The record · Transcript
Council Session — 2025-01-16
Transcript from the session's official auto-captions (16,773 words), shown in readable case and split into speaker turns. Speakers are not yet identified (colors just separate consecutive turns). Auto-captions can contain errors — check the recording for anything that matters.
Session summaryEditor-reviewed
On January 16, 2025, the Portland City Council held a 2 p.m. session that convened as its first land use hearing, with roll call reflecting members present. Following rules of decorum and procedural announcements by the city attorney, ex parte contacts were disclosed regarding prior meetings and phone calls connected to the applicant organization, though no conflicts of interest were declared. The hearing addressed a Type IV Demolition Review application (LU 24-077225 DM) for a contributing structure at 118 SW Porter Street in the South Portland Historic District, proposed for demolition to allow expansion of an adjacent building for the nonprofit UKANDU, which serves families affected by childhood cancer. Permitting and Development staff presented findings recommending approval, citing the building's limited historic significance and public benefit considerations, with two suggested conditions involving deconstruction and phasing of permits. Extensive testimony was given by UKANDU representatives, supporters, and family members describing the organization's programs and impact, along with testimony from the Historic Landmarks Commission chair supporting demolition under specified conditions. No opponents testified. Council members asked technical questions about deconstruction costs and procedural requirements before closing the evidentiary record and holding deliberation. A motion for a tentative vote to approve the demolition with staff-recommended conditions was made and seconded; votes occurred, with outcomes recorded in the vote ledger. The matter was scheduled to return on February 5 at 9:45 a.m. for final findings and vote.
AI-drafted from the session's auto-captions, reviewed by an editor — describes the discussion only; recorded votes live in the vote ledger. Captions contain errors.
Procedural markers in this session
Literal phrase counts from the official captions — a measurement of procedure, not a judgment of anyone's conduct. Click a marker to highlight its occurrences below. Captions contain errors.
Procedural episode · turns 0–7
Parliamentary activity detected in this stretch (see the markers above). An editor-reviewed analysis has not been published for this episode yet.
0 Thank you.
1 I am calling to order our 2 p.m. Session of today's Portland city council meeting. Thank you all for joining us. Keelan. Could you please call the roll?
2 President Dunphy here. Smith. Canal present. Ryan Koyama Lane here. Morillo. Here. Novick. Clerk. Green. Zimmerman here.
3 Pirtle-guiney here. Thank you. And I think we now have the city attorney reading the rules of decorum for us.
4 Thank you. Welcome to the Portland city council to testify before council in person or virtually. You must sign up in advance on the council agenda at. Portland.gov/council agenda. Information on engaging with council can be found on the council clerk's web page. Individuals may testify for three minutes unless the presiding officer states otherwise, your microphone will be muted when your time is over. The presiding officer preserves order disruptive conduct such as shouting, refusing to conclude your testimony when your time is up or interrupting others testimony or council deliberations will not be allowed. If you cause a disruption, a warning will be given. Further disruption will result in ejection from the meeting. Anyone who fails to leave once ejected is subject to arrest for trespass. Additionally, council may take a short recess and reconvene virtually. Your testifying testimony should address the matter being considered. When testifying, state your name for the record. Your address is not necessary. If you are a lobbyist, identify the organization you represent and virtual testifiers should unmute themselves when the council clerk calls your name.
5 Thank you, thank you. And councilors, this is our first land use meeting that we get to have. Clerk, could you please read the item for us?
6 Consider proposal of type for demolition review approval for 118 southwest porter street and Portland. Permitting and development staff recommendation for approval for a contributing building in the south Portland historic district. Lu 20 4-077225 dm.
7 Thank you. Before we begin, the city attorney will make some announcements about today's land use hearing.
8 Thank you. As a city attorney today, I'm going to make some procedural announcements at the beginning of this hearing. These announcements are correct by state law and described the way the hearing will be conducted, including and then the type of hearing, the order of testimony and the scope of testimony. Please bear with me, because there is a lot of procedural requirements that are required by state law. And then I will read into the record. This is an evidentiary hearing. That means parties may submit new evidence to counsel in support of their arguments for a council, consideration of a type for demolition review. The testimony will be heard as follows. We will begin with a staff report by pd staff for approximately ten minutes. Following the staff report, the city council will hear from interested persons in the following order. The applicant will go first and we'll have ten minutes to address the council after the applicant. The council will hear from individuals or organizations who support the applicant's proposal. Each person will have three minutes to speak. Next, the council will hear from a representative of the landmarks commission and they will have five minutes to speak. Following the commission, the council will hear from persons or organizations who oppose the applicant's proposal. Again, each person will have three minutes. If there was testimony in opposition to the applicant's proposal, the applicant will have an additional five minutes to rebut the testimony given in opposition to the proposal. The council may then close the hearing and deliberate. Council may take a vote today. If a tentative vote, council will set a future date for the adoption of findings and a final vote. The scope of testimony for evidentiary hearings as follows I'm going to announce several guidelines for those who will be addressing the city council today. First, submitting evidence into the record. Any letters or documents you wish to become part of the record should be given to the council clerk after you testify. Similarly, the original or a copy of any slides, photographs, drawings, maps, videos or other items you show to the council during your testimony, including powerpoint presentations should be given to the council clerk to make sure they become part of the record. Testimony must be addressed to the approval criteria. Any testimony or arguments you present must be directed toward the applicable approval criteria for this land use review or other criteria in the city's comprehensive plan or zoning code that you believe apply to the decision pad. Staff will identify the applicable approval criteria as part of their staff report to council. Issues must be raised with specificity. You must raise an issue clearly enough to give council and the parties an opportunity to respond to the issue. If you do not, your appeal will be you will be precluded from appealing that issue to the land use board of appeals. Finally, an applicant must identify constitutional challenges to conditions of approval if the applicant fails to raise constitutional or other issues relating to the proposed conditions of approval, without with enough specificity to allow the council to respond, the applicant will be precluded from bringing an action for damages in circuit court. Thank you. I'll now turn back to the council president to address conflicts of interest and ex parte contacts.
9 Thank you. Do any members of council wish to declare a conflict of interest over this hearing or this property?
10 Is that different than ex parte that will come?
11 Yes it is okay. Yes it is okay.
12 No councilors have conflicts of interest to declare. Do any councilors have ex parte contacts to declare or information gathered outside of this hearing to disclose? Councilor Zimmerman, thank you.
13 Before I was a councilor, I. In November of 2024, I met with mr. Hickox and with chris schwab, who is a board member of the applicant. Chris schwab is my first cousin and a person. Obviously, I grew up with the meeting, the nature of the meeting on the 27th of November was one part around what the organization intended to do. The other part was around and more focused was around. If the change in council and the change in government going from when all the work had occurred to us. Now, hearing it in our first month, if that would be a large problem for this. And that was the extent of our meeting. No other further contact occurred.
14 Are there any additional questions for the councilor About the ex parte contact? Councilor Green?
15 I'm not sure this counts, but I did receive a call from stanley pankin on Tuesday lobbying me to sort of consider the case under review. And I think stanley has a has an interest in the in the group. So that's I'm just disclosing that.
16 Councilor Dunphy stan called me as well. Councilor Ryan, I got that same phone call.
17 Well, I don't think it was ex parte. Stan is also then on my record. If we're going to do that. Yes.
18 Are there any questions about any ex parte contacts that council members have had? Are there any other disclosures of ex parte contacts that councilors wish to make? Okay. Have any councilors made any visits to the site involved in this matter? Okay. We are now moving into the hearing portion of our meeting. I will call for testimony. First, our staff report the information from our applicant, supporters of the applicant, the historic landmarks commission, opponents of the applicant. Time for a rebuttal as needed. And then council will have discussion. So I'd like to call up our staff from p and d to give your report.
