Lower SE Rising Area Plan available for public review

News Article
A perspective sketch showing what one of the corridors might look like 20 years in the future
Draft land use and transportation plan for Brentwood-Darlington and nearby areas to expand opportunities for neighborhood businesses, housing, and safe transportation options.
Published

Lower SE Portland – parts of which were not annexed into the City until 1986 – shares many physical characteristics with East Portland: gravel streets and missing sidewalks; a disconnected street network and limited bus service; and few neighborhood stores, restaurants, and other conveniences, so that residents must drive to meet their daily needs.

The area encompasses the Brentwood-Darlington neighborhood and nearby areas, including parts of the Mt. Scott-Arleta, Woodstock, and Lents neighborhoods. The people who live here value its parks, green spaces, neighborhood schools, and sense of community. But they would like it to be easier to get around and access services locally.

The Lower SE Rising Area Plan considers how potential land use options and transportation improvements could help to meet those community needs and provide residents in the area with more amenities and transportation options.

Review the draft plan, then share your thoughts

The City of Portland has released the Lower SE Rising Area Plan Discussion Draft and would like to hear what the community thinks about it. The plan evolved from nearly two years of community conversations about increasing neighborhood commercial and business services, housing diversity, and safe transportation options.

The draft proposals in the plan include zone changes to expand opportunities for more neighborhood businesses and affordable housing options, paired with transportation improvements, to make it easier for people to meet their daily needs locally, including:

  • Fostering a neighborhood business district in a new Brentwood-Darlington neighborhood center around SE 72nd and Flavel to serve as a hub for commercial services with additional housing options.
  • Turning SE 52nd and 72nd into corridors with more housing options, commercial hubs at key intersections, and better transit service. The plan would allow more types of housing, including more affordable options, along corridors and around mixed-use centers, giving more people the chance to live close to transit and commercial and community services
  • Transportation improvements to make it safer and easier to walk, bike and take transit in the area. The plan focuses on busier streets like SE 52nd, SE 72nd, and SE Woodstock, with proposals for safety improvements and transit. The plan also includes neighborhood greenway projects to fill in gaps in the bicycle and pedestrian networks as well as provide safe connections to parks, schools and other community destinations.

Learn more

Self-guided Open House

Want to know how the plan could affect your neighborhood? Explore our self-guided online open house, where you can look up zone changes for specific properties with the Map App and share your feedback through an online survey.

Explore the Self-guided Open House and Survey

Online Information Session

The live information session with project staff was held on May 24. The session was recorded and the video is available to watch on-demand.

Watch the Online Information Session

Read the draft plan

The full Discussion Draft of the Lower SE Rising Area Plan is now available for review.

Read the draft plan

Contact us

Send the project team an email with your comments, questions, and feedback.

Contact us

Comments welcome through June 30, 2023

Your feedback on the discussion draft will help refine the Lower SE Rising Plan into a proposed draft for the Portland Planning Commission to consider. Community members will be able to testify to the Commission in writing or in person at that time. So stay tuned! Your voice matters.

Submit your comments

Contact

Lower SE Rising Area Plan

Bill Cunningham

Senior City Planner, Planning and Sustainability

Shane Valle

Senior City Planner, Transportation