What is the Central City?
Portland’s Central City is Oregon’s urban center, with the densest population of people and jobs in the state. People from across the country are drawn to the Central City’s mix of urban vitality, compelling public spaces, innovative employment opportunities, rich transportation network, signature cultural amenities — and its connection to the Willamette River.
The Central City stretches from the West Hills to SE 12th Avenue, and from the Lloyd and Pearl districts to Powell Boulevard and South Waterfront. For planning purposes, the Central City is divided into 10 subdistricts, as shown on the map to the right.
Portland’s Central City has a rich history shaped by abundant natural resources and a temperate climate. Ever since Native Americans fished the Willamette for salmon, this unique location along the river has been a gathering place for work, play, culture, food … and ideas.
Now, we have a chance to make an even more vibrant place … focusing on the river; celebrating the area’s distinct districts and neighborhoods; and connecting people, places and activities through enhanced public spaces.
Central City 2035 Plan
The Central City 2035 Plan (CC2035) replaced the 1988 Central City Plan as the primary guiding policy document for the Central City, with goals, policies and tools designed to make Portland’s urban core more vibrant, innovative, sustainable and resilient — a place that every Portlander can be proud to call their own. The Plan builds upon the city’s traditions, honoring the history of the place while boldly moving forward in new directions.
The Plan is the first amendment to the City’s updated Comprehensive Plan, implementing the Portland Plan as it applies to the Central City.
The plan also includes an update to the 1987 Willamette Greenway Plan for the Central Reach, incorporating elements of the 2001 River Renaissance Vision into an exciting vision that will create a more vibrant, multi-purpose and habitat-rich Willamette riverfront.
A new Central City project is underway
Central City covers only 3% of the land base in Portland and is planned to accommodate about 25% of the City’s total residential and employment growth through 2045. The plan for the area allows for some of the densest development in the region and accommodates a wide range of uses, including residential, commercial, and light industrial uses, that co-exist to create a vibrant and active center. While the plan for Central City was updated recently, a targeted Central City project is proposed in response to a number of current trends.
Due to the current shortage of housing in Portland and significant changes in the retail and office markets, BPS and partner bureaus are exploring ways the City can foster more housing in the city core and encourage reuse and activation of vacant and underused office and retail spaces throughout the downtown.
The bureau is scoping a new project in the Central City to make strategic updates to the Central City 2035 Plan. This project will address recommendations in the Housing Production Strategy to remove barriers to housing production in the Central City, as well as facilitate economic revitalization in the downtown area.
Post-pandemic trends continue to show higher retail vacancy rates in downtown and other parts of the Central City compared to outside the Central City as well as high office vacancy rates due to continuing trends related to hybrid and remote work. As a result of these structural economic changes, the Central City plan amendment project will explore opportunities for business creation and retention, in addition to strategies for attracting residential development. This can be achieved by providing more flexibility for ground floor spaces to meet current and future market conditions, as well as create new locations for mobile food vendors to do business, as an example.
This project will:
- Prioritize equitable development approaches to support our most vulnerable communities.
- Facilitate housing production by removing barriers to development/redevelopment.
- Expand opportunities for business access, creation, and expansion.
Issues being considered for a Central City update package:
- Reviewing base and bonus height and floor area ratios in strategic locations to facilitate housing;
- Creating opportunities for new businesses and the expansion of existing businesses in the Central City Commercial zone (CX) by removing size limitations for specific types of uses and allowing maximum flexibility in key Central City areas and subdistricts;
- Undertaking the review of targeted off street parking regulations to allow greater flexibility in order to retain and support growing businesses.
Staff will be conducting research and analysis to develop draft zoning code concepts for this project. View a preliminary analysis of Central City height and FAR utilization:
This work and other research will be updated and available for review in the fall/winter 2024.
For more information on the future project and timeline contact Rachael Hoy.