19 Okay. Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is tanya paglia. I'm a city planner with the Portland permitting and development. Today's hearing is for a type four demolition review for a building located at 118 southwest porter street. And I'm really pleased to be able to present this recommendation of approval to you. The current proposal is to demolish a contributing structure in the south Portland historic district. Properties in historic districts are classified as either contributing or noncontributing, with contributing resources being those that have significant historic significance to the district. The total demolition of a contributing structure in historic district is subject to demolition review, and it's processed through a type four land use review procedure. The city of Portland has five types of land use procedures, some of which are approved or denied as administrative decisions made by pd for the type four demolition process. City council is the review body that makes the decision, and the historic landmarks commission serves as an advisory body, so the proposed addition requires a separate type three historic resource review, where the historic landmarks commission will be the review body. Demolition review was created as a process to give the public an opportunity to comment on proposed demolitions of historic resources and allow opportunities for alternatives to demolition to be fully explored. Demolition review focuses on the importance of preservation, rehabilitation or reuse of the resource above and before other development alternatives are considered, and the purpose statement for demolition review emphasizes the historic resources that they are irreplaceable assets significant to the region's architectural, cultural and historic identity. And the history of type four. Demolition review includes a resolution in 2002, an ordinance in 2004, and a zoning code amendment in 2022. These efforts expanded, strengthened, and refined the city's demolition review regulations to protect more historic resources. Only six type four demolition reviews have happened in the 20 plus years that this process has been in place. This will be the seventh. Two of these would actually no longer fall under this process at this time. The process for demolition review involves a number of steps and this project is completed already. A pre-application conference, a voluntary design device request with the historic landmarks commission, and a public advisory meeting where the landmarks commission discussed the project in their capacity as an advisory body to the city council. Based on that meeting, the landmarks commission wrote a letter to city council in support of the project and the chair of the historic landmarks commission, andrew Smith, is here and will testify on the commission's support for the project later in this procedure. Just a quick intro on the site. The site is located as noted in south Portland historic district, which is in city council district four. The site's zoning is the commercial mixed use two zone, which allows up to 45ft of height to be built and 2.5 to 1 floor area ratio to be built, so the current bungalow is below those thresholds by by a lot. The house that is to be demolished is a bungalow style house built in 1908. Its historic name is the carl and minnie schmidt house, which was named for its original occupants. For the past 40 years, the property has been used as office space. According to the national register of historic places nomination, the building is considered to be contributing within the district as a good example of a bungalow style residence, and is therefore significant as part of the larger grouping of residential development that occurred in the south Portland area. It shares its site with a larger brick building constructed in 1978, which sits to its east, and to its west is the cedarwood waldorf school, and some info about the district itself. The south Portland historic district is a subset of a larger south Portland neighborhood which developed as a multi-ethnic, walkable, and primarily residential suburb in the late 19th century. The district represents south Portland during the district's period of significance, which stretched from 1876, the year that the neighborhood's oldest buildings were built, to 1926, the year that the ross island bridge construction resulted in a wave of displacement of area residents and businesses. The area that eventually became this historic district was tremendously impacted by urban renewal. Large portions of the neighborhood were decimated, and the residents fought to get this district listed and preserve what was left as the surviving piece of a district that was greatly diminished by the construction of the I-5 and I-405 freeways, and by a large scale clearance under the urban renewal programs during the 1960s and 70s. The south Portland historic district is significant as the remnant of an early, originally much larger, working class and immigrant neighborhood. The area was originally home to concentrations of ethnic and religious minorities from southern and eastern europe. The district thus stands as an excellent example of a vibrant minority gateway community that flourished from the late 19th and early 20th century. So the next four slides are just to show some contextual views of the site, just to get oriented to it. In this one, we're just looking straight at the bungalow to be demolished, with the waldorf school to the right and the noncontributing 1978 building that will be expanded upon to the left. This one shows the same same two buildings, just at a slightly different angle. You can see the driveway and the parking in between, and this one's just showing the 1978 building to be expanded from the corner. And here is a front view of that same building that would be expanded by this. The second part of this project, after the demolition. Okay. So this one is talking about the approval criteria for this demolition. So the demolition review approval criteria focus on the importance of preservation, rehabilitation or reuse of the resource. Before, as we've noted before, before other other options are considered. The demolition review approval criteria evaluate the demolition against the goals and policies of the comprehensive plan and any other relevant area plans, and the evaluation must also consider the other six factors, which are listed below as a through f, the three relevant plans to be evaluated against are the 2035 comprehensive plan, the southwest community plan, and the corbett, terwilliger lair hill policy plan. Previous type four demolition reviews have established the precedent of taking an on balance approach to competing or conflicting goals. They have looked at the comprehensive plan and area plans, policies and goals comprehensively to determine which outcome offers the greatest public benefit. Conflicting, conflicting objectives across the plans are inevitable when evaluating a proposal. If a proposal is consistent with certain objectives but inconsistent with others, city council determines the weight to be given to each objective and evaluates whether, on balance, the proposal is consistent overall with the city's goals. The council has broad discretion in establishing how to balance the relevant goals, so no code provision or city policy requires the city council to give equal weight to the balance to the balancing process for each pole policy, plan or goal, and it doesn't mandate that equal weight be given to every goal. The council has the authority to give certain relevant goals and policies, more weight and other relevant goals and policies, less weight in reaching its final decision. And it comes down to what, on balance, supports the public good. So this is just a quick look at. There are a number of plans of basically goals and policies across these three plans. And there are a number of them that are not applicable to this project. So this this is a list of ones that are not applicable just to show you that those exist. When it comes down to which ones are applicable. There's about 13. And of those staff believes 12 have been met and one has not been met. Staff has reviewed the approval criteria a through f noted before against the relevant plans, and in this case advises that council give more weight to the city's goals related to human health, equity focused growth and resilience over those related to historic preservation. Under the unique circumstances of this project, the public benefit clearly outweighs the value of preserving the specific historic resource in question and therefore shifts the balance of the approval criteria. On balance, staff believes the approval criteria for the type four demolition review were met. The staff report and recommendation to the city council is to approve the proposed demolition. The historic landmarks commission unanimously supported the proposal at a public advisory meeting. The nonprofit applicant organization you can do serves families impacted by childhood and adolescent cancer. The proposed development would enable uconn do to expand their services to better meet the needs of communities impacted by child and adolescent cancer, in direct proximity to the bulk of portland's cancer care facilities. While the bungalow in question is listed as a contributing structure, not all resources contribute the same quality or magnitude of significance to a district. In this case, the bungalow does not have unique historic significance beyond its contribution to the fabric of the district. It's not architecturally rare or outstanding, and its previous occupants were not associated with a significant person or underserved communities. The integrity and continuity of the district as a whole will not be significantly diminished by the demolition of this one resource. Staff and the historic landmarks commission are satisfied that alternative ways to incorporate to incorporate the applicant's program on the site without demolition were thoroughly investigated. Before pursuing demolition, the applicant sufficiently demonstrated that demolition of the contributing resource and the new building addition are required to meet the unique programmatic and economic needs of the organization. The design of the addition will be a mitigating factor for the loss of the resource. Its evaluation through historic resource review will help compensate for the loss of the bungalow and, on balance, the public benefits achieved by allowing demolition of the contributing resource and construction of the proposed addition to an existing noncontributing building outweigh the loss of the resource. Staff has suggested two conditions of approval. Just for the sake of time. I'm not going to go into too much detail about these. If you have questions about them, I'd be happy to answer them later. Just quickly. One of them was about the issuance of a demolition permit to hold off on that until that replacement structure, type three process has been completed. There's a number of reasons for that that I can be happy to explain. And then the second suggested condition of approval is to recommend deconstruction rather than demolition of the bungalow to conserve materials. And we can talk more about that later. We also have somebody here who is an expert on the deconstruction policies of the city, that would be also happy to speak to that. And so finally, just in summation, the city council has these four following options. So you can grant the demolition review approval with the pad staff recommendation. Staff recommended conditions of approval. The two I noted, and return at a future date, which would be February 5th, I believe, to adopt the final decision and findings. Or you can grant the demolition review approval, but you can modify those conditions of approval as you see fit, and then also return at a future date to adopt the decisions and findings. Another option is to delay the final decision to a future date and request more alternatives be sought. And finally, you can deny the demolition, review approval and return at a future date to adopt final decisions of that denial. And that's sorry. That does conclude staff presentation. Thank you.
20 Thank you very much. We now move to the applicant presentation and you can dos representatives will have ten minutes.
21 Ian roll design director at gensler jason hickox you can do ceo. Good afternoon members of council we started working with. You can do in April of 2023 to evaluate program feasibility and site fit. Since then, the project team has engaged in multiple 15 minute appointments with the city of Portland pre-application conference, weekly planning meetings with tanya, who has been critical in this process. Design advice, request hearing, outreach to the neighborhood association regarding demolition alternatives, a landmarks commission advisory meeting, and now this demolition review. Throughout this comprehensive process, the team provided multiple test fits to evaluate you can dos program and adjacency requirements and studied various design iterations, some of which were included in the submitted 67 page document. It wasn't until we examined a rendition, without the existing building, that the team was able to fully embody you can do's unique program, creating an appropriate vessel for their services and community. Therefore, we are seeking demolition review approval for the removal of the building at 118 southwest porter street to accommodate the renovation and expansion of the existing building at 3015 southwest first avenue. The proposed structure will be a purpose built home for you can do providing a full calendar of first of its kind wraparound services for communities and families impacted by childhood cancer. At this time, I would like to pass the mic to jason hickox to introduce himself and tell you more about this amazing organization.
22 Good afternoon council again. My name is jason hickox and I'm ukandu ceo. For nearly four decades, ukandu has been providing free programing for families impacted by a childhood cancer journey. For anyone unfamiliar with this journey, let me state very clearly that each member of the family is impacted by a childhood cancer diagnosis. Starting in 2018, we began a partnership with OHSU knight cancer institute's community partnership program to conduct research into the gaps in services that exist for these underserved families. In summary, the research confirms that while the existing ecosystem does a heroic job of saving and prolonging lives, this ecosystem is not designed to provide long term post-treatment support for these patients or their families. The expansion envisioned in this project, and dependent upon your approval, represents the opportunity for a quantum leap in programing and care available to this underserved community and will become the first of its kind in the united states. Ukandu staff and board of directors brings more than 100 years of collective experience working with these families. The design of this project is reflective, not of esthetics, efficiencies or glitz. This design reflects our understanding of the complexity of needs of this community and our commitment to meeting those needs. We thank each council member and the city's design and historic review staff for their time and consideration, and look forward to working with you and the broader community to build what we believe will become a model for cities across the country.
