Gresham Middle Housing Project: Phase One

  • Marcy McInelly

    Erika Warhus

    Pauline Ruegg

  • JLA

Type
Zoning Code Amendments

Year
2021

Gresham is a large, racially and socially diverse community in the eastern area of the Portland metro area. Like many cities in Oregon in 2021, Gresham was required to comply with HB 2001, the state’s middle housing rule, so that a wider variety of housing than had historically been available could be built in single family-zoned neighborhoods. Middle housing refers to housing types that fill the gap between small apartments and detached single dwellings, such as duplexes, triplexes, quadplexes, cottage clusters, and townhouses.

While some neighborhoods are walkable, near services and transit, and easily accept residential intensification, there are sprawling semi-urbanized areas near the rural edges of the city bordering Clackamas County. Naturally many people had concerns about how the new housing types will look, feel, and function in the different areas.

A cottage style home in Gresham, OR.
An aprtment complex with a playground outside in Gresham, OR
A slidewalk view of a neighborhood in Gresham, OR.

The two main goals of HB 2001 and the Gresham Middle Housing projects: increase housing availability and housing attainability.

The Urbsworks team led robust public engagement program conducting polling and virtual open houses to gather information. Visual preference surveys allowed participants to identify which elements of housing and neighborhood design are most important to regulate.

In response to community feedback, the Urbsworks team provided a comprehensive package of zoning code amendments which transformed the zoning for residential and mixed use districts. To ease the learning curve for city staff who would administer the new land use and building permits, code amendments thoughtfully re-used pre-existing regulations that already applied to multi-family housing, and refined and re-purposed them to serve for all housing.

A map of Gresham, with the steo for the development outlined near the south edges of the city.
A presentation slide outlining a survey of the Gresham community that asks, "When thinking about middle housing for you, what is the most important feature?".
A presentation slide outlining a survey of the Gresham community that asks, "What are the most important goals for new regulations to address in middle housing in Gresham?"

View the phase 2 case study for Gresham Middle Housing Project

Explore Phase 2

Two drawings of homes from the zine created by urbsworks for the Gresham Middle Housing Project.
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Gresham Middle Housing Project – Phase 2