Mayor's demolition tax clears the way for more destruction

Mayor Hales, shown at the first meeting
of the Residential Infill Project last month,
says he wants to reduce demolitions,
but his tax won't.

After the mayor polished up his version of a demolition tax late last week, loading it with exemptions and rebates that keep it from becoming the excellent anti-demo measure that it could be, United Neighborhoods for Reform (UNR) crafted a demo tax that's easier to understand and administer, and serves the intended goals of maintaining and supporting affordable housing.

It is:

$35,000 per demolition or major remodel

Join us 2 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 14, at 1221 S.W. Fourth Ave. as we present this revised demolition tax to City Council and point out the problems with the mayor's version. After months of discussing how to curb demolitions and their damaging effects on neighborhoods, we are ready for action. A flat tax on demolitions and major remodels without any loopholes helps achieve that aim, especially if adopted with other measures.

Other disincentives to taking down viable affordable housing include effective abatement and control of hazardous materials at demolition sites, solid results from the Residential Infill Project (read on), mandatory deconstruction where demolition must occur, and a ban on lot splits and confirmations.

After seeing all the bungling of the demolition-delay rules adopted in spring, the city can't handle another cumbersome, ill-understood process. Bureau of Development Services staff are overloaded as it is, not financially able to enforce current complex permitting rules according to Council staff, and do not need to parse more labyrinthine code language that in the end does little to cure Portland's demolition blitz and likely will accelerate it.

Welcome home, Portland. Under the mayor's version of a demo tax, replacement houses will grow bigger.

All developers have to do is set aside a few rooms inside or detached from the replacement house, call it an additional living unit, and the tax doesn't apply. Replacement houses will become even bigger, and more houses will go down to make way for them. All the loopholes in the mayor's version of the tax practically ensure that no one will have to pay it. So much for progress.

Let's keep it simple: A house, or a majority of it, goes to the incinerator or landfill, a tax is paid for the privilege.

Let RIP roll with its mission

Planning chief Joe Zehnder (with mayoral staffer Camille
Trummer looking on) exudes optimism for the mission of
the Residential Infill Project at its first meeting. So why the
attempts to halve the meeting schedule and narrow the scope?

When Portlanders answered the call to serve on the stakeholder advisory committee for the Residential Infill Project (or RIP SAC), they were briefed on the scope, challenges, and time commitment expected for the project. Same with the outside consultants hired for the 18-month journey.

The idea for such a task force that would create new-construction guidelines came to the fore via the UNR demolition/development resolution, endorsed by 43 neighborhoods citywide.

The project launched with fanfare, then city staff suddenly halved the schedule for the meetings of the august group, and attempted to whittle its workload accordingly. It's almost as if—after that first meeting last month, when all members gave a short self-introduction—someone feared this group might accomplish something.

After objections raised by members of the group and others, meetings may be added back, and the scope re-expanded, but one wonders if the committee will be allowed to do what it is supposed to do. Just as ominously, staff kept reminding those assembled at the last meeting that the group only was meant to make recommendations, not actual changes, and few if any votes were expected.

Neighborhood activists show off signs of the times at
a meeting of the Residential Infill Project last week.

Planning chief Joe Zehnder stayed up until the public comment period at the second meeting last week, but not before emphasizing the goal of fast results. We couldn't agree more, and would add that well-thought-out results are just as important. Hopefully under a restored meeting schedule and scope, the group can deliver both, according to the initial plan.

After two hours of staff and facilitator holding forth at the last meeting, RIP SAC member Eli Spevak pointed out that if staff weren't so busy presenting administrative materials that could easily have been emailed or distributed as handouts, the group could get started. Yet later after more advising, the outside facilitator said, "We really want you guys to talk," but at that point the meeting had just 20 minutes to go.

Activists citywide fill the chairs to show they care.

Those last few minutes of the meeting were some of the liveliest. During the 10 minutes accorded for public comment, activists from South Burlingame and Multnomah Village covered almost all the bases for what's wrong with current Portland development. They said they would keep coming; we hope they do—and you, too. Submit your info here to learn about the next meetings.

