PORTLAND, Ore. – Two neighboring houses built in the 1910s in the Vernon neighborhood will be torn down by the same development company despite being located within an overlay zone that aims to preserve existing housing.
Photo credit: Portland Chronicle
A house at 5403 NE 17th Ave. was built in 1914 and sits on a 3,400-square-foot lot. The residence totals 1,384 square feet in size.
Photo credit: Portland Chronicle
Its neighbor to the south has an address of 5329 NE 17th Ave. That house was built in 1917 and also is located on a 3,400-square-foot lot. It is slightly smaller than its neighbor, at 1,052 square feet.
Photo credit: Portland Chronicle
City and county records list the most recent property sale taking place in 2014 when both houses sold for $210,000 to James D. Wood and Amy C. Ernst, registered both in Silverton and in Boring.
But on July 15 the houses sold again, according to Redfin, this time for a combined total of $300,000. The real estate listing indicates they were advertised as potential tear-downs or as renovation projects.
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“Absolutely STELLAR location in the heart of NE Portland’s Alberta Arts district,” the listing said of the houses’ location in the Vernon neighborhood, calling the buildings an “exciting development opportunity for builder or rehabber” and describing them as a “major fixer or tear down.” It also advises visitors to “be careful walking the properties.”
Six days after the sale went through the Bureau of Development Services received applications for demolition of the properties. In addition to Wood and Ernst, Danny Grunewald of PDX Redevelopment LLC was listed as a third owner as well as the contractor.
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There are no applications for construction yet received by the city, but the property’s zoning allows for a fairly limited number of options for how the property can be redeveloped.
There are no underlying lots on either property, and both lots are located within an R2.5 zone, meaning there can be one residence per 2,500 square feet of land in future property partitions. As is, with the two 3,400-square-foot lots, there is not enough property to carve out any additional partitions.
Besides its R2.5 zoning the two houses are also located within an alternative design density overlay zone. The Bureau of Planning and Sustainability explains that the purpose of this overlay is “to focus development on vacant sites, preserve existing housing and encourage new development that is compatible with and supportive of the positive qualities of residential neighborhoods.”
While the first two tenets certainly will not be met through the demolition proposal, it is possible the third will be with the redevelopment.
PDX Redevelopment LLC has previously been reported on by the Portland Chronicle for a proposal to raze a 91-year-old house in the North Tabor neighborhood.
The demolition delay for the Northeast 17th Avenue homes will likely expire Aug. 25, although the BDS no longer provides a delay expiration date on demolition permit intakes.
Photo credit: Portland Chronicle