The region's 2040 Growth Concept envisions compact development directed in centers and corridors to preserve farm, forestland and natural areas outside the urban growth boundary and to protect single-family neighborhoods.
The November 2009 report, Achieving Sustainable, Compact Development in the Portland Metropolitan Area: New Tools and Approaches for Developing Centers and Corridors, identified the greatest obstacles to centers and corridors development as the existing credit market, a lack of collaboration among stakeholders in development projects, and inflexible and inconsistent development codes across jurisdictions.
The report recommends that Metro:
- establish a structure for collaboration and learning between public, private and institutional sectors
- develop a tool to assess a center or corridor's readiness for development
- create a public-private toolkit with model agreements and design prototypes to simplify the development process
- develop a new approach to gap financing with creative lending tools and mechanisms for public-private collaboration
- create a mechanism for infrastructure investments that support compact mixed-use development
- Address legislative barriers that make center and corridor development challenging.
The report was prepared by Portland State University’s Center for Portland Metropolitan Studies. Its findings are based on deliberations of the Advisory group on centers and corridors, local experts in real estate development, planning and finance:
Convener/facilitator: Gil Kelley, Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies
Members
- Dennis Wilde, principal, Gerding Edlen Development Company
- Vern Rifer, principal, Vernon L. Rifer Real Estate Development, Inc.
- Jerry Johnson, principal, Johnson Reid, economic and real estate development consultants
- Kate Allen, housing policy manager, City of Portland
- Matthew Stanley, senior relationship manager, Umpqua Bank
- Mark New, New & Neville Real Estate Services, appraisers
- Abe Farkas, economic and planning consultant
- Kevin Cavenaugh, principal, Cavenaugh & Cavenaugh, LLC, and Ten-Pod Development, architects and developers
- Jim Irvine, principal, the Conifer Group, residential developers
- Dave Leland, principal, Leland Consulting Group, planning and development consultants
- Steve Burdick, principal, Killian Pacific, residential developers
- Beverly Bookin, principal, the Bookin Group, urban planning consultants
- Don Hanson, principal, OTAK, land planning and development consultants
- Ed McNamara, principal, Turtle Island Development, residential developer
- John Southgate, economic development director, City of Hillsboro
- Alice Rouyer, redevelopment director, City of Gresham
- Ron Bunch, community development director, City of Tigard
- Michael Mehaffy, principal, Structura Naturalis, Inc., planning and development consultants
- John Spencer, principal, Spencer & Kupper, planning and development consultants
- Tom Kemper, president, Kemper Co, LLC, developer
- Fred Bruning, chief executive officer, Center Cal Properties, LLC