Mayoral candidate Rene Gonzalez and D4 City Council candidate Ben Hufford today released recommendations for immediately accelerating housing production in Portland.
“Analysis at the State and City level shows that Portland needs 6,000 new housing united immediately, but the city will open fewer than 800 new units in 2024,” said Rene Gonzalez.
Gonzalez consulted with Ben Hufford, architect and Candidate for City Council District 4, to develop meaningful, realistic reforms to accelerate housing construction.
These immediate reforms, applying to ALL housing permits and development, would contribute a savings of 5% of project cost in new market-rate construction and up to 15% in targeted affordable housing to make Portland competitive for housing investment.
ACCELERATING HOUSING PRODUCTION IN PORTLAND – IMMEDIATE RECOMMENDATIONS
We recommend an Immediate Housing Emergency Response Period responding to the Council’s March 2022-2025 Housing Emergency Declaration, as the basis for immediate action:
1. Meet the intent of the State of Oregon required 120-day approval window for Portland zoning/land use review and permit decisions. The default outcome on applications will be approval rather than denial.
2. Consolidate 28 separate permit reviews into 4 coordinated city reviews with a single point of contact to be more consistent with peer cities. City Reviews to become: Site Plan, Life Safety, Structural, and Site Utilities / ROW work.
3. Allow Type II Design Review (in lieu of Type III) on Housing Projects under both 8 stories and 80 units. Allow for Type II Design Review and permitting to run concurrently.
4. Expand tax credits in the form of Multiple Unit Limited Tax Exemption (MULTE), Systems Development Charge (SDC), and Construction Excise Tax (CET) waivers to a wider range of affordability requirements, for the purpose of incentivizing ALL types of multifamily housing. Match the timeline of the tax abatement to the duration of affordability caps and allow them to be renewed.
• Include housing units up to 100% MFI.
• Create credits for highly affordable units at the 80% level or below.
• Credit direct costs on public works, sidewalks and streets, toward SDC fees.
5. Expand Prosper Portland’s area of investment to include the full range of affordable housing production options, including units for sale.
In our new city government, we recognize that Portland’s housing construction market is a national investment market, and that Portland is competing with other cities for housing investment dollars. Other challenges in our city, both real and perceived, have impacted our ability to attract investment. It is the role of the Mayor and City Council to promote Portland. We will promote quality of life improvements to heal our reputation and attract investment in Portland. These quality-of-life improvements include improved public safety systems and camping removal and immediate shelter creation actions.