Height Of Unfairness

[December 17th, 2008]

Louis Lee wants to create something exceedingly rare in Chinatown—a high-rise building developed by a Chinese-American.

But like the Chinese laborers who lived in the neighborhood more than a century ago, Lee feels less than equal in city officials’ eyes.

“If this is discrimination, that would be sad,” Lee says. “All I’m asking for is consistency.”

On Thursday, Dec. 18, City Council is scheduled to vote on a controversial Planning Bureau proposal to raise the height limit on some buildings in the Skidmore-Old Town Historic District from 75 feet to 130 feet. Art DeMuro, a developer active in the neighborhood, estimates the increased height would add a cumulative $6.5 million in value to the five properties.

During a two-year study, the Planning Bureau identified five neighborhood sites eligible for more height—a valuable commodity that allows developers to spread fixed costs for any building over a greater area and to tap spectacular views.

Lee, a 58-year-old native of Hong Kong, owns one of the five sites. But unlike the powerful owners of the other four parcels—the Goodman and Naito families and the Portland Development Commission—Lee is a development neophyte.

And while the other four “opportunity sites” are slated for the new 130-foot limit, Lee’s limit will be just 100 feet. He wonders if that’s because he’s new to the development business.

“If you watch the NBA on television, there’s always different treatment for rookies,” Lee says. “In this case, I guess I’m the rookie.”

Here’s how height limit came to be a factor: Because of its age and cast-iron architecture, the Skidmore-Old Town District was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1975 and became a National Historic Landmark in 1977.

The practical benefit of those designations has been millions of dollars in historical tax credits for at least 15 big projects, property-tax breaks, and strict controls on demolition of existing structures. But along with historical status came a 75-foot height cap. Now, city planners say the cap has made new construction in the neighborhood uncompetitive with other parts of the city.

So planners set out to identify “opportunity sites” of no historical value on which taller buildings might enliven Skidmore-Old Town.

Two of the sites, located south of West Burnside Street, are half-block parking lots owned by the Goodman family, operators of City Center Parking. Two others are half-blocks owned by the Bill Naito Company and PDC on Northwest 1st and 2nd avenues and Davis Street.

Lee operates his accountancy business out of the fifth “opportunity site,” a quarter-block located at 318 NW Davis St.

Senior City Planner Karl Lisle rejects any notion of discrimination, saying Lee’s building falls into an overlap of Skidmore-Old Town and the New Chinatown-Japantown neighborhood to the north and west of Skidmore-Old Town.

“It’s really about the maps and his being in a district,” Lisle says.

Lee argues the city recently allowed construction of the 160-foot Pacific Tower just two blocks north of his site.

And now there’s another wrinkle to the City Council’s decision: On Dec. 4, the National Park Service notified the Council that the district’s historical character “would be severely compromised” by letting building heights go to 130 feet. At risk are millions of dollars in tax breaks and the city’s authority to forbid demolition of historic structures.

“Designation withdrawal is unlikely—but remains a distinct possible outcome,” read a Dec. 11 Bureau of Planning risk analysis.

Housing Commissioner Nick Fish, a former civil rights lawyer, says Lee’s claim of bias and the feds’ warning are both worth considering.

“It may be premature to take up this issue without knowing how real the threat of de-listing is and what the risk is to current property owners,” Fish says.