney said.

Others, however, urged the council to move faster. Councilor Jamie Dunphy said he “would have brought a resolution forward and just suspended it, personally.”

“I personally want to live in a city that is filled with interesting, vibrant buildings that are not dated by the time they are open,” he said.

Robert Pile, principal at Oakleaf reDevelopment in Portland, urged the council to consider a design review moratorium.

“This is a key opportunity to help expedite entitlements and lower production costs — two things we need to stimulate more housing supply,” he said.

The design review study, which will be due in April, is intended to complement other measures that seek to spur development, including a three-year system development charge waiver that was approved in July.

The push comes amid state and local goals to build more housing.

“We really do have to change the way that we build in Portland, and this is our opportunity to get that information so that we can make those tough choices,” Morillo said.

Councilor Dan Ryan encouraged the study to shine a light on the Historic Landmarks Commission, which he said practices a “de facto override of zoning review processes.”

Councilor Sameer Kanal said the study should consider a design review exemption for conversions of offices to housing units.

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The city of Portland is preparing to offer developers $7 million in incentives to convert vacant office space into multifamily housing.

Prosper Portland will administer the pilot program, which was first announced in May. It’s one part of the city’s strategy to reduce its massive stock of vacant office space, which totaled more than 9 million square feet during the third quarter, according to CBRE.

Mayor Keith Wilson, in remarks given during a Multifamily NW event on Oct. 16, said the funding would likely go to only a few office-to-housing conversion projects.

“We’re not going to spread that peanut butter thin,” Wilson said.

Funding may be awarded in the next four to six weeks, Prosper Portland spokesman Shawn Uhlman said Monday.

Funding for the pilot program is expected to come from the Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund (PCEF) through an intergovernmental agreement with Prosper Portland.

Limited available funding, approximately $7 million, will support two to three pilot projects, Elliott Kozuch, the city’s spokesman for community and economic development, stated in an email.

City officials are looking for projects that are ready to go.

“The initial pilot projects are expected to both be development-ready and provide access to detailed project data … and participate in an embodied carbon study with PCEF and Prosper Portland,” Kozuch stated.

The conversion incentive grew out of recommendations from the Multifamily Housing Development Workgroup that was convened by Wilson and Gov. Tina Kotek in the spring.

The City Council still must agree to an adjustment to the PCEF’s Climate Investment Plan to allow the funding to be used, and to increase the allocation beyond the pilot phase.

Prosper Portland’s board approved guidelines for the program on Oct. 8.

“Portland faces the dual challenge of historically high office vacancy rates and a shortage of affordable and middle-income housing,” Prosper Portland Executive Director Cornell Wesley wrote to the board.

Public officials have lauded office-to-residential conversions as a solution to empty urban office space, but getting those projects to construction has proved difficult. Conversion costs are significant: Building codes require stronger seismic protection in residences. Floor plates designed for an office can poorly suit an apartment building. And features including staircases, windows, heating and cooling systems, and elevators may need to be rethought or relocated.

Sarah Zahn, director of development for Security Properties and a member of the governmental work group, said it makes sense to give large amounts of funding to a few projects.

“It’s good they recognize it’s going to take a substantial investment to do a project like this,” Zahn said.

The program should interest developers, said Ezra Hammer, a shareholder at Portland-based law firm Jordan Ramis.

“Is free money good?” he said. “Yes, free money is good.”

A successful conversion project could spur more of the kind, Hammer said.

“The real value is you get the projects going, but you prove the concept in the market,” he said.

The incentive will be structured as a forgivable 10-year loan at 2 percent interest. One-tenth of the principal balance of the loan would be forgiven each year. Rents must remain affordable to renters at 60 percent to 120 percent of area median income. The affordability requirement will make apartments available to a broad swath of renters but could limit developers’ potential upside.

“This targeted investment not only accelerates the delivery of new housing units but also advances Portland’s climate action and housing production goals in tandem,” Wesley told the Prosper Portland board.

So far, prior to the incentives taking effect, two conversion projects have moved forward in Portland. A project team plans to convert the Oregon Casket Building, at 403 N.W. Fifth Ave. in Old Town, into a 25,000-square-foot mixed-use building with 34 residential units and retail space.

The second conversion project involves the Falcon Building, at 321 N.W. Glisan St. It previously held 85,500 square feet of office space and is on track to become 59 units of middle-income housing.

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Portland State University is moving forward with plans to build a six-story, 124,000-square-foot dorm building for first-year students.

PSU on Tuesday requested an early assistance meeting with Portland Permitting & Development for the proposed project at 1831 S.W. Park Ave.

