Portland's "Infill" Housing

[siliconefreak]

For those of you familiar with Portland, what do you think of the new "infill" houses that are being built in some of the older neighborhoods? Here's an example of what they look like:



From what I understand, these houses are being built on vacant lots or on lots where an old house has been torn down. I've read that they're often building 3 of these new houses on lots that orginally contained only 1 house.

[pstans]

1. Looks very inviting

If you are a car. They like a garage with a big apartment on top.

Infill is good, but these could be made to look better. How about something with a little front porch and then put an allie in the back with the garage back there.

[siliconefreak]

7. I agree

With all of Portland's intelligent growth plans, I'm not sure why they wouldn't want to design the houses so that the cars are kept in the back.

Maybe with the older houses in the neighborhood, it just wasn't feasible to plow an alley through what might be back yards for some of the neighbors.

[carpetbagger]

8. Back alley setups make no sense.

I live in a neighborhood designed like that. We have an alley with nothing but trash cans and driveways, and everyone parks their cars on the street, anyway.

[funflower]

18. I used to live in a neighborhood with alleys (and cars) behind the

small houses. I thought it was great!

Just my two cents.

[Arugula Latte]

2. Yes, there's a lot of this going on.

Just a few lots away, for example, they're currently building four houses on a lot that previously held one. It's not a huge lot, maybe 1/3 of an acre at most.

I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, you can't help but cringe when they jam houses in on small lots. On the other hand, I think it's admirable and preferable to increase density in the city rather than keep mowing down forests and meadows for housing (not that that's not happening as well, but we do have an urban growth boundary that keeps that in check somewhat).

I see you're from the Bay Area. I grew up in Walnut Creek and it was heartbreaking to see orchard after orchard give way to housing developments in the 70s and 80s.

Portland is "hot" now and I think this will continue to happen. What I don't like is when they take a typical smaller, older Portland house on a 50-foot across lot and tear it down for a huge, monstrous 3,000 or so sf house. It's just not fair to the scale of the neighborhood.

[Radio_Lady]

3. Not sure what kind of a response you want! Portland is trying to use land

closer to the center city in this fashion. This is a smaller but modern home probably running in the $100,000 or more price range, and placed on a small lot. The idea is to utilize land closer to the city center in this fashion. The options might be 1) moving to another new home much farther away or 2) leaving the old original home on its original lot to rot away.

Portland decided a few decades ago to force builders to buy and use land near the center of the city rather than having them grab up any land (usually farm land) further out. The city has an "urban growth boundary" and people who own land outside that boundary cannot convert to uses other than farming and cannot sell to builders without the permission of the land use group.

It seems to be working fairly well in my opinion. Yes, there is more density, but people are still closer to the central core city and can commute by bus, light rail, and car more conveniently. For other options, look at the "urban sprawl" that has encompassed cities such as Los Angeles, Miami, Boston, Atlanta, and Denver. Portland is a small city trying to avoid that problem.

[siliconefreak]

5. You may be surprised to learn...

The house in the picture is listed at $185,000

[Radio_Lady]

9. Yes, we purchased in Beaverton in 1998 -- and our house is

"officially" up about 20% from when we bought it. (There are 262 single family dwellings here on pretty small parcels. When I first saw my back yard, I told my husband that it was smaller than the dog run we had for my Boston Terriers back in the 1950s. A couple of years ago, he told me to stop calling it a "dog pen"!!! One nice thing -- we back up to a greenway of a beautiful stand of Douglas fir trees.)

Given your information, $185,000 sounds about right for that place. The real estate boom may burst, but not yet!!!

[brystheguy]

4. I've seen worse.

Who are these for? Are they trying to attract new residents to blighted areas or provide new affordable housing to current residents? I don't know, they might be ugly but at least something is being done. Nothing wrong with a little density instead of suburban sprawl. The lawn looks like it would be easy to keep up! A one car garage, though? It'll be full of crap and the cars will be parked all over the place.

[siliconefreak]

6. I'm with you

I'm fine with a one-car garage for myself, but these are 3 and 4-bedroom houses. If families with teenagers live in these houses, well...you can probably picture it.

[Radio_Lady]

10. We had a three bedroom home in Florida in the 1950s, and a small

carport (just a covered driveway, really). I think my Dad paid $11,000 for that home on about 1/3 acre.

Wonder what's there now? I'm afraid to think about it.

[HuckleB]

11. This is a town where automobiles are not necessary.

Many families in our neighborhood of 1910-1920s homes maintain only one vehicle, regardless of the number of children. Automobiles are simply not necessary when you live in a place built on a human scale, with easy access to mass transit.

[HuckleB]

12. This is one example of infill housing, in one area of town.

There is a great variety of types and quality of infill housing that have been developed over the past 15 to 20 years in Portland. Overall, the concept makes a great deal of sense, as it has helped keep the costs of sprawl down, and it has helped make the town more livable, walkable, bike-able, and community oriented. It also helps makes mass transit feasible and easy. Sure, there are negatives with any housing option, but, overall, the positives outweight the negatives offered by alternatives as noted throughout much of the rest of the nation.

[Radio_Lady]

13. HuckleB, this is well stated. Thanks for your reply.

[stevedeshazer]

14. I'll put in my two bits worth

I've lived around here all my life. For the last twenty years I've lived in close-in Portland (Northwest 21st, Linnton, Buckman and Alameda) in older Portland neighborhoods. Before that, I grew up in rural Columbia County about thirty miles from Portland and still own land there for timber (I'm a tree farmer).

I've seen some of these "infill" housing examples, mostly in the middle to outer Northeast and Southeast neighborhoods, roughly from 39th Ave. all the way out past 82nd and on to Rockwood, Gresham, Clackamas and so on.

My opinion on this is that infill housing is the lesser of evils given population growth. People are planning to come here and live. What are the alternatives?

-Oregon Border Patrol

-SoCal style sprawl

-Eugenics

-Land use planning/zoning

I will always vote for the latter.

[depakid]

15. I don't particularly care for it- wouldn't live there- but

It beats sprawl....

[oneold1-4u]

16. Even over east

Bend is building some of the same type of ugly communities with just a bit more room. They are putting large garages 2-3 under, with greater amount of living space up a very steep staircase. Guess I'm getting to old, the stairs would stop my heart in a week! I do like more room and OR still has some, even if it has to be a tent for me!

[anitar1]

20. I live in Eugene, and they are putting these houses up in many

parts of the city. I am north of the city proper and the lots on our street are 1/2 to 1 acre. So builders totally fill up the lot with houses. I did not like the idea at first, but find it not so bad now. Houses are attractive. One drawback is much more traffic. I'm sure when we sell that our place will go the same way. I want to move back to Ashland area where it is a bit drier. I lived there for a few years in the late 80's. I will miss going to Portland and Powells bookstore. Love that place! But it is becoming too crowded here for my taste.

[kaitykaity]

17. Density, density, density.

I think they're unsightly, but I also think it's a
good concept that keeps people from fleeing the core
of the city out to the 'burbs.

The city wants people out of their cars, walking, using
public transportation. Hawthorne btwn SE 30th and
SE 39th is their pride and joy.

[funflower]

19. That's what makes Portland so terrific!