MP2H Northwest Portland Urban Design Concept Virtual Open House

Guide
Rendering looking toward Montgomery Park with streetcar and new mixed use buildings
Presents information on Urban Design Concept Scenarios for the Montgomery Park to Hollywood Transit and Land Use Development Strategy (MP2H study) study area in Northwest Portland.
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Welcome!

You are invited to review and provide feedback on several scenarios for future development and transit service in the Northwest Portland portion of the MP2H study area. Please take a few minutes to review the information below, the project goals, equitable development discussion, and the concept scenarios pages, then share your thoughts through the online survey.

Background

The Montgomery Park to Hollywood Transit and Land Use Development Strategy (MP2H) will explore opportunities to create an equitable development plan for transit-oriented districts in NW Portland and NE Portland. The MP2H study will identify land use, urban design and economic development strategies, as well as opportunities for community benefits possible with a transit-oriented development scenario that includes a high-quality transit investment such as a  streetcar. The project will also consider how such scenarios or development opportunities could support the City’s racial equity, climate justice, employment and housing goals. The work is funded in part by a Federal Transit Administration (FTA) grant.

For Northwest Portland, the project will explore extending the Portland Streetcar or other high-quality transit service to Montgomery Park, linking the streetcar system to an under-served area of Northwest Portland and a neighborhood that is growing and changing. The study will consider options for changes in land use and transportation to support a significant transit investment. 

Project goals

  • Support Portland’s 2035 Comprehensive Plan and Climate Action Plan goals for improving economic prosperity, human and economic health, equity and resilience, and for reducing carbon emissions.
  • Focus growth in centers and corridors with high levels of services and amenities.
  • Increase opportunities for employment and housing,  particularly middle-wage jobs and affordable housing.
  • Improve access to affordable housing, middle-wage jobs, nature and recreation through high quality, reliable, and frequent transit service and other multi-modal options.
  • Ensure that under-served and under-represented communities and those potentially most impacted from land use and transportation proposals have an opportunity to meaningfully participate in the planning process, and benefit from project outcomes.
  • Advance equitable outcomes by developing community benefits strategies to accompany land use decisions and transportation investments.

Additional information

More background, including information about existing land use, transportation, economic and demographic conditions:

Portland Streetcar Ridership Fact Sheet

Portland Streetcar Development and Ridership Info Sheet

Development scenarios

Three future Urban Design Concept Development Scenarios for the Northwest study area are proposed for your review and feedback. These scenarios illustrate different land use and development futures for this part of Northwest Portland, and each scenario could be served by a new transit investment, including streetcar, along the proposed transit alignment. All three scenarios are intended to support Portland’s 2035 Comprehensive Plan and Climate Action Plan goals for improving economic prosperity, human and economic health, equity and resilience, and for reducing carbon emissions. Each scenario accomplishes this in different ways. The scenario pages includes maps, images, and descriptions to highlight the features of each scenario and show how they are different:

Definitions

  • Mixed use – Buildings that typically contain a combination of residential, commercial, and office uses, generally in a multi-story structure.
  • Creative office – Offices with tenants that focus on uses that may be compatible with industrial activities, such as software and internet content development and publishing; computer systems design and programming; graphic and industrial design; engineers; architects; telecommunication service providers; data processing; television, video, radio, and internet studios and broadcasting; scientific and technical services; and medical and dental labs.
  • Office – General office uses that are typically service-oriented and allow for a full range of office users, such as lawyers or accountants; financial businesses such as lenders, brokerage houses, bank headquarters, or real estate agents; government offices and public utility offices; medical and dental clinics, and blood collection facilities.
  • Corporate campus – A large scale development with buildings in close proximity to each other with centralized support, amenities and other internal functions. The campus may contain a mix of industrial activities and supporting office function, generally intended for a single user.
  • Maker space – A place in which people with shared interests can gather to work on projects while sharing ideas, equipment, and knowledge.  Also, small fabricators or manufacturers of limited production goods.
  • Main street overlay – A regulatory/zoning tool that can promote or require the ground floor of buildings to feature ‘active’ uses, such as retail, restaurants, personal services, etc.
  • Industrial main street overlay – A regulatory/zoning tool that can promote or require the ground floor of buildings to feature ‘active’ uses.  In the industrial setting, this could include the retail component of a manufacturer, for example the tasting room of a distillery.
  • Adaptive reuse – the renovation and reuse of pre-existing structures for new purposes.

Equitable development

A key consideration for all the scenarios centers on who benefits and who is burdened by any future changes in policy or investments.  Each scenario assumes some degree of change in land use policy to allow different kinds of development not currently allowed. Changes in policy that result in changes in zoning and land use allowances can result in significant increases in development potential with larger buildings and more flexibility for allowed uses. In turn, these can result in benefits such as higher values for development and land. Changes can also result in burdens, such as displacement of lower income individuals, or a reduction of low barrier to entry jobs.

The MP2H will evaluate the potential benefits and burdens of land policy and transit investment choices to determine if excess benefits can be shared more broadly with community members through actions such as creation of affordable housing and commercial spaces, investment in transportation facilities, brownfield cleanups, or other similar approaches.  As you review the scenarios, please think about how benefits and burdens can best be addressed in the scenarios.

Learn more:

Take the survey

We want to hear what elements of each scenario you support and which scenario you think best supports the project and community goals. Your input will help us combine the best elements into a plan for area. The survey has key diagrams and images from the development scenarios, but you may find it helpful to open each development scenario in a separate tab so you can compare them side-by-side and reference them as you complete the survey.

The survey is now closed.

What's next?

Your feedback will be used to help us develop a Discussion Draft plan for the area. Look for a public open house this fall when project staff will share early drafts of a Discussion Draft plan, plan district regulations and equitable community development ideas.

Past Events

Available Online