We’ve seen these homes many times throughout Portland but today we came across this one, again, and figured it was time to say something. 
I will absolutely not claim to know what the deal is behind this particular home and I certainly will not mention where it is, however we see this frequently, tall skinny homes squeezed into what once was a 1/4 acre or 1/2 acre lot that the city of Portland allowed to be split. While we have no problem recognizing the need to do some infill projects to avoid sprawl, what we cannot understand is the complete dis-regard for property owners and property values by allowing something like this to be erected and squeezed right in between these two homes.
We were talking to another agent in our office about this today who mentioned she knew of someone who owned a beautiful Tudor style home where a builder put one of these homes up on each side of their home; their property value as a result plummets (and while neighboring home values may not plummet, the neighborhood as a whole certainly takes a valuation hit from this as well).
Why is this done? Aside from the obvious intention to avoid sprawl I think there is another motive… if you have a 1/3 acre lot with a 1,500 square foot home on it that generates lets say $2,500 in property taxes the way the city sees it is $7,500 in property taxes is much better so go ahead and split that into 1/10th acre lots and build these tall skinny homes on them (since anything else wouldn’t fit) and by the way we’ll incentivize builders to do it. Problem is, what happens to the property value of the home owner next door or across the street from one of these? Their property value takes a significant hit and even the homes in the immediate area take a hit as well, the neighborhood loses it’s flow, it’s consistency and becomes a jumbled mess of mis-matched homes.
This doesn’t have to happen, with some general design and building regulations infill can be done and can be done to work well and fit right in to the existing neighborhood. For instance if the garage doesn’t fit – build without a garage…this is Portland after-all, a city that certainly doesn’t mind using public transportation and/or walking. Point is; build within the existing style and design of the neighborhood. (I’ve seen Palazzo homes do this well with many of their four-square designs.)
Of course there are other reasons behind all of this as well, specifically builder incentives for low income housing, tax abatement’s for X years, not doing condo’s/townhomes because they are more difficult to finance etc…the list is almost endless, but what it ultimately comes down to, in my opinion, is long term planning for property tax revenue generation taking priority over sensible long term planning for urban development.
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Tags: infill, property taxes, sprawl alternatives, urban development