It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost 19 months since 400 neighbors formed a standing room only crowd at Bethany Lutheran Church to discuss the four-story building with no parking planned for our neighborhood. Not long after that meeting, Beaumont-Wilshire Neighbors for Responsible Growth (BWNRG) formed to reduce the impact of the building and to address the issue citywide.
Beaumont-Wilshire Neighbors for Responsible Growth’s hundreds of hours of work this past year directly initiated changes that the city of Portland made to respond to such exploitive development. Working with a coalition of other neighborhood groups, the City Council was persuaded last spring to adopt minimum parking requirements for developments like the 4-story, 50-unit building on NE Fremont. And after weathering months of delays by developer Wally Remmers, BWNRG was finally able to make its case in November regarding code violations to the state’s Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA).
In a decision issued in early December, LUBA remanded the city-issued permit for the Beaumont Village Apartments. Remmers was ordered to make fixes to his controversial project, such as finding another place for the project’s drywall that meets code-required building and property line setbacks.
“While we thought that the flaws in the development were serious enough for LUBA to reverse the city’s issuance of a permit, this is still a win,” said John Golden of BWNRG, “because it shows neighbor activists can make a difference in bringing a development up to code and keeping developers accountable.”
“We have never been anti-density,” said Margaret Davis of BWNRG. “But this building was too big for its site and would bring unmitigated traffic and safety impacts with such a large number of units and no parking.”
Even though LUBA didn’t agree with all of the errors BWNRG found in the project, the fight is a successful part of a citywide Neighbors for Responsible Growth movement that advocates for sustainable development. Under the remand, the city has a chance to give the Beaumont Village Apartments another look, and BWNRG urges residents across the city to continue to promote responsible growth in their neighborhoods.
Visit http://bwnrg.blogspot.com for more information.