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Centers and corridors report

Review independent recommendations on new tools and approaches for developing centers and corridors to help encourage vibrant communities that produce and support jobs.

The region's 2040 Growth Concept envisions compact development directed in centers and corridors to preserve farm, forestland and natural areas outside the urban growth boundary and to protect single-family neighborhoods. However, the current forecast shows that the region doesn't need to significantly expand the urban growth boundary for the next 20 years if locally planned growth is achieved in centers and corridors. View list of group members

The report "Achieving Sustainable, Compact Development in the Portland Metropolitan Area: New Tools and Approaches for Developing Centers and Corridors" was developed by a twenty-one member panel of respected local experts in the fields of institutional real estate, financing, development and planning, convened at the request of the council by the Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies at Portland State University.

The group presented their findings and recommendations to the Metro Council on how to achieve more robust development in the region's centers and corridors.

Key considerations

The advisory group considered three key issues:

• do national trends point to compact, mixed-use development
• what barriers exist to compact development and can they be removed
• what actions would improve the investment environment for center and corridor development.

The team shared its findings with the council and presented an action plan of six recommendations for strategies to encourage more robust development in centers and corridors.

Findings and conclusions

Findings indicate that while current and future demographic, economic, social and environmental factors point to an increase in demand for compact, mixed-used development, the region must address significant market, physical, regulatory, financial and legal barriers to successful center and corridor development.

Highlights of the report identify the greatest obstacles in centers and corridors development as the current credit market; a lack of collaboration among key stakeholders involved in development projects; and inflexible and inconsistent development codes across jurisdictions.

Recommendations

The advisory group's recommendations to the council call for innovative approaches in collaboration, financing and gaining the legislative support needed to facilitate compact mixed-use development. 

1. Establish a structure for on-going cross-sector collaboration and learning between public, private and institutional sectors.
2. Develop a diagnostic tool to assess the readiness of a center and corridor for development.
3. Create a public-private toolkit with model agreements and design prototypes to simplify the development process.
4. Develop a new approach to gap financing with creative lending tools and mechanisms for public-private collaboration.
5. Create a mechanism for metropolitan infrastructure investments that supports compact mixed-use development.
6. Address legislative barriers that currently make center and corridor development challenging and to better position the region for federal and foundation funding.

Next steps

The intention of the advisory group is to continue outreach to local jurisdictions to share their findings and recommendations and serve as a resource for further discussion.

Advisory group on centers and corridors

Convener/facilitator

Gil Kelley, Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies

Members

Dennis Wilde, Principal, Gerding Edlen Development Company; residential, commercial and institutional developers
Vern Rifer, Principal, Vernon L. Rifer Real Estate Development, Inc.; residential and commercial developers
Jerry Johnson, Principal, Johnson Reid; economic and real estate development consultants
Kate Allen, Housing Policy Manager; City of Portland, office of Commissioner Fish
Matthew Stanley, Senior Relations Officer, Umpqua Bank
Mark New, New & Neville Real Estate Services; real estate appraisers
Abe Farkas, Principal; economic and planning consultants
Kevin Cavenaugh, Principal, Cavenaugh & Cavenaugh, LLC, and Ten-Pod Development; architects and developers
Jim Irvine, Principal, The Conifer Group; residential developers
Dave Leland, Principal, Leland Consulting Group; planning and development consultants
Steve Burdick, Principal, Killian Pacific; residential developers
Beverly Bookin, Principal, The Bookin Group; urban planning consultants
Don Hanson, Principal, OTAK; land planning and development consultants
Ed McNamara, Principal, Turtle Island Development; residential developer
John Southgate, Economic Development Director, City of Hillsboro
Alice Rouyer, Redevelopment Director, City of Gresham
Ron Bunch, Community Development Director, City of Tigard
Michael Mehaffy, Principal, Structura Naturalis Inc.; planning and development consultants
John Spencer, Principal, Spencer & Kupper; planning and development consultants
Tom Kemper, President, KemperCo, LLC; developer
Fred Bruning, Chief Executive Officer, Center Cal Properties, LLC

Download the report

Related Documents

• Achieving Sustainable, Compact Development in the Portland Metropolitan Area: New Tools and Approaches for Developing Centers and Corridors 2.1M Adobe Acrobat PDF | Published November 12, 2009