Flavel Street Eastmoreland Home and Trees Will Be Torn Down

PORTLAND, Ore. – Demolition and redevelopment continues in Southeast Portland’s Eastmoreland neighborhood as a 98-year-old house is slated to be torn down by a Beaverton-based development group active in other parts of the neighborhood as well as across the rest of the city.

Photo credit: Portland Chronicle

The house, located at 3731 SE Flavel St., was built in 1917. It totals 1,814 square feet in size and sits on a 10,000-square-foot lot.

On May 29 the city received an application for demolition of the 98-year-old house. Because it is a single-family home in a residential zone, the demolition is subject to the 35-day demolition delay period.

Photo credit: Portland Chronicle

While the owner is still listed as Shirley Szekely with no recent sales on record, the applicant on the demolition permit is listed as Diana Catron of Everett Custom Homes, a development company registered to Vic Remmers in Beaverton. No contractor is indicated on the application.

While the city and county have not recorded any recent property transfers of the Flavel Street lot, on May 15 Zillow recorded a sale of the house and lot for $561,000. This is about $40,000 more than the website’s “Zestimate” of the property’s market value.

The listing on Zillow also gives some details about the house.

“First time on the market – in the family since 1917,” it reads. “It is very livable. Updated heating and AC and some wiring. This one is waiting for the right buyer to make it shine. Such potential!”

The demolition delay expires July 7.

Photo credit: Portland Chronicle

Earlier this week Everett Custom Homes applied to reopen underlying lots of record on the parcel.

There are four underlying lots of record on the 10,000-square-foot site. The developer applied to “confirm lot 24, 21, & 23 adjust line on betweem lots 21& 23 removing lot 22” (sic), suggesting there will be three lots following this process.

This would seem to allow three new houses to be constructed under regulations covering development on these lots: as per Zoning Code 33.110.212, because the current lot is in an R5 zone and has a house on it the reopened lots of record must be at least 3,000 square feet in size (essentially, there is a five-year moratorium on utilizing some of the allowed underlying lot uses if a house must be demolished). The Flavel Street site would seem to support three lots for new construction.

However, another stipulation is that the lots must each be 36 feet wide. This may require some reconfiguration of the lots, as the property is 100 feet deep. Three 36-foot wide lots at 100 feet deep would total more than 10,000 square feet.

On June 3 the city received an application for the first new construction, a two-story house with a tuck-under garage.

Photo credit: Portland Chronicle

Besides demolishing the house, the demolition permit also indicates that three trees will be removed. An Eastmoreland tree list describes at least one tree on the property as a plum tree in good condition. Everett Custom Homes is also removing a number of trees at a redevelopment site several blocks to the north on Southeast Martins Street.