As part of the Westside Light rail alignment, three light rail stations are located in the Goose Hollow District of the Central City Plan area. Extensive public investments have been made to introduce light rail to the Goose Hollow District and the plans for the light rail alignment have gone through a careful process of design review. This public investment will promote private investments in the form of new mixed-use, residential, retail and office developments. The concentration of development at the light rail stations will encourage increased use of transit, reduce auto traffic and promote pedestrian-friendly environments around the stations. Goose Hollow has great opportunities for infill and the potential to become a transit-oriented residential community. It is also a gateway to the Central City and has special historic significance.
The Goose Hollow Station Community Plan 's adopted zoning (January 1996) promotes a high intensity of development at the light rail stations. The neighborhood, Tri-Met, interested property owners and the City are working to ensure the success of private investments, as well as to define the quality of expected development. The principal tool for ensuring this quality is design review, which is applicable to all properties within the design (d) overlay zone. The design overlay zone (d) in Goose Hollow extends throughout the District. The City requires that all projects within the design overlay zone (d) be approved through the design review process before a building or other development permit is granted.
During the design review process the review body must find that the project being reviewed meets each of the design guidelines. Projects that meet all the guidelines will be approved. Projects that fail to meet one or more of the applicable guidelines may not be approved except as provided in "Waiver of Design Guidelines" below. The review body may approve the design, approve the design with conditions, or deny the project a development and/or building permit. When conditions are attached to a project's approval the conditions will require modifications to the proposed design that are necessary to ensure the project's compliance with the design guidelines. Generally, the review body would rather the applicant revise their design to address design deficiencies rather than have the City impose a specific solution through conditions.
The design review process is intended to be flexible, encouraging builders to propose innovative designs. For this reason guidelines are qualitative statements rather than quantitative standards. Quantitative approval criteria have been avoided to help ensure that the guidelines do not dictate design. There are many acceptable ways to meet each of the guidelines. Examples of alternative ways to meet the guideline are provided to stimulate the designer's search for a design that meets both the client's program and the guidelines. Designers are urged to consider the examples as explanatory information about the guideline. The examples are not an exclusive list and are not intended to be used as recommended solutions.
While the design guidelines are qualitative, they nevertheless are mandatory and have legal effect as approval criteria. They are applied in a design review proceeding that is a land use review under Oregon law. The qualitative language in which the guidelines are stated is intended to provide designers flexibility in achieving the guidelines intent. It does not imply that the guidelines are not requirements, they are. This flexibility shall not be construed as rendering the guidelines merely advisory or otherwise diminish their legal effect. Guidelines must be addressed, or specifically waived. The applicant is responsible for explaining, in their application, how their design meets each of the guidelines.
This document includes a listing of the Central City Fundamental Design Guidelines, which apply throughout the Central City, and the specific and detailed text for the Goose Hollow District Design Guidelines, which are applicable to the Goose Hollow District area only. Some Goose Hollow District Design Guidelines are followed by "This guideline may be accomplished by any or all of the following: a..., b..., c..., or ..." statements. These statements are provided as ideas and examples of how a guideline may be met. They are not a part of the guideline. The Goose Hollow District Design Guidelines take precedence should there be a conflict with a Central City Fundamental Design Guideline. The Goose Hollow District and Central City Fundamental Design Guidelines are intended to be used together. The Goose Hollow District Guidelines are located in sequence with the fundamental guideline titles to aid the reader and reviewer in understanding how the two sets of guidelines relate to each other.
The titles of the Fundamental Design Guidelines are in normal text while the Goose Hollow District Design Guidelines are in bold text. Copies of the complete text of the Central City Fundamental Design Guidelines are available at the Bureau of Planning (Room 1002, 1120 S.W. Fifth Avenue, Portland, Oregon, 97204-1966). The City charges a fee for design review.
In general these tiers of guidelines build on each other. The Goose Hollow District Design Guidelines elaborate on themes established in the Central City fundamentals guidelines and provide guidance about how the fundamentals should be applied to sites within the Goose Hollow District. The guidelines for the two station areas also elaborate on the Central City fundamentals. All three tiers of guidelines have been drafted with an eye to avoiding conflicts. However, should a conflict be identified it will be resolved in favor of the more local or area specific guideline. Goose Hollow District Design Guidelines take precedence over Central City Fundamental Design Guidelines. Historic Landmark approval criteria take precedence over the Goose Hollow Design Guidelines.
The review body conducting design review may waive one or more guidelines for a specific project. A guideline may be waived when the review body finds that the proposed development will better meet the Goals for Central City and Goose Hollow District design review than would a project that complied with the guideline. Should the applicant wish a guideline waived they must explain, in their application, how the design will better meet the Goals for Central City and Goose Hollow District design review than would a design that met the guideline. The Goals for Central City and Goose Hollow District design review are listed in Chapter II of this document.
Any change to use related standards is subject to a separate process. Use related standards are those that govern the intensity of the use. Adjustments to parking standards must also include consideration of the Central City Transportation Management Policy (CCTMP). The policies adopted with the CCTMP are also approval criteria that must be considered in weighing approval of adjustment to parking standards within the Goose Hollow District. Adjustment may not be considered or granted for standards that prohibit adjustments, such as height and bulk regulations within the Central City.
Thresholds: In the Goose Hollow District new development or exterior alterations, either of which exceed $1,000,000 in 1990 dollars are major projects. All other projects, except historic resources, are minor, unless the project is exempt from design review. However, historic design review varies depending on the type of proposal. The review procedures for the various types of historic reviews are stated in the Cityıs Zoning Code.
Pre-application conference and/or informal meeting with staff provides an opportunity to informally discuss issues related to the project's design. This information allows the designer and project developer to prepare their design and application for design review with a better understanding of the process and the guidelines, or approval criteria. Representatives from other City Bureau's and citizen groups, such as neighborhood and business associations are invited to attend pre-application conferences.
Ordinance No. 169824 39
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