PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) – The Portland City Council voted unanimously Wednesday to temporarily suspend several permitting requirements, a move officials say is aimed at cutting red tape for homeowners who want to remodel.
The changes are part of the city’s “Code Alignment Project,” which councilors say is designed to streamline a permitting process that has been widely criticized as slow and confusing.
A city survey last year found that 58% of respondents said getting a permit reviewed was “difficult” or “very difficult,” and hundreds of written comments were overwhelmingly negative.
David Kuhnhausen, interim director of Portland’s Permitting and Development Bureau, said in an interview earlier this year that his office is trying to fix those issues.
“We’ve all heard the horror stories around the permitting process,” Kuhnhausen said.
He said the city’s new department, created last year, is meant to consolidate services that once required residents to navigate multiple agencies.
“Customers had to deal with up to, I think eight different bureaus, to get their questions answered,” Kuhnhausen said. “The consolidation of these teams means that there’s one door for customers to enter into … to get a lot of those questions answered.”
Kuhnhausen added that the city has piled on regulations for decades without looking back.
“We’ve added more and more codes, more and more policies over the decades, and we’ve never really taken a look at what needs to come off of those requirements,” he said. “There’s never been a right-sizing, until now.”
The city council did not remove any of the permitting requirements but it does put several on hold through Jan. 1, 2029. The pause only impacts projects that add to or alter existing properties.
Requirements for new construction remain in place. Three of the paused requirements deal with street-side improvements: street tree planting, sidewalk upgrades during large remodels, and site upgrades like bike parking and landscaping.
The fourth suspension covers seismic evaluation reports for older buildings undergoing major alterations.
The suspensions apply to permits already in process as long as they have not received final inspection.
Councilors Jamie Dunphy and Angelita Morillo co-sponsored the measure.
“Permitting should never be a barrier to Portlanders who are working to improve their homes, businesses, or communities,” Dunphy said.
“So many of my constituents want to make their community brighter, safer, and healthier but haven’t had the tools to do so,” Morillo said. “This Code Alignment Project is a response to those voices.”
The temporary pause goes into effect Oct. 24.
Here are the four impacted permit requirements being put on pause:
- Street Tree Planting (Title 11): Requirements to plant street trees currently apply to all development projects with a value of more than $25,000. The adopted ordinance will temporarily exempt additions and alterations, not new building construction. The street tree planting requirement would also still apply to sites where sidewalk improvements are already required by the Portland Bureau of Transportation. In addition to the street tree planting requirement, Urban Forestry staff in Portland Parks & Recreation proposed other changes to help reduce permit review costs, as well as facilitate large-scale tree planting initiatives through more flexible tree planting size requirements.
- Street Improvements for significant alterations (e.g. sidewalks, curb ramps) (Title 17): All developments with a project value greater than 35% of the assessed improvement value for the site are currently required to make certain frontage improvements. The adopted ordinance suspends frontage improvement requirements for most alterations to existing buildings that do not increase occupancy. Note that some uses, like schools and hospitals, will not be exempt. Frontage improvements will continue to be assessed for site improvements that increase the daily trips to a site.
- Seismic Evaluation Report (Title 24): Currently, buildings built before 1974 require seismic evaluation reports when proposing additions and alterations with a project value of more than $362,000. The ordinance suspends the requirement of a seismic evaluation report during the pause.
- Site upgrades (Title 33): Currently, the City’s zoning code requires certain types of upgrades, such as the addition of bike parking, improvements to pedestrian connections, and landscaping enhancements, to additions and alterations with a project value of more than $356,300. The adopted ordinance extends the current pause for these kinds of upgradeson residential projects to all projects until Jan. 1, 2029. The proposed pause, which applies to all projects, aligns with a similar pause City Council passed for housing projects as part of the Housing Regulatory Relief project last year.
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