1924 ‘Classic Home’ to Be Razed in Eastmoreland

PORTLAND, Ore. – A 91-year-old home in the Eastmoreland neighborhood of Southeast Portland will be demolished by a notorious Lake Oswego-based development company.

Photo credit: Portland Chronicle

Located at 3679 SE Knapp St., the house was built in 1924 and totals 1,555 square feet in size. It sits on a 7,500-square-foot corner lot.

On Sept. 25 the house sold from Joyce Reyman to Renaissance Custom Homes for $527,500. It had most recently sold prior to that for $113,900 in 1992.

The real estate listing for the sale describes the property as a “wonderful opportunity to restore and personalize a classic home in a destination neighborhood.”

Photo credit: Portland Chronicle

Just three days after the city recorded the sale Renaissance Custom Homes, registered to Randy Sebastian in Lake Oswego, applied to demolish the 91-year-old house. The permit is subject to the 35-day delay standard to residential demolitions. The applicant was Kevin Partain of Urban Visions, a “planning services” company that is ubiquitous on weekly lists of demolition permits in Portland.

There are no construction permits applied for on the site, but its zoning offers some clues into its probable future.

The property is located in an R5 zone that allows a maximum density of one unit per 5,000 square feet in new land divisions. But the lot in question contains three underlying lots of record that can be reopened for new development, altering the maximum density rules.

Photo credit: Portland Chronicle

In this particular case underlying lots would have to be at least 3,000 square feet in size (if the lot had been vacant for at least five years the lots could be as small as 2,400 square feet) and would need to be 36 feet wide.

The 7,500-square-foot property would likely allow two new residential units under the underlying lot provisions.

Although the permit intake doesn’t specify the last day of demolition delay (the Bureau of  Development Services ceased including that information on permit intakes early this past summer) a quick calculation suggests Nov. 2 would be the final day of required demolition delay.