Narrow Lot vs Flag Lot Division Portland Oregon

[Laura Young]

Hi All,

I’ve owned a large lot .43 acre in central city NE PDX for about 15 years. The city is undergoing major code revisions which look like they will be in my favor for housing infill. My life circumstances have changed and I’m looking to decrease my monthly expenses and reduce the time required to maintain my 19000 sq ft yard.

I’m waiting to see what happens with the comp plan zoning in 2018-19 and hoping the market doesn’t tank.. but it n the mean time.

I’m looking to infill the lot. My zone is R7 which is ridiculous in the inner city surrounded by R2.5-R3... but I digress..

I believe I could apply for a zone change to R5 to get a 25’ narrow lot (25x218) with street frontage and two permissible ADUs. I have 32’ of clearance from house to fence. 

Or.. I could go with existing zoning and do a 13000 ft flag  with a12’ pole. I believe I could get that same number of units either way.

My question is this: would recover more value going through this process with the city before selling the one or both lots after division? Or would I break even after fees and costs? In whic case I sell to a developer and walk away.

Thoughts ?

Thank you!

[Mike Nuss]

@Laura Young you must be in the Cully neighborhood to have R7 in the vicinity of R2.5 and R3. One of my brokers is working on a plan amendment (zoning change) in that area right now. The city advised him to try and change from R10 to R2.5 (instead of the R5 his early assistance meeting was based on) because of the existence of R2.5 in the area. 

A couple thoughts come to mind from the limited info on your post. 

- 25' wide lots are not allowed in R5 zone. Minimum lot width is 36' (unless you're working with underlying lots of record). Do you have underlying lots of record?

 - @Jay Hinrichs is correct. R2.5 is a pain in the butt zoning for Portland. However, they are making some big changes to the R2.5 zoning as part of the RIP project.....so it may not be difficult if/when that ever gets finished. Although, new requirements may make your project difficult. 

- flag lot requirements are going to change dramatically, possibly, with the passing of RIP, so a flag lot may be a good way to go. Or maybe you do both. 

I'm happy to chime in more thoughts if you want to dm me and give more specific info about your property. 

Good luck!