Protection starts here

The first semiorganized effort to spread the word about control of hazardous materials during demolition occurred in Hosford-Abernethy, where an 1895 house is proposed for demolition at 2834 SE 20th Ave. If you receive the UNR flier, thank the person who delivered it and took the time to help neighbors protect themselves and their families from irreversible lifelong, and even life-threatening, illness.

For those who seek to downplay the potential effects of exposure to hazmat, note that these materials are regulated in renovation projects of 6 square feet or more but not for demolitions when they billow across the neighborhood in far greater amounts to settle in vegetable gardens and on kids' play equipment. The Centers for Disease Control says no amount of lead is safe in children. More background on hazmat and links to research are here.

See the next post for the flier itself. Submit your email at top right if you would like a printable pdf of it. The flier has a place to write in the address of the intended demolition at the top right. We recommend distributing copies to neighbors within 300 feet of the subject property, and up to 400 feet, the distance at which the feds have shown the demolition-related hazardous materials' presence in the air returns to background levels. That's about the width of eight standard R-5 lots in Portland.

A homegrown developer keeps it real in Northeast Portland.
Let's clone him.

Silver is golden

Local architect-designer Benjamin Silver recently bought a unique well-sited and -scaled home at 3865 N.E. Klickitat St. Where the short-term profiteers plying Portland would have smashed it in a second, Silver decided to make the home even better, and it represents a win for everyone. Read all about it here.

Hard-won info released, and The O exposes the threat among us

This week United Neighborhoods for Reform sent out its flier for neighbors faced with demolitions including info on how to protect yourself and children from the assumed release of hazardous materials such as lead and asbestos. Neighbors can and should take small steps toward safety for themselves and their families because most demolitions involve uncontrolled release of lead and/or asbestos particles into the air. Read a well-rounded package of reporting from The Oregonian on this important public health and safety issue here:

Unsettling dust: Hundreds of Portland homes demolished with asbestos inside

Oregon penalties for failure to remove asbestos can pale next to real estate profits

How Oregon’s construction industry got the state to back off asbestos rules

Asbestos in Portland home demolitions: How we did the analysis

Found with asbestos: North Portland demolition prompts fines

Other Oregonian stories that followed on the issue:

Asbestos in home demolitions: See the data Oregon officials took months to release
Tougher asbestos rules needed, experts tell Oregon environmental regulators
Oregon's asbestos rules lag behind the rest of the country and federal minimum standards
LO realtor now convicted criminal for hiring cheaper day laborers to remodel asbestos-laden home
Oregon examines tougher asbestos controls for demolitions
Hazardous remodel leads to criminal charges for real estate broker

A gang of 26 has its work cut out for them; so do tree lovers

Tonight the task force on improved new-construction guidelines meets for the first time, at 6 p.m. in Room 2500A at 1900 S.W. Fourth Ave. For the record, the members of that group and their affiliations:

• Linda Bauer, East Portland Action Plan
• Sarah Cantine, Scott Edwards Architecture
• Alan DeLaTorre, Portland Commission on Disability
• Jim Gorter, Southwest Neighbors, Inc.
• John Hasenberg, Oregon Remodelers Association
• Marshall Johnson, Energy Trust of Oregon
• Emily Kemper, Manufactured Structures Board
• Douglas MacLeod, Homebuilders Association
• Mary Kyle McCurdy, 1000 Friends of Oregon
• Maggie McGann, Habitat for Humanity
• Rod Merrick, Merrick Architecture Planning
• Rick Michaelson, Neighbors West Northwest
• Mike Mitchoff, Premiere Properties
• Michael Molinaro, Southeast Uplift
• Danell Norby, Anti-Displacement PDX
• Douglas Reed, East Portland Neighborhood Office
• Vic Remmers, Everett Homes
• Brandon Spencer-Hartle, Restore Oregon
• Eli Spevak, Orange Splot Construction
• Barbara Strunk, United Neighborhoods for Reform
• Teresa St. Martin, Planning and Sustainability Commission
• Young Sun Song, Immigrant and Refugee Committee Organization
• David Sweet, Central Northeast Neighbors
• Eric Thompson, Homebuilders Association
• Garlynn Woodsong, Northeast Coalition of Neighbors
• Tatiana Xenelis-Mendoza, North Portland Neighborhood Services

