City planning staff recommended the Planning Commission increase the trigger from its current $25,000 level to $35,000, meaning if a property owner planned to spend more than that on a project, the owner would be required to spend 10% of the total project cost on becoming compliant with the aforementioned standards.
Instead, after several commercial property owners requested they be given a break in these tough economic times, the Planning Commission voted to recommend to the City Council a quadrupling of the trigger to $100,000.
The only catch in the recommendation is that the trigger falls back to the staff recommended $35,000 level (plus inflation) in two years if not already altered by other, broader changes to the non-conforming use statute, City Planner Brad Carter tells GlobeSt.com.
The vote on the matter was 5-to-1. Commissioner Amanda Fritz opposed the exponential change in part because she felt there should have been more discussion before such a significant departure from the staff recommendation. The Building Owners and Managers Association, of course, had no problem with the outcome.
"The Planning Commission was persuaded by the well-orchestrated testimony of business community representatives who made compelling arguments about the fragility of the economy and the adverse impact of the non-conforming upgrade requirements, especially on small businesses," states an email that went out to BOMA members after the decision, thanking them for responding to the email sent out before the event urging attendance and testimony.
As noted in the BOMA email, the commission's decision is merely a recommendation that will be heard by the City Council sometime in March, when the City Council could, in turn, depart from the Planning Commission's recommendation.
Last year, there were approximately 1,678 permits sought for upgrades to non-conforming property (Chapter 33.258 of the Portland Zoning Code). Of those, 267 were for projects costing more than $100,000.
Continue Reading for Free
Register and gain access to:
- Breaking commercial real estate news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical coverage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
