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st 6.October 21work session, the proposed changes in building height diagram makes it look like SW-SAZ is doing everyone a favor by decreasing building height. Truth: a.The diagram uses a mishmash of current zoning and Metro Plan designation, whichever seems to make it look the most favorable in reducing heights. Two examples: i.Portland Street between 24 th and 25 th is low density in Metro plan, but R-2 in city zoning. The document uses the higher density city zoning, so the height difference comes out the same number of stories (3 to 3) rather than an increase in ½ story (2.5 to 3). ii.Willamette Street on the west side from West 23 rd to West 22 nd Avenues, the diagram shows a decrease of 8 stories (11 to 3 stories). The current zoning is R-3 (limited to 50 feet, which in other places is listed as 4.5 stories), and the Metro Plan is high density which includes both R-3 and R-4. To make the diagram more dramatic, the city selected the maximum available height for R-4 at 11 stories. Because R-3 is used in areas of Metro Plan high density designation, any honest presentation would display this section as a maximum of only 4.5 stories. This is still a worthwhile decrease of 1.5 stories, given the surround residential area, but it shouldn’t have been portrayed as an 8 story decrease. b.Comparing the fixed feet in the current code with the “stories” in SW-SAZ land does not tell the full story. For example: i.The existing R-3 maximum height is 50 feet, not the 65 feet allowed for a 5- story SW-SAZ apartment/condo building. ii.Going from 50 feet to 65 feet is a 25% increase in height, yet miraculously this comes out as only a “1/2 story increase” when comparing the current R-3 zone (50 foot with 4.5 stories) to the proposed SW-SAZ apartment/condo zone (65 foot 5-story SW-SAZ building). iii.Most of the housing in SW-SAZ has 8 foot ceilings, so an extra 15 feet in height would normally be adding closer to 2 stories. iv.What is most significant in blocking solar access and visual openness is the height of the building in feet – not the number of floors. c.For mixed use area in SW-SAZ (such as Woodfield Station or the commercial strip along Willamette), there is the potential for a 2-story bonus, given for “open space”. That would make Woodfield Station area’s true maximum height for a height difference map to be at 9 stories. Since in the SW-SAZ code 7 stories is a maximum of 90 feet high and 8 stories is 105 feet high (a difference of 15 feet), then that would make 9 stories exactly the same height that the SW-SAZ plan was supposedly protecting us from: 120 feet. Currently, C-2 and R-4 maximum heights are 120 feet. hy is 120 feet in current code coming out to be 11 stories, yet 120 feet in SW-SAZ \[And w land is only 9 stories? It shows the folly of comparing apples with oranges –aka feet in the current code, and stories in SW-SAZ land.\] Page 5 of 7 9/20/2016