PORTLAND, Ore. – A 120-year-old house in the Hosford-Abernethy neighborhood of Southeast Portland will be torn down to make room for two new houses, in an increasingly rare example of development requiring a new land partition rather than opening underlying lots of record.
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Located at 2834 SE 20th Ave., the two-story house was built in 1895 and sits on a standard 5,000-square-foot lot. The residence itself is 1,478 square feet in size.
City and county records, as well as the numerous real estate databases, do not show any recent sales of the property. The last sale on record was in 1998, when it sold for $50,000. Records indicate the owners are Douglas Peterson and Kim Stark, registered in Rockaway.
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Items offered for free in front of the house suggest the occupants of the home recently moved out.
Photo credit: Portland Chronicle
On May 8 the city received an application for a land partition, again citing Peterson and Stark as the owners and listing Rob Humphrey of permit fast-tracking company Faster Permits as the applicant.
“The applicant is proposing to partition the subject property into two equally sized parcels of approximately 2,441 square feet in size,” wrote City Planner Sean Williams in the notice to neighbors. “The existing single family home and detached garage will be removed.”
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The Bureau of Development Services is required to issue a decision between 30-45 days of sending the notice to neighbors, which dated June 18 and explains that public comments must be received by July 20.
But although no decision has been issued or will be before July 20, the developers applied on June 9 for demolition of the 120-year-old home. The demolition delay period will end July 15, five days prior to the earliest date the BDS will issue a decision on the land partition. The home could potentially be razed before the BDS decision is made.
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Because there are no underlying lots of record beneath the current land parcel, the developer is applying for a new land division. The property is located within an R2.5 zone, meaning there can be one dwelling unit per 2,500 square feet of land in future divisions, which would allow a two-lot partition of the current 5,000-square-foot lot.
The required notice sent to neighbors within 100 feet of the site in question is another factor setting new land use actions apart from historic lot utilization, which requires no notification to neighboring property owners.
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Besides confirming that the house and detached garage will be “removed,” the neighbor notice also explains that one English walnut tree on the property “is proposed to be retained for compliance with preservation standards and approval criteria.”
This tree near the corner of the property is proposed to stay standing, while the others will be slashed. Photo credit: Portland Chronicle
According to the “existing conditions” map (those “conditions” include the 120-year-old house), the tree that will remain is at the corner of Southeast 20th Avenue and Woodward Street. The other two trees on the property will be cut down according to the proposal.
Two trees will be cut down while one at the corner of the lot will be left standing.
The demolition delay period ends July 15. Comments on the lot-splitting proposal should be directed to sean.williams@portlandoregon.gov before 5 p.m. July 20.
Photo credit: Portland Chronicle