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Columbia Knoll will provide 326 senior, family units
LEE PERLMAN
THE MID COUNTY MEMO
It was fitting that the official “groundbreaking” for the Columbia Knoll housing development, on the old Shriner’s Hospital for Crippled Children property, occurred more than a month after work had begun. Everything about this project has taken longer than expected.
Achieving an imperfect but meaningful consensus among neighbors took awhile. Obtaining permission to demolish the 1926 Shriner’s Hospital building, a landmark on the National Registry of Historic Places, took longer. Putting together the $48 million in financing took longest of all. It has been five years in all. And even now, some doubts remain.
The project
Columbia Knoll, a project of Shelter Resources of Bellevue, Wash., will consist of three components: a senior housing complex, affordable family housing and for-sale row houses. The Heights at Columbia Knoll, the senior component, will be a large building at the top of the hill overlooking Northeast Sandy Boulevard, reminiscent of the old hospital. It will contain 208 units, with rents ranging from $616 to $1,533 depending on unit size, income and level of service. All will have access to a common area, library and wellness center and, for a price, up to two meals a day in a communal dining room, housekeeping services, private dining rooms and van transportation to destinations within seven miles.
The Terrace at Columbia Knoll will consist of 118 two and three-bedroom apartments housed in a series of satellite structures, including a few accessed from Northeast 82nd Avenue. Rents will range from $316 to $956 a month. All units will have washers and dryers, and residents will have the use of a two-story community center in the northwest portion of the property that will provide day care, recreation space and Internet access. The daycare center, Grandma’s Place, will be available to the surrounding neighborhood as well as the complex.
Eight for-sale row houses will be constructed in the northeast corner of the site at a future time. There will be a total of 238 parking spaces for the entire project.
The original curving driveway will be reconfigured, with just one entrance on Sandy. Some of the family housing will face 82nd Avenue, and there will be a traffic access there as well.
History
In a sense the story of the project began ten years before, as owner John Goss sought to redevelop or sell the vacant former hospital. All fell victim to a deadly combination of factors: the property was zoned for residential use, yet contained a dilapidated institutional building that, as a designated landmark, could not easily be removed.
When Goss proposed to sell the property to the Oregon Food Bank to convert the building to a warehouse, a city planner advised him that this would be forbidden under the property’s residential zoning. When Goss said he had used the place for storage in the past the planner said, “Oh? Did you ever get a permit for that? I wouldn’t go there if I were you.”
Shelter Resources had a different problem. They inherited the historic building, which they judged unsuitable to their purposes and which they could not tear down at will. Shelter Resources’ Len Brannen put the cost of upgrading the building to meet code requirements alone at $5 million, over and above the cost of conversion.
For the most part, representatives of surrounding neighborhoods such as Madison South, Cully and Roseway accepted change as inevitable and probably even desirable, and worked with Shelter Resources on their plans. In Brannen’s words, those involved called for the front lawn and the buildings behind it to be “somewhat reminiscent of the old hospital.” He called the negotiations “one of the top two or three processes I’ve ever been involved in. They were truly interested in the end product and trying to improve it.”
The exception was Peter Meijer of Roseway, who campaigned to save the old building. He found allies in other preservationists and the State Historic Preservation Office. Meeting the criteria for removing the structure took well over a year.
Brannen said he understood the sentiment. “The hospital had such a prominent place in the community,” he said. “So many people had a connection to it.”
Yet more time was spent in getting the financing in order. As one participant put it, “About a dozen people have to sign off on this, and everyone wants to see everyone else’s name on the contract first.”
Andy Wilch of the Portland Development Commission said, “I haven’t been involved in a more complicated project.”
The groundbreaking
Despite all this, the project took off. By the time of the official ceremony there was little ground left to break. Most of the old buildings had been demolished. Some of the fir trees and all of the oaks - the last at the city forester’s order - had been cut down. Old rhododendron and camellia bushes were removed, to be replanted when the building is complete.
One of those who spoke was City Commissioner Erik Sten, who said that at one point he too resolved to save the old building. Even without this, he said, the project should greatly benefit the surrounding neighborhood.
“I think you’ll see a lot of seniors from nearby move in here,” he said. “Many are ready to move out of their single family homes, but not ready to move to King City.” The project is also providing “affordable family-sized units” which could boost enrollment at Madison High School, he said. The increased population could help the Sandy Business District, he said. “Having kids and seniors living together is really wonderful,” he said. “It’s not usual in these economic times to see a $48 million project get off the ground,” he said. Praising Shelter
Resources’ willingness to work with neighborhood representatives he said, “It isn’t always that we have a developer who really gets it.”
Ongoing issues
The discussions aren’t over. The project has hung in limbo so long that old concerns have resurfaced.
The matter hasn’t come up at the Parkrose Neighborhood Association, although Chairman Mark Gardner said he thought his community had more than its share of low-income housing. At recent meetings of the Madison South and Roseway associations the biggest concerns were traffic and parking, especially given the small ratio of parking spaces to units. Another concern was about on-site security. The atmosphere at both meetings, by their end, was generally positive.
Father Jack Topper of The Grotto, the property’s adjacent neighbor to the east, had some similar concerns. He stressed to the Memo; “I want to be positive. It’s certainly better to have the place used than to have a dilapidated building standing vacant so long.”
However, he is concerned about “so much dense housing in one place,” and especially about the traffic, parking and noise it could generate. The Grotto is “a sanctuary, a place for quiet and reflection,” he says.
Topper says he is happy to see so many seniors who could make use of The Grotto. He is less enthusiastic about children playing near such busy streets.
Shelter Resources’ Mark Miller handles security, child safety and many other issues by saying that “management” will take care of it. With regard to the last he says, “We could have put in a wall, but the neighbors want to preserve the open hillside.”
With regard to parking, he notes that many senior projects provide little on-site parking and find no need for it.
“I hope it’s true,” Topper says. “Time will tell.”
Brannen conceded at the groundbreaking that there were “issues that need to be ironed out” with the “archdiocese property next door.” (The Friars and Servants of Mary, not the Portland archdiocese, own The Grotto.)
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