“This is an opportunity to build our first purpose-built, first-year residence hall,” said Ashley Wendler, PSU’s executive director of University Housing and Residence Life.

The project, first announced in January, would include approximately 550 beds, mostly in double-occupancy units. Some single-occupancy and triple-occupancy units would also be part of the mix.

GBD Architects is designing the building. Fortis Construction is on board as general contractor; subcontractors have not yet been hired.

Amenities would include private restrooms in each unit, multiple community lounges per floor, study nooks, classrooms, community and allergen-free kitchens, a music practice room and offices. A large porch area would front the South Park Blocks.

The location is “one of the more premier lots on campus, I would argue,” Wendler said.

Delivery of the building would free up space in others for transfer students, graduate students and continuing students, according to PSU officials. Freshmen currently reside in the Broadway and Ondine residence halls.

The development is in part intended to compete with other institutions’ buildings that offer modern amenities, Wendler said. PSU is projecting flat enrollment for the next several years.

“Our enrollment is steady,” PSU spokeswoman Christina Williams said. “What we’re doing is replacing some buildings that are at the end of their useful life as far as being modern, accessible and seismically sound.”

Prices will be on par with U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development guidelines for affordable housing, PSU officials said.

“Portland’s an expensive city to live in,” Williams said. “Any housing that we can offer that’s affordable for students is better for student outcomes.”

Unlike in many market-rate buildings, on-campus renters do not have to post large security deposits or first and last months’ rent, Wendler said. No proof of income is required, and the application fee is a modest $50.

“We are low-barrier housing,” she said.

Work is expected to begin in late 2026 with deconstruction of the Blackstone and Montgomery buildings. Construction of the new building is slated to begin in winter 2027 and expected to finish in time to accommodate students in fall 2028.

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The team with a long-awaited plan to redevelop Centennial Mills, in Northwest Portland, will have to wait at least four more weeks for potential approval after design commissioners on Thursday punted on a vote.

Commissioners agreed to a request from Portland Permitting & Development staff members who said they need time to write a condition of approval regarding river access, and to tie up other loose ends.

Commissioners had appeared to be on the verge of approving the redevelopment scheme, and a staff report prepared for Thursday’s meeting recommended approval.

The proposal from a local group led by Lindquist Development would transform the largely vacant 4.4-acre parcel at 1362 N.W. Naito Parkway. Lindquist proposes to construct three buildings with 272 residential units and four retail spaces.

Two of the buildings would be five stories, while the remaining building would rise six stories in a five-over-one configuration. Plans call for including 174 below-grade parking spaces.

The developer also has set aside land for open space, including a woonerf — a shared roadway for pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists — a plaza and a staircase that would provide Portlanders access to the Willamette River.

“This has an opportunity to be an iconic moment along the river,” Commissioner Tina Bue said.

The plan also dedicates space for a pedestrian bridge over Naito Parkway. But Kurt Schultz, principal and director of housing at SERA Architects, who is the lead designer for Centennial Mills, acknowledged that there’s no funding in place for the bridge.

Members of the public who testified on Thursday expressed concern about whether the river access would be good enough, and how to ensure Lindquist Development follows through with its promises.

Centennial Mills represents a unique opportunity to give Portlanders access to the river in Northwest Portland, said Sage Bachman, community outreach manager for the Human Access Project, a local advocacy group.

“In reality, there are very few ways for people to physically connect to the river,” she said.

Bachman added that the city’s Northwest quadrant is “completely lacking in public access to the river.”

For design commissioners, the remaining questions were largely aesthetic. Some commissioners said they were torn between a desire to honor the site’s industrial history, while allowing for some design flexibility.

Designers don’t necessarily have to use the darker colors of industry, Bue said.

“Is there a different way to look at color as a response to the environment instead of just harkening back to what was there before?” she said.

The project is up against a ticking clock: A zoning change that will limit the site’s buildable land area will take effect in December. If the project is not entitled by then, the new rule may affect the project’s feasibility, Schultz said.

The project’s extensive public space is “more than adequate,” Schultz said.

“We’re just trying to preserve buildable site area on a very constrained site, and we’re concerned about losing even more buildable area to open space,” he said.

The four-week delay until the commission will again consider the project is only the latest setback for Centennial Mills. Prosper Portland tried for years to entice developers to build on the site after the city took control of the parcel in 2000, only to be repeatedly rebuffed.

