How Portland’s Landmark Zoning Reform Could Work
The Residential Infill Project aims to boost “missing middle” housing — an expected boon for affordability in a city where the single-family home reigns.
Single-family homes dominate the housing stock in Portland, Oregon, but new zoning changes could bring more multi-family residences.
Photographer: Nicolle Gonzalez/Moment Mobile EDIn 2014, a group of architects, home builders, and neighborhood activists in Portland, Oregon, wrote a letter asking the city to rewrite local housing rules. At that point, a population boom in renters was creating an affordability crisis, with new multi-family housing coming online for twice the city’s average price per square foot. With more than 70% of the Rose City’s residential land then reserved for single-family homes, the signatories urged officials to review the laws that governed the shapes and sizes of residences allowed, and proposed several reforms that would legalize more units per lot within the city's urban growth boundary.
By doing so, they wrote, the city could push down costs and bring more people into Portland’s famously walkable, bikeable neighborhoods: “It’s time to address the mismatch between the types of homes encouraged by our codes and the needs of real people and households who live in Portland.”