23 The site is six minutes from doernbecher and 11 minutes from randall. Oregon's only pediatric cancer treatment facilities for families who come from all over the state. The location is a critical benefit for access to treatment. Addressing goals of the 2035 comprehensive plan, the proposed development directly promotes a healthy, accessible and equitable Portland that is conscious of the physical disparities of its community. Broadly, this means incorporating design solutions that allow different groups to have the same quality of experience and minimize barriers were necessary. Despite efforts to incorporate the building at 118 southwest porter, the lack of accessible access level level misalignment to the adjacent building and location on the site create significant physical and economic barriers to you. Candies program proposals to demolish a contributing resource will be approved if demolition has been found to be equally or more supportive of relevant goals and policies of the comprehensive plan and relevant area plans and preservation, rehabilitation or reuse of the resource. These approval criteria considerations were introduced by staff earlier in the 67 page document we submitted. We provided content addressing ucan do's mission and unique operational model. The resources, condition, location and history, the site's zoning and historic designation, the relevant plans governing the site, and multiple design iterations. Informed by this content, we have provided response to these itemized evaluation considerations. Consideration a in many ways addresses the issue of integrity of the contributing resource. The national park service, who administers the national register of historic places, considers integrity to be the combination of location, setting, design, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association. These set of criteria help establish the degree of integrity the resource currently holds and the bar to clear to approve demolition. The resource was built in 1908 and exhibits significant wear both from prior reconfigurations and external natural elements. The property is no longer used as housing as it was during the district's period of significance, and has functioned as office space for more than 40 years. Both the historic integrity of the setting and the building itself have diminished. Wedged between a commercial driveway and the school annex on the east and west, the building is no longer desirable for residential use and is in the cm2 zone, with density limits on single family development. The resource type and architectural style of bungalow style single family house is not especially unique to the district, and can be found in many Portland neighborhoods. Of the 178 historically significant residents in the district, 52 are bungalows. The property is not associated with any known event, institution, architect, or builder identified in the national register. The building is not identified as being associated with the historically marginalized individual or community. The existing buildings incompatibility with the proposed use, limited usable area, and existing conditions make it difficult to underwrite an insurance policy without substantial investment in resolution of unknown construction complexity. This financial and logistics burden would undoubtedly yield compromises in program and experience. The greatest consequence would be felt by the families who depend on you can use thoughtfulness and operational model free of charge. Demolition provides an opportunity for greater site capacity, site efficiency and infrastructure better suited to the proposed use. Existing zoning and policies and objectives of the southwest community plan, which are a clear public benefit. Ability to meet zoning goals and supportive educational and medical institutions, and enhancing the quality of education they provide and research they conduct. The existing resource has a series of obstacles to accessibility with inelegant solutions. Demolition would remove these obstacles. The development would enable you can do to expand their wraparound supportive services to the full calendar year, to better meet the needs of communities impacted by childhood cancer, all in direct proximity to the larger cancer care ecosystem of southwest and inner Portland. The development would provide a place where kids can focus on being kids in the face of misfortune, hardship, and adversity. The merits of the building as representative of a bungalow style residence, and significance as a contributing historic asset are acknowledged and appreciated in a limited fashion. The property has adapted to use as an auxiliary office for the adjacent school, though not specifically supporting relevant plans or policies. In this situation, these merits must be evaluated and balanced on its participation in the community, both present and future. The proposed use of the site supports the city's zoning aspirations, supports the 2035 comprehensive plan's guiding principle of human health and equity, and supports the potential for a greater network of supportive services for those affected by childhood cancer. The development mitigates the loss of the resource by replacing the use with an organization that is a first of its kind resource within the medical community, elevating the potential for treatment and research. It mitigates the loss by creating a consistent, durable, and active addition to the block face more appropriate to the mixed use zoning. It mitigates the loss through compassionate, equitable, and accessible support for families in need. All over Oregon. All over Oregon. You can do recognizes the importance of memorializing our collective history and is committed to documenting the bungalow at 118 southwest porter and incorporating opportunities for commemoration. The demolition of the resource at 118 southwest porter street. And you can do a first of its kind program and resource center better fulfills portland's goals for a prosperous, healthy, equitable, and resilient city where everyone has access to resources. Fulfills southwest portland's objective to focus employment opportunities with clear public benefit and mixed use areas. Expands the network of medical and supportive services for those affected by childhood cancers, and will be designed through the city's historic design review process. Be constructed of quality, long lasting materials, and result in a new, innovative and compassionate resource that is radically inclusive and accessible to a community that is deserving of everything that you can do. Provides through their unique model, the demolition of the resource and redevelopment are more supportive of the goals and policies of the comprehensive plan and the southwest community plan, and better fulfill the city's goals and plans and retention of the existing resource. We thank you for your time and consideration.
24 Thank you both for the information. We now have the opportunity to hear from supporters of the applicant. Keelan. Do you have the list to call folks up? Great.
25 Thank you.
26 And speakers in this section will have three minutes each. And I'm told that for land use applications, we need to be very tight with that timeline. So we will be asking the clerk to cut the microphones at three minutes.
27 I'll call people up in groups of three, so feel free to come up and have a seat. When your name is called. First up, jason hickox. No. Okay. Thank you. First up we have sean mcmahon, michael schwartz and john russell.
28 Thank you all. Welcome. Good.
29 Ladies and gentlemen of council, I'm john russell. My business address is 200 southwest market street. And I've asked to testify for two reasons. First, I think I can add some credibility to the unanimous landmark commission about whether this little building is a worthy landmark. I was a member of the landmark commission in the early 70s, and what we did really, in those early days was to try to identify buildings that were worthy of landmark status. At the time, I owned and was living in an 1859 building, the second oldest building in the city, and I currently own the oldest building in 1857, building at the corner of nato and oak. So I think I have some credibility to endorse the unanimous landmark commission report. But when I served on the landmark commission, I pioneered the position that landmark demolitions should be analyzed in terms of the value of the demolition in the 1960s, for example, landmark buildings were torn down right and left to make way for asphalt parking. That's not a value that would warrant the demolition. 40 years ago, I developed the 30 story aluminum building park west center across the street. A little building needed to be demolished to make way for that building, but nobody objected because they realized the value of the building that would replace it. But the second reason for testifying in this case is that I have a personal reason for supporting the staff. 60 years ago, my two year old niece died of leukemia. The first child of my sister and laura was supported by the hospitals. But my sister and her husband were completely unsupported in ways that this this process would do. At the time, my sister was a middle school teacher. She had to quit in order to adopt, you know, the time to support her daughter and second child. But there was no support for them to support for the for the child with leukemia, but not for the family. Eventually, my sister and her husband were divorced, and so the value of this demolition is that will this will enable this noble nonprofit to complete its facility, to provide just the sort of support that my sister and her family needed. Thank you.
30 Hello, members of city council. My name is doctor michael schwartz, and I'm a licensed psychologist in southwest Portland, and I've partnered with ukandu since 2023. I become uniquely familiar with the child, sibling and parental needs of the population that is served by you can do. You can do is actively seeking to fill gaps in services for these families in a way that is unlike anything that exists in our country currently. They're hoping to provide these services free of charge at a time when quality care is hard to come by, much less free. I fully support their desire to create a caregiver clinic after demolishing the building in question. Not only will this pioneer a national model of supporting such families, but it will facilitate the creation of a mental health space that will fulfill the legal and ethical obligations for practicing psychology. A distinct clinical space for therapy is needed to allow caregivers the ability to process the emotional and physical burdens that they're carrying on a daily basis. A separate clinical space will allow for parents to safely and privately cope with some of the deepest fears that any parent may ever have to reckon with. Without a separate space, we'd be asking parents to wear a party hat in the same space that they process their child's mortality. This new building, separate from the loft, will maximize parent privacy and facilitate confidentiality with the distinct group therapy space, it will ensure that the identities of parents seeking mental health support are protected. It will also strengthen ucan do's ability to keep private health information separate from their programing space and fulfill hipaa privacy requirements. Finally, therapy is meant to be done behind closed doors. A separate physical space will promote felt emotional safety, helped to contain big feelings, and prevent unnecessary interruptions from roaming children and teenagers. So please continue to consider you can do's plan to create a distinct caregiver clinic space. While the loss of a historic building is never insignificant, the good that will come from the replacement is tremendous, necessary, and makes a tangible stride to addressing mental health needs of an underserved cross section of our community. Thank you for your consideration.
