Skip to main content
UPDATE, 5 pm: After a flurry of meetings in the Bureau of Development Services and City Hall, the City of Portland is issuing a stop-work order telling developer Dennis Sackhoff to halt construction on the 37th Street Apartments, an 81-unit complex on Southeast Division Street.
"I'm working on a request for them to cease construction," says Paul Scarlet, director of the Bureau of Development Services. "I have asked them to cease. They will button up the site [today], and won't work over the weekend."
Scarlet says he will issue the written stop-work order on Monday.
The order, an extraordinary step for a construction project already four stories off the ground, comes after the state Land Use Board of Appeals ruled this week that the apartment complex without on-site parking was permitted by the city in violation of its own zoning code.
ORIGINAL POST, 3:15 pm: The City of Portland hasn't issued a stop-work order on an 81-unit apartment complex on Southeast Division Street, even though the state Land Use Board of Appeals ruled this week it was illegally permitted.
A manager at the Bureau of Development Services sent an email this afternoon saying that the city isn't forcing Beaverton-based developer Dennis Sackhoff to stop work on the 37th Street Apartments until after the 21-day window for appeals.
The email, sent by Land Use Services Division Manager Rebecca Esau, also says the city expects Sackhoff to file a new building-permit application next week.
"There is a 21-day appeal period for LUBA's decision," Esau wrote. "The Bureau of Development Services (BDS) is not issuing a Stop Work Order on the project at this time."
Neighbors who have opposed the project since last summer are outraged.
"Not only is Sackhoff out of compliance with the law by building without a permit, the city is choosing to ignore the ruling," says Richard Melo, one of the neighbors who filed the petition with LUBA. "This is unbelievable."
The Feb. 20 appeals board ruling marked a fleeting victory for Richmond Neighbors for Responsible Growth, who said Sackhoff's four-story apartment complex with no on-site parking was a congestion-causing blight.
WWeek 2015