Beyond Takings and Givings reported that Portland used TDR in three plan districts. In September, 2004, a review of Portland's 28 plan districts indicated that the TDR provisions in the Johnson Creek Plan District remain unaltered. The TDR components in the Skyline District were also similar to those previously reported even though the Skyline District had been expanded by more than 25 percent and renamed the Northwest Hills Plan District. According to Jeff Joslin, Land Use Supervisor, these two programs remain unused.
Beyond Takings and Givings described two TDR mechanisms which are still available and unchanged in the third area: the Central City plan district. In the first provision, Portland allows developers in two zones (CX and EX) the flexibility to transfer density between abutting lots within development sites on the same block. The second provision promotes single room occupancy (SRO) housing in the downtown by allowing the owners of SRO housing to transfer unused development capacity to receiving sites anywhere within the Central City District. Not described in BTG are three additional provisions.
Section 33.510.255, Central City Master Plans, allows flexibility to developers of multiple building sites within the Central City plan district. In one of three flexibility options, the developer can distribute floor area to individual development sites that will not remain under the same ownership but are approved under a single master plan. The total floor area for the master plan is the sum of the floor area allowed to all the sites within the master plan area. This floor area maximum cannot be exceeded but can be allocated between the individual sites in the master plan area. A proposed master plan must be consistent with the Central City district plan, ensure adequate infrastructure, provide circulation and open space, protect significant views and assure the building of required housing. In a recent example, the Central City Master Plan tool was used to shift development potential from The Edge, a building housing a new REI outlet to a larger building known as the Elizabeth located seven blocks away.
A second provision in the Central City plan district allows the transfer of floor area ratio from sites already developed as residential in an effort to offset market pressures to remove existing housing. Participating owners execute a covenant that maintains the housing at the sending site. The unused rights can be transferred anywhere within the Central City District. However, the code limits the floor area ratio that can be transferred or the maximum floor area ratio allowed depending on the location of the receiving site.
A third transfer provision applies to the South Waterfront Subdistrict. This subdistrict is a quarter-mile wide and one mile long between the I-5 Freeway and the Willamette River south of the Markham Bridge. Floor area, including bonus floor area, can be transferred between sending and receiving sites anywhere within this subdistrict. Receiving sites cannot exceed building height limits, which are designed to protect views and create a step-down of building heights to the Willamette River and limit shadows on public open space, historical districts and residential neighborhoods in and near the Central City plan district. Bonus floor area in the South Waterfront Subdistrict can be created for water features, housing (particularly middle-income housing), retail space and eco-roofs as elsewhere in the Central City. But other features that create bonus density elsewhere in the Central City do not apply in the South Waterfront subdistrict such as day care, rooftop gardens, public art and locker rooms to encourage bicycling. However, three special bonus provisions are offered within the South Waterfront Subdistrict. In one bonus provision, three bonus square feet of floor area are granted for each square foot of open space that abuts the South Waterfront Willamette River Greenway. In the second, bonus density is available to developments in South Waterfront that have more than two bedrooms. And in the third, bonus floor area can be gained by developments that contribute public open space in addition to any contributions to the South Waterfront Willamette River Greenway. The Central City Plan District also has bonus height provisions which allow the density bonus and transferred densities to be achieved.
Landmark TDR
In addition to transfer provisions within plan districts, TDR for the preservation of landmarks is allowed as regulated through underlying zoning. The sending areas are properties with a designated landmark. Landmarks are designated by the City's Historic Landmark Commission. The exact requirements differ depending on whether the landmark is in a multiple-family residential, commercial or employment/industrial zone.
In multiple-family residential zones, density can be transferred from a landmark to sites within the same neighborhood or within two miles in compliance with various restrictions. For example, density or FAR may be transferred from the RX zone to a site zoned RX, RH, CX or EX. Density may be transferred from the RX to the RX, RH, C or EX. Maximum density or FAR transfer limits also apply in different zones. In the RH and RX zones, the maximum FAR increase allowed on the receiving site is 3-to-1. In the R3, R2 and R1 zones, receiving sites are limited to a 100-percent increase in density due to TDR. (Note that transfers are also possible in the multiple-family residential zones without a landmark on the sending site if the receiving site is a lot within the same block or when the lot would be abutting except for a right-of-way.)
Unused FAR can be transferred from landmark sites in any commercial zone or the EX zone to receiving areas zoned C or EX that are within the same neighborhood or within two miles of the landmark. The receiving site development must comply with all development standards of the base zone and plan district with the exception of floor area ratio. The transfer cannot cause the receiving site development to increase by more than a 3-to-1 FAR.
Land Use Supervisor Jeff Joslin reported that the landmark transfer provisions had been used twice. The first example dealt with a five-block area known as the Brewery Blocks located at Burnside and NW 11th, 12th and 13th avenues. The Brewery Blocks are located outside the downtown. The entire five-block area was viewed as one site, allowing FAR to move freely within area. Two buildings in the Brewery Blocks are on the National Register: the old Brewhouse at 11th, 12th, Couch and Burnside and the Armory located at 10th, 11th, Couch and Davis. The sending sites were the Brewhouse and the block of the Armory with the receiving sites being new buildings within the Brewery Blocks.
In the second example, the Roosevelt Hotel at the southwest corner of Salmon and SW 9th used the Landmark transfer provision for a new hotel tower which was approved on an adjacent site but is not yet built.
It is likely that demand for transferred FAR in Portland is reduced by the many on-site density bonus options that developers can typically use to achieve greater floor area.