31 Yes.
32 Hello everyone.
33 My name is sean mcmahon.
34 I'm a resident of southwest Portland for the past 20 years, and I came into contact with ukandu when my daughter sabina was sitting over there. She was diagnosed with cancer in 2021. So everything they're describing here, first hand experience that my family is going through. And unfortunately, if I can piggyback on the comments of the first person here, things have gotten a little bit better in 60 years. But not they're not perfect, you know, counseling and things like that have gotten better. But, you know, we've benefited from the care at doernbecher and at randall. And if you brought all those providers out here, the administrators and whoever, they tell you that it's not perfect and it needs to get better. And so one of the key things that happens is when you go through treatment, you've probably all heard how you ring the bell when you finish your chemotherapy or wherever you're given treatment is most of the early survivorship programs here in Portland. You have to wait two years. The kid has to be two years cancer free before they can enroll in those survivorship programs. And so that's a long two years when you're talking about the counseling of some of these kids, you know, particularly a teenager. Right. And so what you can do is trying to do here is fill, you know, what I call the donut hole, right. You might be familiar with donut hole with medicare. Like this is a mental health donut hole for kids with cancer. And so I applaud you, kandu, because they're trying to do what we'd all hope any nonprofit would do and step up and help the community and do what the hospitals wish they could do, but just can't quite get it done. You know? And as jason mentioned, all this stuff is for free. And so that's another huge benefit. Doctor schwartz also talked about the importance of this particular space on the property itself. And he outlined how it's, you know, adjacent but separate. And that's we have a lot of hard core conversations as parents. You know, there's parents, there's parents who've lost their child, parents who are staring down the, you know, the precipice of perhaps losing their child. So the notion that you could have that hard or, like you said, heavy conversation with background noise of kids giggling and laughing on the other side of the door, or perhaps having to confront your own child when you walk out that room and pretend you didn't just cry your eyeballs out because you're talking about heavy stuff. That's not right. And so what I like about this plan is it takes that space, it puts it a little separately. It brings in professional counseling help not just for the kids, but for the parents. I mean, this is the most perfect use of what this corner of that property could be. And again, I just want to commend you can do and the whole team, they built this compassionate environment which you can see by all the red sweaters out here, and even some of us who aren't in our sweaters. So I would just please, please, please allow this organization to use this space to fill a huge need in our community. Thank you for your time.
35 Thank you all for your testimony.
36 Next up we have kay yancey, steven kassing, and jean cripps.
37 Welcome to all three of you.
38 Hello. My name is kay yancey and I have volunteered at ubqln2 for 14 years, and I've filled a lot of different roles in that in those years that I volunteered. I feel so lucky to have been a part of and still a part of this organization. In addition to the incredible reward that I get from working with the campers and the staff you can do has connected me to a community that I otherwise would not be a part of, as well as connections to an even greater part of the Portland community. My involvement has allowed me to see how effectively this organization achieves its mission and meets the needs of our families, what we do at our camps and with our programs is magic. And I don't know if I can even tell you why that is, but part of it is the connection and the community that we provide for the families and the kids that attend our camps and participate in our other programs. I've heard firsthand from kids that camp is life changing, and it's because of that community and connection. When they feel like they've lost that with their cancer diagnosis, it's because of the joy and the fun that we have when we go to camp. And we also provide them with an awareness that cancer does not have to define who they are. They come to our camps and our programs and they laugh, they sing, they play, and they make friends for a lifetime. My experience with family camp has shown me definitively that what we do is unique, and it's something that's been needed for a very long time, as has already been testified to our family camp is has proven to be remarkably supportive, therapeutic, full of fun and silliness, and appreciated beyond measure. Parents have talked about how they need something beyond the hospital, and that's one reason our camps are so successful. But we know they need more. We also know that, and have heard parents and kids alike tell us that our programs, our camps, do things in a way that other camps don't do. Our activities and our fun and our silliness and our services go beyond what other camps offer. I just want to say that I've heard parents say at family camp, they can't wait for the loft to open because they want that chance to continue with those connections that they've made, and the loft is going to offer something to the pediatric cancer community that you can't find elsewhere. So we're very excited to see it unfold. And thank you for your time.
39 Thank you, city council members. Good afternoon, and thank you for allowing me to share my testimony with you today. My name is steven kassing and I'm the father of connor, a now 14 year old brain tumor patient currently undergoing treatment at doernbecher children's hospital. I'm here to provide you with a living example of how the you can do loft would directly impact not only the children experiencing these difficult medical situations, but also the parents, siblings, families, and caregivers. My son, connor was diagnosed with a brain tumor two and a half years ago. He has gone through countless days and weeks of hospital stays, procedures and treatments. He has missed school band concerts, birthday parties, and all of the things that any other teenager would be enjoying at this point in their lives. Myself and my family have had to endure 14 hour waits during brain surgery, watching our child sees, dealing with cognitive changes, missed work and missed family weddings. The toll this takes on my son and my family is immense and immeasurable. My son has has received some amazing medical care, but we found ourselves lacking in our personal care options until we found you can do through you can dos camps and various other programs, we found care that expanded beyond the standard medical care, including mental health services by licensed clinicians, support groups with people who share similar journeys, and social events. You can do, loves and impacts my whole family, but a gap exists where the support is not available year round, often only seasonally, and is not consolidated in one centralized location. That is where the you can do loft comes into the picture. The loft will help fill the gap of these needs. It will give my family and other families dealing with these challenges a location where we can experience rest and respite in a safe and supportive environment. The loft will allow my son and my family access to much needed mental health care for the trauma we are going through. It will provide a place to socialize and rest. After long days of procedures, there will be services and events for families and caregivers who often get overlooked in the impacts of these situations, including educational, emotional, financial and insurance support. Importantly, it will provide these amazing services year round in a centralized location to all families in need. These are free of charge, truly making this an enormously impactful community service. The loft will directly benefit my son, my family, and the greater community, reflecting portland's reputation for its compassionate community services and enhancing the overall well-being of Portland residents, I respectfully urge the city council to support the construction of the you can do loft and the significant public benefit it will bring to the community. For my son, connor, my family and all families traversing this most difficult time in their lives. Thank you.
40 Good afternoon, councilors. Thank you so much for taking the time to listen to testimony in support of uganda's expansion today. My name is jean cripps, and I'm also here with my kids up there, avery and wesley. As you've already heard today, you can do was started to provide a safe and fun camp experience for children impacted by cancer, giving childhood back to kids who might not otherwise get to experience some of those crucial kid experiences. And this long running camp has demonstrated year over year its impact on children and their siblings, and as such, even added a family camp a few years ago to include the parents and caregivers. We were fortunate enough to learn of. You can do. When we moved to Portland in 2021, right after we actually completed cancer treatment back in california, we've had the opportunity to attend family camp twice. And to be completely honest, I wondered both summers when we were there whether we should even be there, considering that we were done with treatment and sort of made it to the other side. But I soon learned that the answer was a resounding yes, because as all these families and caregivers who have gone through it know, a cancer journey is a marathon and not a sprint, and it doesn't simply end with treatment. To complete. Treatment is, of course, a time of celebration. But then comes navigation of the post-treatment world. Not only practical questions like what is a 504 plan? What is an iep iep plan? Does my child need one? But also the whoa, what did I just go through? What does life look like now that we don't go to the hospital every week? And how do we ease back into normal life now that we've been living on high alert for the last three years? How do we live now? And so, with thoughtful conversations, sometimes guided by licensed psychologists and clinicians, as well as time and space, just to connect with all these wonderful families at camp, it was so incredibly valuable to hear from and just be with parents who had navigated the journey ahead of us, or who are in the same place as us, or who were even just beginning. We were also likewise able to share from our own experiences and hopefully answer questions and provide hope to families who are maybe a little just getting started on their journey behind us who are still in the midst of treatment. You can do. This expansion will not only be physical, but with olof, you candy will be able to do even more in its mission to spread hope, joy and connection for anyone impacted by childhood cancer, not just for a week or two. Out in the woods, out at camp, away from real life living, but right here in the city and all along the way, from diagnosis through treatment and even beyond that would serve and strengthen the greater good. And as you've heard, there's really no place like this that exists. And the loft would provide clearly a public benefit to everyone who has been impacted or will be impacted by childhood cancer every day. So I hope you'll agree that it's a much needed and welcomed resource right here in the city, close to the hospitals where these families are getting treatment, and that you'll approve the next steps for the planned expansion. Thank you.
41 Thank you all for being here with us.
42 Next up we have ian holdsworth, kate mcmahon, abigail culbreath.
43 Welcome.
44 All the first.
45 Good afternoon, council members.
46 My name is ian holzwarth and I'm a parent of a cancer kid. Not only that, but a cancer kid whose treatment corresponded with COVID, which meant isolation, closures of lounges and places where parents could talk with each other, closure of the play, spaces where kids could play and have a semblance of normalcy when they're in a hospital day over and night after night after night. I know what it's like for my kid to be isolated simply because he has cancer. You can do found us through the grapevine of doctors and nurses at randall's hospital who believed so wholeheartedly in the camp that they convinced a shy 11 year old that it would be life altering. And it was through the camp and family camp and the other programs that you can do provides my son and his brothers and his brothers found a tribe that truly understands them. At family camp, there's a parent lounge area, a place where only parents can go. No kids, no camp counselors. It's a magical place for parents to talk to each other and talk to other parents that have kids that have cancer. It's a safe place for us to laugh and to cry together, to form bonds. You can do provided counseling sessions in this lounge area that were profound and did more for me and my wife's emotional well-being than anyone can imagine. Having programs like that available year round will be transformative for us parents. The location of this space cannot be in a better location relative to doernbecher and randall children's hospital. The programing this building will provide is immeasurable. It'll give my tribe of parents a safe place to meet, to heal, to mourn and to celebrate. And it'll provide my child's tribe of isolated kids a safe place to just be kids. So I urge you to approve this. Thank you.
