Update on the pending Concordia LUBA Cases

Thank you for following these Concordia land use cases. The “brief” for the case challenging the height of the property on 32nd Ave (LUBA case 2009-105) has been submitted to the State’s Land Use Board of Appeals as of the 12th of February. The City’s attorney, Kathryn Beaumont, will respond on behalf of the Bureau of Development Services with a brief of her own within three weeks from that date and then the Board will hear the case and render their decision. Because of the close timing to the mid month deadline for our publication, I may not be able to report the final decision in the next edition, but I would encourage those of you who are following the case to look for an immediate update on our website at www.concordiapdx.org.

We have been the beneficiaries of city wide support on this case. We now have the important “Amicus” backing of three neighborhood coalitions representing multiple neighborhoods. You may thank your own Northeast Coalition of Neighborhoods (NECN) www.necoalition.org, who are dedicated to each of your neighborhoods best interests and always willing to help, for backing our efforts on behalf of the twelve neighborhoods in our local community. They are Alameda, Boise, Eliot, Grant Park, Humboldt, Irvington, King, Sabin, Sullivan’s Gulch, Vernon, and Woodlawn. Concordia makes twelve. Thanks also to the generous support of the Southeast Uplift organization www.southeastuplift.org. Our neighbors to the South are forward thinkers and encompassed in their support is that of another twenty neighborhoods. Ardenwald, Brentwood, Brooklyn, Buckman, Creston-Kenilworth, Easmoreland, Foster-Powell, Hosford-Abernathy, Kerns, Laurelhurst, Montavilla, Mt Scott-Arleta, Mt Tabor, North Tabor, Reed, Sellwood-Moreland, South Tabor, Sunnyside, and Woodstock.

Also, many thanks to the East Portland Neighborhood Office, EPNO www.epno.org. With them comes the welcome support of Argay, Centennial, Glenfair, Hazelwood, Lents, Mill Park, Parkrose Heights, Parkrose, Pleasant Valley, Powellhurst-Gilbert, Russell, Wilkes, and Woodlawn Park.

Forty five neighborhoods representing nearly half of the cities population are behind our initial case well as the Bosco-Milligan foundation, www.vistitahc.org, which supports the preservation of historic character in neighborhoods like Concordia. More neighborhoods are invited to still join this effort and can still contribute to this important cause. Beware of the fact that all of our oldest city neighborhoods are now vulnerable to the ongoing infill by developers of “skinny lots” aka “side yards.” These side yards represent ground zero for the few remaining huge trees of the old growth canopy and for unique gardens in what should be valued as historically planned neighborhoods. Our own property values and our quality of life are being devastated street after street by this profiteering construction. With these LUBA cases we demand better enforcement of our city’s established codes so that the value of our real estate investments and our quality of life will not continue to decline.

-Ken Forcier
Concordia Neighborhood Association