Re-Zoning of Certain Houses Owned by the Concordia Foundation
By Garlynn Woodsong | CNA Board Member, SW1 | CNA LUTC Chair
Neighbors may be concerned by a recent land use notice (LU 20-204990 CP ZC) regarding a request to re-zone five properties located on the west side of NE 27th Ave, owned by the Concordia University Foundation, to R5:
- 2636 NE Dekum Street
- 6705 NE 27th Avenue
- 6623 NE 27th Avenue
- 6325 NE 27th Avenue
- 6305 NE 27th Avenue
Four of these properties contain houses, and one is a vacant lot surrounded by houses. All were houses before being purchased by the Concordia University Foundation to provide student housing or other services related to the campus. With the closure and foreclosure of the University, these properties are being sold off by the Foundation, as they are no longer needed.
The Concordia University Foundation is a separate entity from Concordia University, the school; as such, these five properties are not included in the basket of properties that make up the school campus itself that are currently scheduled for foreclosure auction.
The Concordia Foundation is, or will be soon, bringing these properties to market as residential properties, so it’s important that the zoning be changed to one that allows for residential uses. The current CI1 (Campus Institutional 1) zoning does not allow for residential uses that are not associated with a primary institutional use.
The R-5 (Residential 5,000) zoning will match that assigned to the neighboring homes, and corresponds to the zoning for the bulk of the properties in the neighborhood north of Killingsworth Street. It allows for one home on a lot, plus one duplex, or two homes on a corner lot; later this year, once the Residential Infill Project comes into effect, it will allow for one to four homes on each lot by right, or a small multifamily building containing up to six homes if at least half of them are regulated affordable housing.
Neighbors with questions or concerns about this proposal may contact Concordia Neighborhood Association Transportation & Land Use Committee Chair, at landuse@concordiapdx.org. Or, if you would like to make your concerns known to the Bureau of Development Services (BDS) as they consider this proposal, you may write to Marguerite Feuersanger at 1900 SW Fourth Ave., Suite 4500, Portland, OR 97201. You can also e-mail your comments to her at marguerite.feuersanger@portlandoregon.gov, or give her a call at 503-823-7619. After the staff report is published, please submit your comments to the Hearings Officer at 1900 SW Fourth Ave., Suite 3100, Portland, OR 97201, or fax them to 503-823-4347.
The deadline to submit responses to BDS is April 2, 2021; BDS must publish its report by April 9th, 2021. A public hearing before the Hearings Officer is tentatively scheduled for April 19th, 2021, at 2:30pm.