47 Hi, my name is kate mcmahon. Thank you for having me here today. You've already heard from my husband, shawn mcmahon, and I hope soon you can hear from my daughter, sabina mcmahon. I first want to just say that sitting next to me is my dear friend ian. I met ian's wife on three days after my daughter's diagnosis in September of 2021, and I'll never forget the words she spoke. Welcome to the club. No one wants to join it, but we're here for you. And that began a personal networking venture that I've been on through through this, in this club, I have sought out other mothers, other parents, other families, other children from within the halls of doernbecher, where children behind 21 doors of clinic rooms are being treated for cancer. And it's all been through my own footwork, really. People have found me and I have found them. And when I found you can do, I found a hub where it was easier to connect with families and to introduce my children to other children who have had similar experiences. You can do doesn't just provide camps, it also provides learning opportunities for our children, growth opportunities, taking their cancer and through some sort of alchemy, turning it into strength and leadership. Through their program. You can do core for teens. These are things that are done now through the resources they can scrape together. But imagine a place where it is a physical hub and it has resources where parents and children can go to get the social and mental support they truly need. Regarding the mental health part of it, that was another journey we had to take on our own, and it took six months to get into the first therapist that specializes in childhood cancer for teens. And so I also want to nod to the historic nature of this location. This, as stated by the planning committee, is a place that has been called old south Portland, where immigrants and people who fled strife came without english language, maybe without money, without and with health and medical needs. And this is a place that you can do, would honor it, would provide something historic and relevant to the location, and would commemorate what the history of this neighborhood is all about. Thank you.
48 Hello, my name is abigail culbreath, and my son wesley was diagnosed in 2017 with cancer and relapsed in 2020. So we've been around the block. We've been all over the place. I just wanted to say that there is nothing like you can do. I will never forget driving home from family camp the first day, and I was like, what was your favorite part, wesley? He's like all the friends I have. And so it just it just gives you somewhere to be in a situation that is so very isolating. People don't want to talk about it. They don't they don't want to hear about it. And to find a group of people that totally understand everything you're going through is amazing. And you can do is the only organization around here that cares about all of us. There are plenty. While you're going through treatment that care about, you know, wesley and what he's going through and all of that and, you know, keeping everything going. But not many care when you're done. And we're not even done. He won't be considered cured until next year. No. This year. Sorry. I can't even remember what. We've been doing it for so long, but there's just not much out there to help, to give you community or, you know, help you not feel alone. And that's something that you can do 100% has done for us. And one thing I have learned is that you can do does everything with intention there. They think everything through and they're going to think about the whole picture. So I don't think they would bring it to you if they hadn't done, you know, I heard him say 67 pages. I'm like that. That just sounds regular for you. Can do. So I just wanted to come and say that they're an amazing organization. And please consider it because it would benefit the community a whole lot.
49 Thank you all so much for your time today.
50 Next up we have lisa colby, bridget bell, and monica loomis.
51 You can go ahead and get started while we wait for others to come down. Thank you.
52 Good afternoon, council members. My name is lisa colby. In 2018, my daughter had emergency brain surgery which revealed she had glioblastoma brain cancer, a devastating diagnosis for a sophomore in high school. Another brain surgery later in two years of treatment. And I guess what stands out to me is you can do. She got to go to camp one week during the year, but I'll take it. She got to go and have fun, outrageous fun, meet friends and there's no stairs and there's no whispers and no unwanted questions. A few years later came family camp. And along with it, this brilliant concept of the family or excuse me, of the parent lounge jury again, one week a year, but precious hours that we had each day to meet with each other and talk. We all, you know, for those of us that have kids, we're parents 24 over seven. For you can do families. We're doing that and we're navigating treatment and we're navigating side effects and insurance issues. We you know, you can try to lean on your friends, but it's a lot to ask that somebody contemplate the death of their child. Approving this petition means that you can do can have a place for the parent lounge. Wearing this place is sacred and we would have it all year long. It's a place where we can go and really say the hard things, have the hard conversations, maybe admit things we've never been able to admit before, where we can maybe decompose and then recompose before we see our kids, who are probably in another part, having a great time. Approval means that that they can do the design that they need to do, and the design is key. It means that that they can provide the services possible, the best services possible, so that parents can be the best support possible for our kids. Because taking care of parents is taking care of kids. This facility would be a place that I know all of you and the citizens of Portland would be very, very proud of. And I know that my daughter, who is now a four year cancer survivor, would be very proud of it, too. After this hearing, you're going to go and you're going to talk about this. You're going to balance the equities. And I would say that the benefit to the city far outweighs the decommissioning of this house. And I urge you to approve the petition. Thank you.
53 Okay. I'm brigitte bell from milwaukee. Okay. So you can do as a unicorn of an organization that we've been lucky enough to be part of for almost two years. My kids are six and seven, so we've been part of family camp for the last two summers. I remember coming home from our first year looking at my kids, wondering who the heck they were. I mentioned it to my friend who was a camp counselor for years and she simply said, camp is transformative. I had no idea my cancer kid truly found himself there. He became a new person with the confidence and the creativity. Spurred by just one week of camp. Gone was nate and in came wolfie. Wolfie? Sure, our new kindie parents may look a little sideways when hearing his name, but if you knew him, you would know that he truly is wolfie wolfie and we have camp to thank for that. We all know organizations that do great things for cancer kids. Where you can do differentiate themselves is their whole family approach. Being a sibling of a kid with cancer is not easy. Their lives also get upended and for a bit all focuses on the sick child at ukandu. Siblings are their own people, and they're celebrated and supported just as much. We were eight months into wolfie's cancer journey, our first camp year. He was skinny, bald and walking on his toes from the chemo drugs in early treatment. It was still too dangerous for him to go to school. My husband and I thought we knew what tired was. While working full time with a one and two year old during the COVID shutdown, but we didn't. You can do really seems to see us parents. They know we are exhausted and sad and furious and confused and thankful and devastated. They know that we desperately want to spend every second with our kids, hold them tight and make magical family memories. But we also need time away to take care of ourselves, to not have to be brave for just a little bit, and to connect with others that know you can do as carefully curated programing to allow for all of these conflicting emotions and needs. I don't know how they manage to balance this for so many families who all need just something a little bit different, but they do. The community built between the caregivers, the professionals and the volunteers who love our children is amazing, and I know that I'm lucky to be part of it. And I know that this is selfish, but it's not enough. Having year round programing and physical space that you can do is working for would change lives. It would provide whole families much needed support to navigate the harrowing experience that is childhood cancer. And I promise you that it is a family experience. No one comes through it unscathed. You can do has proven themselves dedicated to helping, and I urge you to help them expand their ability to reach more families more consistently.
54 Thank you both for sharing your stories.
55 Monica loomis.
56 Hi, I'm monica, I'm joining via zoom. Can you hear me?
57 We can hear you.
58 Okay, great. So quite a few people have gotten emotional and I will likely do the same. These are tender things to talk about. My son, holston. Was diagnosed with brain cancer, and he fought nearly his entire life. He passed away a little over a year ago. And the services that you can do provide to myself and my family still have such an impact. I can't even begin to explain what the loss would mea, specifically, the mental health services that would be provided. It is so hard to find quality counseling services for families who have been impacted by pediatric cancer. And it's even harder to find ones that have been impacted with their child's death as well. I don't need three minutes to tell you how important it is. Thank you.