The idea for such a task force, formally called the Residential Infill Project Stakeholder Advisory Committee (or the more evocative "RIP SAC" around here), first appeared as an elemental part of the United Neighborhoods for Reform (UNR) resolution, which garnered endorsements from 43 neighborhoods citywide. Needless to say, there are high hopes for the group and its work, even though there is irony that a developer whose style of construction is exactly the kind that's caused the uproar is among those chosen.

We also smiled seeing that the Home Builders Association has twice as many reps as any other body—perhaps a sign that Mayor Hales hasn't quite quit his lobbying job for those heavy hitters. Hopefully they are balanced out by the many solution-seeking, forward-thinking people on the list.

We will follow the process closely to ensure that neighbors and neighborhoods get what they need: responsible development that benefits everyone.

Be a hazmat hero

Even though we continue to keep pressing for meaningful change, most recently through meetings with staff of Mayor Hales and Commissioner Saltzman, UNR members do more than sit in chairs around tables.

Once we finalize our guide for affected neighbors living in the hazardous-materials fallout zone around demolitions, we will enlist activists to distribute it. If you have energy and time for an effort that will protect and promote public health and safety, submit your name, contact info, and neighborhood at top right. We will have a briefing to launch the effort. You could be on the front lines helping save neighbors, especially children, from the irreversible health effects caused by the uncontrolled release of lead and asbestos. Read here for more.

We look forward to launching this proactive, important campaign—and getting to know you!

If the tree code doesn't protect
significant trees such as these,
what does it do?

Growing discontent

The UNR resolution called out tree preservation as a goal for building a better Portland. Most sites where demos occur are cleared of every living thing, and any trees that are planted are tiny compared to what once grew there.

This issue came to a head this week with deforestation occurring in Southeast Portland, where a developer—Everett Custom Homes—has already harvested 100-year-old Douglas firs and now hopes to erase giant sequoias dating to the Civil War.

Scenes from those sites follow. It's not easy to look at, but it's graphic evidence of the work to be done in not only saving affordable, well-built housing but the mature tree canopy that occupies the same lot, pumping out oxygen and giving this city its "green" reputation. It's also evidence that people care enough to rally for our urban forest.

For more on the sequoias and how to get involved, read here.

At 3646 SE Martins St.:

WMD

The arborists were turned away Monday, but developer
Vic Remmers vowed to harvest the sequoias this week.

 At 2704 SE 41st Ave.:

Tree sitter Elizabeth Bennett is up there somewhere.

News crew arrives.

Neighbors see and tell it like it is

Love your neighborhood? Give us a sign.

Recently four people have reported the disappearance of Stop the Demolition of Portland Homes signs from their front yards. With the signs, neighbors exercise their freedom of speech, as for candidates or ballot measures, only for a cause closest to home.

The signs show what concerns early investors in a neighborhood—that treasured homes that have served generations of Portlanders should be allowed to stand and shelter many more. The signs put the word out to teardown developers: We see what you're doing, and there are plenty of less destructive ways to build a better Portland.

The signs show would-be buyers of replacement homes that neighbors mourn a loss of what made their neighborhood attractive in the first place. Many of the affected neighborhoods are appealing for their history, mature urban tree canopy, and unique, if often modest, architecture, usually built of now-rare old-growth materials. When all that goes to the incinerator or landfill, the neighborhood—and neighbors—take a hit.

It's a shame the signs are targets for trespass, and worse. Then again, they must be working! Truth will out. United Neighborhoods for Reform asks a modest donation ($5) to cover printing costs for the signs. To get yours, fill in and send the form at top right.

Apart from training security cameras on the signs or somehow locking them in place, maybe the best bet is to put them in a window or, better, get two.

Activists activate on the streets, online, and in City Hall

Born online, now on the street: Read on for action
by concerned Portlanders.