Previous developers to consider the site before eventually backing away include Lynd Opportunity Partners, Harsch Investment Properties, LAB Holding, Venerable Properties and Intrinsic Ventures. Finally, in September 2024, Prosper Portland sold the site for $1.25 million to 1362 Centennial Mills LLC (MLR Ventures), tied to Portland developers Tim and Lucas Ralston, washing the city’s hands of the troubled property. The Lindquist group soon took over from the Ralstons.

The Centennial Mills project team is tentatively scheduled to return before the Design Commission on Oct. 16.

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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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The city of Portland has tasked its city administrator with aligning existing policies to create a unified housing strategy related to housing production, preservation and stabilization.

The strategy will be designed as an implementation tool with defined tasks and metrics. It will address homelessness and sheltering, permitting and development, land use and zoning, anti-displacement, workforce development and other innovative housing approaches, including social housing.

The Portland City Council on Wednesday voted 11-1 to approve the resolution (Councilor Dan Ryan voted no).

The city’s Homelessness and Housing Committee in May chose to send the resolution to the council for adoption. The city administrator will provide periodic updates to the committee, as well as submit a full draft of the strategy by Dec. 1.

According to American Community Survey data from 2023, half of Portland renters are cost-burdened, spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing-related costs, while 28 percent are severely cost-burdened, spending more than 50 percent of their income on housing-related costs, the city’s resolution states.

In response to the housing emergency, the city has adopted and implemented numerous policies to address homelessness and housing instability. They include the Housing Production Strategy, the Housing Needs Analysis, the Anti-Displacement Action Plan, the Portland Inclusionary Housing program, the Affordable Housing Tax Increment Financing Set Aside Policy, and others.

The intent of the housing strategy is to see where gaps exist in the city’s policies. For example, the Housing Production Strategy did not address sheltered housing transitions. Councilor Loretta Smith asked for the strategy to identify gaps by district.

The strategy will be informed by cross-jurisdictional plans and agreements with Multnomah County, Metro, and the state to eventually create a regional system to address the housing crisis.

Ryan asked for rent regulations to be added to the plan, because it was not included in the resolution but discussed during the committee meeting. Councilor Candace Avalos said the overall objectives, including rent regulations, will be discussed further by the committee.

Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney said Portland has some of the smallest units in the U.S. being delivered to the market. She would like to see the strategy include housing for families of all sizes, she added.

The unified housing strategy draft will be presented to the Homelessness and Housing Committee by Dec. 1.

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Multnomah County will soon issue a request for proposals (RFP) from parties interested in partnering in its Walnut Park redevelopment project.

In 2018, the county began evaluating future options for the 74-year-old Walnut Park Complex it owns and operates on 1.7 acres at 5329 N.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. The building houses the Northeast Health Center, a dental clinic, a Meals on Wheels dining center, and the Urban League of Portland‘s Multicultural Senior Center. It is also home to county offices and service centers, including the Department of County Human Services, its Aging, Disability and Veterans Services Division, and a Homeless Services Department shelter, a county press release states.

Four years later, JM Woolley & Associates, Black Investment Consortium for Economic Progress (BICEP), and Cascadia Partners led a redevelopment feasibility study. The conceptual plan included a mix of housing, ground-floor commercial space, office space, community space, and updated and expanded county service space, a Multnomah County staff report states. The intent of the project is to create space to serve the Black community and people of color. The development will be designed and programmed as a community healing and service center, the feasibility report states.

Since the study was completed, the county has explored cost and financing options for the project. A partnership with a developer will help Multnomah County manage the project’s impact on its finances and leverage outside funding.

Multnomah County purchasing manager Brian Smith said staff approached the Board of Commissioners earlier in the development process for approval to look at more options for project delivery and financing.

“I’m very confident that we will be able to – we’re working on the RFP right now – to get a developer on board who will work with us and be able to balance the fiscal responsibility with the equity concerns,” Smith said.

The draft RFP will be released within the next month, and a developer will be selected in the fall.

Starting in October, the chosen development partner will spend the next 12-18 months creating a proposal for redeveloping the Walnut Park Complex. The document will identify the financing plan and incorporate long-term planning and on-site program needs, as well as look at ownership trade-offs or leasing options. The proposal will then be presented to the Board of Commissioners for adoption.

Upon reception of the board’s approval, the project will move into the design phase. The board will receive quarterly written project updates as well as multiple opportunities to weigh in during each phase.

Last week the board unanimously approved an exemption from the design-bid-build delivery method for the project. For this procurement approach, the county will enter a contract with a developer with demonstrated experience in managing complex community-driven projects and an understanding of the historic and current significance of Walnut Park.

A project budget has not been established yet.

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