59 Thank you for being with us today, monica.
60 Next up we have emily stuckmann, nick scerbo, and rick bruno.
61 Okay.
62 Hello, my name is nick scerbo. I'm a lifelong portlander. I grew up here. I went to school here. I own two businesses in the city and I'm a volunteer at. You can do. One of the things I love about Portland is our commitment to community building and to service. And I was first introduced to the idea of service as a student at the environmental middle school. Since then, I've spent many years, excuse me, many hours volunteering at the planché house, special olympics Oregon, pulling ivy and johnson creek and pulling nails at the rebuilding center. None of those experiences come close to what I've seen at uconn do. I've never seen an organization make as great an impact on the community it serves. For the first 20 or more years, you can do this one week long summer camp in June, and as a counselor at the June camp, I have witnessed remarkable resiliency, strength, compassion, vulnerability from the staff, the volunteers, but especially from the campers. I have heard from bereaved parents that that week was the best week of their child's life. I've also heard from parents that cancer robbed their child of the very nature of childhood. They just wanted to be a kid and cancer and the treatments and all the disruptions robbed them of that, but that it was restored by their time at camp. You just heard someone speak to that? The kid that they would pick up at the end of the week was the one they remembered from before the diagnosis the goofball, the athlete, the leader. Not just the kid with cancer. In the past few years, uconn has grown from this week long flagship program to providing more for these families, including the teen retreat, the family camp. And you can do core, which allows these kids who so often find themselves as the recipient of other people's attention, other people's care, other people's effort, and gives them the opportunity to be of service themselves, to diagnose a need in their community. Set about creating a plan and addressing it. I am incredibly proud of the growth of this organization, but I was naive until recently about what really necessitated this growth, and what I learned was that although we were providing something unique and impactful that in many cases it was grossly insufficient, pediatric cancer has a lifelong effect on almost everyone diagnosed. Treatment has can cause severe cognitive impairments and deficits, amputations, and campers who age out of youth programing often feel adrift and cut off from the community. That has been so important to them. Parents who had finally built up the courage to allow their vulnerable, precious child to be away from them for a week so that they could finally rest, take care of themselves, have told us that a week is not enough. We know that the need is there because families have told us that the need is there, and we know that you can do is the right organization to do that.
63 Thank you.
64 Good afternoon, council members. Thank you for the opportunity to come testify and lend my voice. My name is rick bruno, I. I am a cancer parent. My daughter holly was diagnosed in the fall of 2015 and passed away in March of 2018 after a long battle with cancer. During that time, we were introduced with to camp. You can do by the wonderful staff, doctors, nurses at the randall children's hospital. Doctors such as doctor pond scum, nurse buttercup and nurse goldilocks introduced us and recommended that we look into and find more about this program. The next year, my daughter holly was able to her shy yet spunky self able to attend with a sibling at the week long camp to have an opportunity to just forget for a week, forget the treatment she was going through, forget the pain and the suffering and just enjoy and be with those of like situation and like understanding and just be able to have an enjoyable time. It was hard for her as, as the shy person that she was, but she was able to connect with the nurses and others who were there to feel more comfortable. And the staff goes above and beyond in all that they do to make that week the most magical, transformative week that these kids experience. Since that time, she was able to go another another year before her passing, and we were able to attend as a family, the family camp that the organization instituted as well. It has cancer, does have an impact beyond the child. It affects the whole family. And as you can see from my emotion now, it. It continues to affect our lives. We are grateful for the organizations such as you can do, who allow us to gather together with other families, with other participants and those who understand what we are going through, what we have gone through, and those who will, unfortunately, in the future, go through this. I wish there was not a need for you can do or any other cancer organization, but there is and there always will be. We're grateful that they are here. They provide these services and the opportunity to expand those services to year round with the loft, understanding that we are asking for the approval of the demolition of the historic structure and the significance that does have, they are very mindful of that. But we are very grateful for your consideration and hope you will vote in your approval. Thank you for your time.
65 Thank you both for being here.
66 Emily stockman. Next up we have emily herndon, susan stark, and nicholas mccullough.
67 Good afternoon. I'm emily herndon, also known as scamper. And my story is not one of having a child with cancer, but mine is one of starting at camp. You can do in the very beginning, we started with my sister being the first director, and then she came home and said, you've got to come and help us. We need help. So in the end, there are 22 of our family members brothers, sisters, cousins, grandchildren now that have been at camp 225 years and counting. We've been at camp and I listened to these families, and the stories are repeated over and over and over again. But one thing I can tell you are some stories that are to me still to this day, make the hair stand on my arms is that we had a little girl that was at camp and she went to archery. She had one arm and she watched and the counselor went, do you want to try? Yeah, well, she had one arm. You can't hold a bow with one arm. So what did he do? He sat down on the ground, crisscross applesauce, put her in his lap, and she put her feet on the bow. And she pulled back that arrow, and it shot straight and true to the target. Better than anybody in the whole camp could shoot an arrow. And so you know what happened? Everybody wanted to do it sarah's way. Everybody was sitting on the floor or on the dirt, shooting arrows that way. Then I called the butterfly man, this 14 year old who came to camp, his dad pushing him through the registration line, his hat pulled down over his head. He didn't want to be there. Here's a young man who was an athlete. We have lots of these repeats over and over again, and we had a rope swing down at the pond. And about Wednesday of the week he said to the well, we call him the chief and the chief. He said, do you think I could try? So he went down to the lake kind of later in the afternoon, and he got on that rope swing and he went out over the pond and dropped into the water, and it was like the butterfly coming out of his cocoon. He had a grin across his face, like you wouldn't believe. And you know what? Next year he came to camp and we had bicycles at your camp, and he showed everybody you can ride with one leg. It was not a problem. So I just want you to know that every story you hear here is heartfelt. We need to have camp. You can do one week out of the year. We planted that seed. One week we had a seed that planted. The parents would come back and say, that's my child. They would cry going out of the camp because that's not the child they brought to camp. Those kids would sing the songs and tell stories all the way home. So please approve the loft. You're doing a wonderful thing when you do that for our families. Thank you.
68 Good afternoon, council members. Thank you for the opportunity to come talk to you today. I mean, you can do family. My name is nicholas mcculler. I'm. You can do family member. I want to echo and amplify all of the heartfelt comments from all of our all of our you can do families today. I thought it would be good to talk about the land use a little bit. My experience as a girl growing up in Portland. I have some memories of the lair hill neighborhood. I didn't know about the historic district at the time, but I did know about the children's museum there at the park. And I know about the ymca. What's now dunaway park, and spent spent a lot of time in those places. More recently, one of my daughters going to school in the neighborhood right there. And I just want to say, I think of that neighborhood. That's the neighborhood where where kids go to, to play, to have fun, to learn, to grow, and now to heal as well. So I think that the land use here is extremely consistent with, with my experience of the neighborhood. As a longtime portlander, I also want to just reference back to one of the previous testifiers, referring to the historic nature of the neighborhood. We recognize historic neighborhoods, sometimes with the architecture, but but also sometimes for the culture and the history and the history here as a neighborhood, as an entry point for immigrant communities, people coming, experiencing disadvantages and leaning on each other for support. That's what this community here is doing. We lean on each other for support. You can see it by how many of us are here. You can hear it. You can hear it in how how much love there is between everybody here who's met at camp. So we are honoring we are honoring the meaning of having a supportive community. I think that. I can't I can't say that this is making history, to make an to make a facility like this, but it is certainly in the spirit of that preservation. So that's all the comment I have for that. Thank you very much for your time.
69 Thank you.
70 Let's see, susan stark okay. We have sally nowicki, randall johnson, bill mitchener. No. Okay. Alan mitchener, melissa yankovich, beth marshall. Sage palmer, laura ward collins, elizabeth. Gamble. Caldwell.
71 Thank you. Welcome.
72 Hello. Council members. My name is sage palmer, and I have been just asked to read a quote into the record by shannon pujol, who is a registered nurse in the pediatric hematology and oncology department at doernbecher children's hospital. Volunteering at camp cantu was a breath of fresh air. As a nurse at the hospital, I often see the weight of illness overshadowing the joy of connection. But at camp I witnessed something beautiful. Kids laughing, playing and forming friendships in an environment free from judgment. It was incredible to see them thrive, embracing their true selves while creating cherished memories. The laughter and joy that filled those days reminded me of the resilience of the human spirit, and the profound impact of community. Those moments reaffirmed why I became a nurse in the first place, and it's an experience I will carry with me forever. Thank you for your time.
73 Thank you. Next up we have laura ward collins, elizabeth gamble caldwell, scott myers. And. Kristen scheibel. I see scott, I think we have kristen online with us.
74 I'm here.
75 Okay. Great. Go ahead kristen.
76 Hi friends. I see a lot of friends out there. And thank you, council members. I really appreciate the time and consideration that you're giving this issue. Like my friend sugar monica, we're long haulers in the cancer world. My son jasper was diagnosed in 2013. So yes, we're about to embark on a 12th year of our cancer journey. For us, there have been four recurrences. So we are in an unusual category where we never even can access those services two years out. What we can't access is you can do and you can hear jasper in the background there. Sorry. You can just been truly remarkable for us. My son is now in a wheelchair and there aren't many things he can do the way that he could do when he was a three year old. The exceptional space that is envisioned by the remarkable staff at you can do with the vision of jason hickox is fully accessible. I like to talk about radical accessibility. They say radical inclusivity. It's of utmost important that this design be the most accessible design. A lot of these kids find the need to periodically be in wheelchairs or permanently be in wheelchairs. To me, that type of radical, inclusive inclusivity is of key importance. The building that now stands at this site, while absolutely adorable, is probably the least accessible building I have met with in Portland. And I should say, I grew up in southwest Portland. I love the lair hill neighborhood, but it really, I think, would jeopardize the future of the neighborhood. Not to not to consider the progressive nature of what you can do offers and how it really does capture the ethics that I think define us as as Portland, we have been around the country for cancer care. Dana. It started in dana-farber in boston because he has a pernicious form of metastatic alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma. We started in dana-farber with multiple surgeries and radiation. We've been to seattle, seattle children's for proton therapy, radiation and surgeries, md anderson in houston, saint jude's in memphis for car-t, which didn't work for us. But what works is staying home in our home community at doernbecher with our friends who are all gathered there, stayed at ronald mcdonald houses. That offers a different, different level of support for families. This is a whole new vision. It would make Portland unique in the entire country. I would be so proud if we could get this going. Frankly, these kids and our families, we all need a win. It's we're tireless. We're tired. Our caregivers have care. Fatigue. You can do has no fatigue. It's just all movement forward. Thank you so much for your time.