Neighbors are learning the ropes of the new demolition-delay rules that took effect, and succeeding in attempts to save affordable well-built housing. Appeals won by Eastmoreland, Brentwood-Darlington, and most recently Beaumont-Wilshire show that despite a cumbersome, ill-understood process Portlanders will go to bat for their neighborhoods. With the demolition delay as the only tool we have to counter rampant trash-and-build, neighbors don't seem to be afraid to use it.

Despite the 60-day delay, we likely still will lose homes, and that's why United Neighborhoods for Reform continues to monitor the formation and scope of the Residential Infill Project, which promises to establish new-construction guidelines related to footprint, setbacks, and so on. In particular, those working in the architecture, design, and construction industries who are sympathetic to renovation, reuse, preservation, and additions and ADU modifications of old-growth construction should apply to serve on the Stakeholder Advisory Committee (same link as above).

Activists rally against demolitions on July 10 in Southeast Portland.
Photo by Larry Clark.

While we keep fighting for hazmat control during demolitions, we're planning a safety education campaign for affected neighbors and tracking how the city will enforce the new state law requiring an asbestos survey before demolition. We're also keeping tabs on the Bureau of Development Services transition to oversight by Commissioner Dan Saltzman.

After all the consciousness raising, and as the Great House Harvest of 2013-2015 marches on, more Portlanders are joining in. Stop Demolishing Portland activists plan regular protests following last week's successful action at Southeast 50th and Division.

Other activists are tackling one of the biggest problems of all—and an ongoing incentive to demolition—at fixportlandzoning.com. One battle cry: "Truth in zoning."

Infill expo shows the options

Mayor Charlie Hales says he loves the old houses too
at the infill expo hosted by the German American Society. 

Mayor Hales kicked off the June 4 industry event, saying all the right things about Portland's dwindling inventory of affordable well-crafted homes that have served generations—and could shelter many more if allowed to stand. The infill expo, with its crowd of people interested in creative, quality ways to provide housing, highlighted the many attractive and environmentally sound alternatives to demolition, whether it's building auxiliary dwelling units (ADUs), renovating homes, or crafting additions.

United Neighborhoods for Reform took part to show the damaging effects of demolition on neighbors and neighborhoods and what we are doing to curb or mitigate them.

Some scenes from the evening:

UNR steering committee members go one-on-one explaining anti-demolition efforts.

UNR works to stem the wasting of well-crafted, -sited, and -designed housing,
such as this unique 1928 home slated for demolition. As the sign points out, it's
not very Portland (historically, anyway) to throw away or, more likely, burn houses
just to make room for more expensive, much larger, and lower quality structures.

UNR members (from left) Barbara Kerr, Jim Gorter, Barb Strunk, Jim Brown,
and Janet Baker (obscured) talk with concerned neighbors at the infill expo.

Salem answers the SOS

Yesterday Senate Bill 705 passed the House, after collecting a yes from the Oregon Senate earlier this year. When implemented, it will require an accredited inspector to perform an asbestos survey before demolition. State leaders, in particular Sen. Michael Dembrow, heard out concerned neighbors at a constituent coffee here in Portland and went to work to help protect people from some of the hazardous materials that billow uncontrolled from demolition sites.

He's not done yet, saying lead is next.

With these protections, public health and safety will be better assured. According to federal studies, dust from demolitions travels up to 400 feet, and and until now city leaders were simply powerless to control it, or care. Luckily, we have state leaders looking out for us.

Sold for $815,000 and set for demolition: This Northeast
Portland home stands in the way of big profits.

If demolitions are curbed altogether, the hazardous materials problem eliminates itself. Imagine the lead dust that will emanate from the site of this slated demolition. This showcase house, built in 1928 on Northeast Alameda, probably has been painted numerous times inside and out over the past 87 years, many of those years before 1978 when each can of paint contained 15 pounds of lead. Pulverized during demolition, lead and other hazardous materials are free to waft into yards, lungs, and bodies. Children in particular are susceptible to irreversible damage from lead, with the Centers for Disease Control decreeing that no amount of lead is considered safe in kids.