The Design Commission has upheld the staff level approval of the 5020 Condos, an affordable housing development on N Interstate Ave. The 6-story building, designed by Carleton Hart Architecture, will include 64 family sized units, ground floor commercial space and 14 parking stalls in a tuck under garage. 74 long term bicycle parking spaces will be provided.
The project is being developed in collaboration between Proud Ground and Habitat for Humanity Portland/Metro East. 2- and 3-bedroom units will be offered for sale at prices between $121,000 – $274,500, and kept permanently affordable through a community land trust.
The project site is a 20,000 sq ft parcel on N Interstate Ave, between N Alberta St and N Webster St. The site was purchased by the Portland Housing Bureau in 2016. Three existing low rise commercial buildings on the site were demolished in 2018.
The primary material for the building will be ribbed metal panel. Light colored brick in a stack bond pattern will be used at the ground level. Other materials proposed include dark brown vinyl windows, aluminum storefronts, cast in place concrete planters and steel railings.
The 5020 were approved by Bureau of Development Services on May 3rd, 2019. The approval was subsequently appealed by the Overlook Neighborhood Association, who objected to an adjustment to reduce the amount of required ground floor active use space from the required 25% to 19.5%. The decision was also appealed by the applicants, over conditions of approval that were added by city staff.
At their June 27th meeting the Design Commission voted 3-2 to deny the appeal of the Overlook Neighborhood Association and partially grant the appeal of the applicant. A revised condition added to the Final Findings, Conclusions And Decision Of The Design Commission will required that a street facing bike storage room will be converted to active use, and that at least 23% of the ground floor area be in active use as defined by the zoning code.
Building permits will need to be obtained before construction can begin.
Drawings
Plan | Site & Ground 
Plan | Levels 2-6 
Plan | Roof 
Elevation | West (N Interstate) 
Elevation | South (N Alberta) 
Elevation | East 
Elevation | North (N Webster) 
Section 
Section
So do affordable housing developments receive an exception regarding the bedroom window requirements? I’ve noticed that in some of these affordable buildings the 3rd bedroom in many of the units is fully inside with no windows. Maybe this exemption should be allowed for the 3rd bedroom across the board, to allow developers to provide more affordable family-sized units rather than flooding the market with studios and 1-2 beds only.
Nevermind, I just noticed the 3rd bedrooms have tiny windows squeezed in. Although I still think I’ve seen affordable units with windowless 3rd bedrooms, the Vibrant! building comes to mind.
Unlike the single family building code, the commercial building code does not require windows for bedrooms.
So fire exit is presumed to be out through the hall? Are sprinklers required in residential spaces in the Commercial Code?
The assumption in the code is that it’s not safe (or sometimes even possible) to have people climbing out of a bedroom window high in the air. Instead, the code requires two means of egress that are sufficiently separated from each other; in this case, the two exit stairs, which will need to be fire rated. The commercial code also requires fire sprinklers for residential occupancies.
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