77 Thank you.
78 Good afternoon and thank you. Council members scott myers living down in goose hollow neighborhood. Been a you can do volunteer for four plus years with the you can do core team. And I just wanted to share that the teenage group you can do core which is both cancer kids and their siblings. We provide you can do provides a platform for them to give back to the community. So think about that for a minute. Cancer kids and their siblings giving back to the community and they do a great job. It's unbelievable. For instance, this year they they split up into two groups, which it's grown every year since its inception. And this year they split into two groups, approximately ten in each on each group. And they did a holiday bazaar raising. I think it was enough to give back $800 to both randalls and doernbecher hospitals. So that came from you can door kids. They also, the other team developed and handmade a mural which is intended to go up around the community to provide exposure and information regarding cancer for kids. So I just wanted you to know that these kids not only going through a horrific event, something that thankfully I didn't have to and my daughter didn't have to, so I can only imagine what they've gone through giving back to the community. So I just urge you to give back to this community by approving this what we need. Thank you.
79 Laura ward collins is online. Laura, are you able to unmute? If you're on the phone, laura, you can press star six to unmute. Okay. That completes testimony.
80 Thank you all so much for sharing your stories today. We are now moving to hear from the historic landmarks commission. You will have five minutes to share with us.
81 Good afternoon, city councilors.
82 I'm andrew Smith, I'm the current chair of the Portland historic landmarks commission, and congratulations to each of you for your election to this brand new experiment. I guess, for lack of a better phrase, as a commission, landmarks will be in front of you in a few months. For a more detailed discussion of what it is, what we do, and what we are doing. But in short, we advise city council and other city agencies on historic preservation matters. We advocate for identifying and retaining resources in the city, which have historic, architectural, or cultural importance. We review national register nominations and provide recommendations to the state advisory committee. And in our quasi judicial capacity, we review and decide on land use development proposals related to historic buildings and historic districts. Landmarks commission is the appeal body for type two land use cases. The approval, review and approval body for type three land use cases, and advisory body to this council for type four demolition cases, and that is the capacity for which I'm providing today's testimony. It may come as a surprise to some of you that the landmarks commission is recommending approval of a demolition application. We do not make this recommendation lightly, but we feel that the case for demolition has been made for the following five reasons. First, there is a clear public benefit being provided. This move clears the way for you can do to provide their much needed innovative support to families who are facing the unthinkable. Second, there are no reasonable alternative sites for this expansion. Its proximity to OHSU and randall children's hospital makes it an ideal location for the proposed use. Third, the bungalow does not have unique historic significance beyond its modest contribution to the historic district. In other words, it is not architecturally rare or outstanding, and its previous occupants were not associated with significant with a significant person or underserved communities. Next, the property has been in commercial use for decades and therefore does not remove any housing units from the local market. And finally, the commission was satisfied that alternative ways to fit the applicant's program onto the site to avoid demolition were thoroughly investigated. If city council determines that approval is merited, the landmarks commission strongly recommends two conditions of approval consistent with the staff report. First, we want to know that something of public value will be built on the site and that it will contribute to its neighborhood. Therefore, we ask that the land use case for the replacement structure must be approved before a demolition permit is issued. And second, the house must be deconstructed by a certified deconstruction contractor, consistent with the city's deconstruction of buildings. Code chapter 17.106, with the goal of diverting most of the building materials from landfills. The materials shall be salvaged, reused, or recycled through sale to a local salvage building, material retailer, or donated to a local building material nonprofit. In conclusion, landmarks commission landmarks commissioners present for the type four review hearing unanimously agreed that the good that will come from the proposed development will outweigh the loss to the district from the house's demolition. It is always the goal of preservation to serve the public's best interest. Thank you for considering these recommendations, and I'll be happy to answer any questions that you have as the hearing moves forward.
83 Thanks. Thank you very much. Do we have any rebuttal to or. I'm sorry, do we have any opponents of the application?
84 No one signed up.
85 And that means that we are skipping past the rebuttal. Is that correct?
86 Yes. There there would be nothing to rebut. The council can call the applicant or staff back up if you have additional if you have questions for them. Otherwise you can move on, close the hearing and move on to discussion.
87 Council discussion. Are there any technical questions? This isn't the point for discussion yet. Okay, councilor Dunphy, thank you.
88 I do have a technical question for staff, but before I say it, I just want to mention that I spent the last five years working for the American cancer society. I learned that absolutely everybody has a cancer story, and they are all horrible. And it doesn't get easier to hear them. But I know that you all spent your afternoon to be here for a reason, and that those reasons are are horrible, and you're here to make sure that nobody else has to go through that. So thank you. I'm deeply appreciative to every single one of you for showing up this afternoon and spending time. And I'm sorry for all you've had to go through and all your families have had to go through. I'm so glad you're here to help. My boring and technical question is for staff. Why is deconstruction a condition? It is supposed to be the law. That's a great question.
89 I'm sorry. That's a great question. So the deconstruction is a law for residential buildings. And even though this is a house that was built as a residential structure, it it was converted to commercial occupancy. So as far as building code goes, it's rated as a commercial structure. At this time. The deconstruction laws are not applicable to commercial structures. However, we do have an expert from the bureau of planning sustainability that could speak to this more if you want to get some more information, but they are doing a pilot program to potentially start moving commercial buildings into the program. So they're highly encouraging this building to join the pilot and seek some grant money through that, that pilot. So we'll see how that goes.
90 Cool. Thank you.
91 Councilor Kanal technical question.
92 Yeah, I have two. The first is for our attorneys. Do we need to amend that in or is that if we were to approve this today, would would these conditions be part of it already.
93 So the motion could be if you wanted to accept the staff report with the conditions, it would be exactly that. It would be a motion to accept the staff report with the conditions proposed by staff.
94 Got it. And then my other question for you, actually, you mentioned that this would have to come back to us in a little while. Is that date required to be February 5th?
95 I might lead to the city attorneys on this, I believe. So that's the date.
96 So it doesn't have to be February 5th, but it does have to be a date and time certain for land use, quasi judicial. We always have to or all land use. We have to set a date and time certain so people can know. So if it's not, I believe that's the next council session. And I think the council clerk has reserved a very early time and it can be a quick item.
97 Yes, February 5th is the assumed date because if we don't have other questions or changes after today, that would be the soonest that we have a council meeting when folks could come back for approval. And we've talked about not wanting to be an impediment to land use changes moving forward. We could certainly ask for the clerk to reschedule that and have the clerk and the attorneys figure out a different date. If you have concerns with February 5th, I only do if you do.
98 Can I add just one point or I don't know what my parliamentary thing to ask just to interject, but also the type three for the replacement building is on track for a February 10th hearing, so we'd love to get this one completely approved. And that's, that's, you know, if possible.
99 And then tanya, remind me, is there 120 day deadline?
100 No, this this is a de novo de novo.
101 So they've waived the 120 days. Yeah.
102 Okay.
103 So it's it is mostly we do have to set a date and time certain that is the next date and time certain. And staff would like to know kind of council's decisions as they handle the subsequent land use review.
104 So yeah my only concern is if you as, as presiding officer who knows how the agenda is going.
105 This should be a short agenda item. It's one that is penciled in already. So I think we can make that work. But I appreciate you checking in on it. Thank you. Thank you, councilor Zimmerman. Technical question.
106 Same topic, though probably from the other side. Surprise, surprise. So staff, in terms of this deconstruction versus demolition, as I read the code, you know, 17.106 it talks about the reason is to. Recoup materials. Et cetera. Et cetera. I'm curious, what do we estimate the new cost to an organization when we require deconstruction versus demolition?
107 If our specialist is here, I could have her come forward. Laura. And are you here? If she's not, I will say that I don't know that that number. I will say that percentages are helpful to in terms of trends.
108 And I would actually offer the same question to the applicant if that party knows, and maybe they do.
109 I mean, I will say that these materials are being auctioned off. So it might be a wash. And I see somebody from the applicant team coming in to help.
110 Yeah, I we can't quantify that at this time with that with any certainty. So I wouldn't want to give you a number that would be misleading.
111 Is it the same cost as demo even?
112 I think with being subsidized, I think it would probably still be apologize a little bit. It would still be more.
113 Okay.
114 Okay. We do have lauren Zimmerman from the bureau of planning here.
115 Zimmerman.
116 Yep.
117 Well, if you could both introduce yourselves, that would be great.
118 Hi, I'm lauren Zimmerman, like tanya said, bureau of planning and sustainability. Except anne Zimmerman has two ends at the very end.
