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Oregon Museum of Science and Industry鈥檚 vision for its future one-of-a-kind neighborhood took its first steps in the review process on Thursday at the Portland Design Commission.

At full buildout, the 34-acre master plan area expects to be home to about 3.4 million square feet of mixed institutional, commercial, retail and residential development 鈥� including up to 1,200 units of housing, where at least 20 percent plan to be for low-income families.

The site spans over 10 city blocks from Clay Street to Caruthers Street in the city鈥檚 lower east side. It includes Portland Community College鈥檚 CLIMB center, a center for continuing learning for individuals, management and business, and Portland Opera鈥檚 Hampton Center. Both are members of the master plan鈥檚 development team, which Edlen & Co. is advising.

Commissioners remarked that plans are evolving in a positive path for the district since its previous Design Advice Requests in 2017 and 2019, but like most new Central City master plans further details still need to be flushed out. For example, the tract lengths.

Building Fa莽ade Lengths

If approved, the master plan would create eight new developable blocks 鈥渢racts鈥� with total heights of 250 feet with bonuses, and podium heights of 50 feet. The tract closest to the river would have a max height of 75 feet. But due to the organic nature of the site caused by the Union Pacific Railway tracks to the east and the Willamette River on the west, the building sites are larger than most Portland city blocks 鈥� varying in length from 230 feet to 750 feet — and uniquely shaped.

Commissioner Jessica Molinar said some of the tracts have a potential of creating a 鈥渧isual wall鈥� between the city鈥檚 east and central eastside and the river.

ZGF鈥檚 Nolan Lienhart, director of planning and urban design, said rather than designating where the brakes in the wall needed to be they wanted to say, 鈥渉ere鈥檚 the limit鈥� and then further define the criteria from there. In the case of the PCC-owned tract on the north end of the site that has a 750-foot length, each building鈥檚 facade built upon it would be limited up to 250-feet in length.

Commissioner Don Vallaster said while a fair amount of developmental flexibility is needed because they are 鈥渞eally weird, shaped blocks,鈥� there does need to be more of a limit on the building鈥檚 lengths. Currently, the PCC tract is the only one that has one.

All three existing institutional partners — OMSI, PCC and Portland Opera — plan to continue and expand their current programs within the plan area. The Portland Opera is planning a new landmark building to exist on its Opera Tract 1 site as a performing arts center.

Adjustments

The development team is seeking five adjustments to the building line standards for the site that dictate how much of the buildings needs to be pulled to the sidewalk鈥檚 edge. They are requesting that this requirement be reduced for most of the tracts from the 75 percent standard in the central eastside to 50 percent or 0 percent and have a landscaped edge instead for some.

鈥淏ecause these tracks have irregular shapes and are larger than the standard city blocks,鈥� ZGF Architects Associate Kate Brooks said, 鈥渨e wanted to provide more flexibility along the tract edges.鈥�

Ben Nielsen, senior city planner, said his first inclination was that maybe these adjustment requests were asking for too much, but agreed that it would make sense since these tracts are generally larger.

The team is also requesting three adjustments to the parking and loading access standards primarily to allow access to the different street segments the new master plan would connect too.

New Street Structure

Currently, the only roads within the site are Water Avenue, which goes past the PCC building and straight into an OMSI parking lot, and Loop Road that circles a parking lot. To accommodate future freight and commuter traffic, the master plan would add a new street that runs the length of the site and parallel to the tracks.

A new street — New Water Avenue — would be the new main arterial in and out of the area and would take hold of the Major City Bikeway designation that that exists for the current Water Avenue.

The existing Water Avenue would remain, but it be renamed to 鈥淥ld Water Avenue鈥� and be more of a quieter, slower neighborhood street.

A Return

As of Thursday鈥檚 hearing, the Portland Bureau of Transportation had not yet completed the traffic impact analysis for the new district due to a filing error by the applicant. As such, a continuation hearing was scheduled for the review and tentatively set for October.

Commissioners said they hope the project team will return with more details, including an outlined phasing approach for the open space and how wayfinding will look within the master plan area.