What if we could preserve what we love in Portland’s classic neighborhoods while creating opportunity for tens of thousands of new households in the coming decades? What if historic preservation and affordability advocates could find themselves on the same side, on the same team? Let’s imagine a future where neighborhoods are partners in growth and change, playing a collaborative role in finding room for new homes for our growing population.
We believe the answer could lie in give neighborhoods a snapshot of what their current population density looks like and facilitate a process of visualizing different ways to meet or exceed a density target using historical prototypes like the ones we’ve documented in our case studies. We can lead neighbors in a series of public design meetings
The Dynamic Density process empowers neighborhoods to direct how they would like to grow, and enables them to share in the economic benefits of development in their communities.
The Dynamic Density process recognizes the inherent value of Portland’s classic neighborhoods and empowers citizens to take an inventory and preserve what they love. This includes historic houses, but also trees and other non-development features
By establishing each neighborhood as a Community Development Corporation under the auspices of a Prosper Portland designated micro urban renewal district, neighborhoods will be able to capture a portion of the System Development Charges (SDC’s) new tax revenue generated by that development.
So while our leaders talk about kneecapping neighborhoods, instead, let’s change the game. Let’s give neighborhoods an incentive to upzone themselves using their own local knowledge and priorities to do so in a way that’s right for them.