119 Ours did too, until a certain island took it away from us. Yes.
120 Familiar problem. So I run our deconstruction program and I was running down the stairs, so I missed the full question, but I believe it was about cost.
121 I'm looking for a and it can be ballpark trending. When we applied deconstruction over demo, what we would expect trend wise, what that cost difference would be, could go on about it for about an hour.
122 But for a house this size, it's very common in what we see in our program. The cost is not necessarily higher for deconstruction versus demolition for a number of reasons, one of them being the demolition rule specifying exterior painted surfaces. 1978 and older need to be manually removed. And so that, combined with deconstruction, all our deconstruction contractors can do that work too. So in other words, it's about the same to maybe 10 to 20% more than you would see for a demolition. Cost.
123 Okay. Do we have an idea for what the deconstruction or demolition of the house would be? Number wise?
124 Not at this time.
125 Okay, I would just I want to make sure I understand as I'm looking at code 17 here, that in in paragraph c that the director may temporarily suspend or modify requirements of this chapter based on determination that such requirements are temporarily infeasible due to economic or technical circumstances. I am interested in this economic aspect. I. I think that I am, I am curious what the economic determination was to put in paragraph d in this in this staff report for a non profit, and if there was consideration for because you said that it will be a minimal cost and he's indicated that it will be a higher cost, I think we're not sure yet, but we've said we want to apply this standard that doesn't legally yet apply to it. Is there any more thought around why that came into the staff report?
126 Yes, I can can give you some of that. So in terms of meeting the various goals and policies, that condition of approval helped the project better meet more goals and policies of those different plans. Those included the embodied carbon of those materials. So some of the environmental and resilience goals and policies are better met by having a deconstruction versus a demolition. And then there was also just the conservation of historic materials. So even though we're not meeting preservation goals on balance, and we're prioritizing other goals in how we're evaluating this, at least it gives a little bit towards those goals. So it's about preservation of materials. And then also the environmental costs of the embodied carbon of the materials being reused rather than landfilled.
127 Thank you. I think I do understand both the materials from a toxic standpoint and carbon. I have a tough time expecting that there's a large market for 1908 bungalow housewares out there. Based on the picture that we saw, it doesn't look like it's been well preserved in that sense. So. Just in terms I will sticking to this, this round of it, I will. I think you've answered all my questions. So thank you.
128 I think I have a little more information that could help with your question. So this house so the residential deconstruction program applies to houses, duplexes, 1940 and older. This house is bread and butter deconstruction. Contractors take houses like this down every single week in accordance with our rule. The materials go to typically one of four salvage shops across Portland, including places like lovett, deconstruction. We have the nonprofit rebuilding center, and a house like this produces 10 to 20 tons of debris when it is taken down. But the deconstruction process typically saves 3 to 4 tons of the lumber. So all of these houses were built from our old growth forests. All of that important regional cultural environmental asset is in the walls of the houses. And the wood itself is usually old growth. Doug fir very prized for how beautiful it is and how easy it is to re mill into other products. So the deconstruction ordinance over time has shown a gain of 30 to 50 local jobs, especially in these salvaged lumber retailers and in the deconstruction contractors. So we're kind of seeing nationwide in Portland as one of the places where the circular economy for salvage materials from old houses is working. So there is a place to go with the materials, and there's definitely a demand for it. One thing I'd like to offer is we just received an Oregon deq grant for materials management to study commercial deconstruction for this reason, because not every commercial building is the same size, materials, whatever we get out of it. So we want to make a set of case studies to kind of understand the materials that come out of them, the economic impacts and all those things. Some of those grant funds could potentially be applied to this case, too, depending on the acceptance of that grant and the timing and all those things.
129 That's a very helpful answer. And I acknowledge and I accept everything you just said. My weight here will go to every dollar spent by a nonprofit on a deconstruction is less of a dollar and a program. And so that's that's what I'm wrestling with here, since it is not required by law, we are applying this. So your answer was wonderful. Thank you.
130 See no other technical questions. I am closing the evidentiary record on this hearing. This means that we will not accept any more oral or written testimony on the land use appeal. That moves us into deliberation. Excuse me. I have something in my throat. So, counselors, this is where we can discuss the measure before us, and we will signal our decision on what we would like to, what we would like the ultimate vote to be through a motion for a tentative vote. This allows staff to write the report, the formal report, which we will officially vote on at that future meeting. So there's two votes, a tentative vote today, which directs staff on what to write in that report. And then we will have the formal vote, presumably at our meeting on the fifth.
131 Yeah. And just during that meeting, there'll be no testimony.
132 And it's usually just a roll call vote. So this is more the opportunity for council to deliberate and discuss.
133 So is there any discussion on the measure before us? Councilor Green.
134 Thank you, madam president. I appreciate the, the work that went into creating an evidentiary record from which to give us an objective place to deliberate, despite the very emotional presentation. I am looking at the balance of considerations that were intersecting with our comprehensive plan, the southwest corridor plan. There was another plan. I forget it in front of me, but the matrix there suggested that this, on balance, does move us toward an improvement of the public good. There was a specific argument that I found compelling, which was that there is nothing actually particularly unique about the property. And if you took the property away, it wouldn't change the character of the neighborhood, because frankly, a lot of it has already changed. And so the legacy of that neighborhood, in my view, is best served by making investments in this sort of kind of public health complex is the way I see it, which is actually a good sort of community driven, a sort of modern day legacy of that neighborhood. So I guess what I'm saying to the council is that I, I'm convinced by the evidence. I think it's a reasonable staff report and I'm leaning towards yes on this.
135 Councilor Ryan.
136 Yeah, same.
137 And I'm, I'm actually calling to move the motion then to take the tentative vote.
138 Second, and just to clarify, is that motion to grant the demolition with the staff recommendation. Yes, of conditions and ask the staff to return. Okay. So it's a tentative I can just state it for the record. Thank you. It's a council makes a tentative motion to grant the demolition review appeal with the staff recommendation, recommended conditions, and ask the staff to return with revised findings.
139 You're good.
140 It's written on that.
141 I second that. I think you made the motion.
142 I make the motion. Yeah.
143 I'm so moved.
144 Second. Yeah. Okay.
145 Okay.
146 Is there any discussion on the motion? Okay. Clerk. Can you call the roll?
147 Avalos.
148 I just want to appreciate everybody's heartfelt testimony. I was clearly feeling it, and I'm grateful for what you brought to the table today. I vote yea.
149 Dunphy I.
150 Smith, I want to thank everybody for testifying today and giving us an idea of what you do. And it's amazing work. Keep it up. And I vote yes. Canal.
151 It's a privilege to be a witness to you telling your stories here. And I appreciate how how hard it was for everyone who had to share all that. So I just wanted to say thank you for that. And I vote aye.
152 Ryan, I've been in a few of these hearings and nothing comes close to what I just experienced. Thank you for being here. Thank you for your vulnerability. And it's not lost on me that you have the approval from the historic landmarks commission. That was a rare occurrence. And so this is looking good. I definitely support and approve the petition.
153 Koyama Lane, thank you so much for being here, for sharing about your deepest, hardest, most tender, vulnerable experiences and moments of your lives. And as you're talking about this, what is going to be built? I just couldn't stop thinking about just how like Portland needs more of this and what what it's rooted in, which is like what I heard supporting each other, making sure people's needs are met, a place for connection and for getting to getting to lead. I'm proud to vote. I Morillo I want to echo what my colleagues have said.
154 Thank you so much for coming out and testifying today. It is an honor to hear your stories and your family's stories, and I think that, you know, we want to hold on to things of the past sometimes. But the most important thing and the thing that makes our city wonderful and beautiful is the people in it and everything that you do and that you bring. And so I'm honored to support this as well. And I was also particularly heartened that in a country where our health care system often does not support people who don't have the funds to access support that this organization is taking part in that and giving access to people who otherwise would have never had it. So I'm going to start crying if I keep talking too long. But thank you for everything that you did today and I'm happy to vote.
155 I Green.
156 I believe very strongly in planning for the public purpose, and these land use hearings are important for that. To that end, I also believe very strongly that Portland needs a win and this to me seems like a slam dunk. So I thank you for providing that evidence. I think the staff's work and I'm happy to vote. I, Zimmerman yeah, I'm also appreciative that this recommendation from the historic commission came through.
157 I think that the way we keep the historic commission impact for Portland moving forward is that it is flexible and meaningful to the times. And so there's a protection of the past and a moving with the times. It's incredibly important. It's on display here. And so I appreciate that. You know, going through crisis alone is always dangerous. Going through crisis together is something that's better. And I think when I look at that bungalow, it doesn't compare in any universe to connor and a couple of wesleys that I heard about nate and wolfie hills and holly, sarah and jasper. And so I'm a strong yes.
158 Pirtle-guiney thank you all for being here, for sharing a little bit about your experiences. And thank you to the folks who thoughtfully planned out the future of this site and gave us a decision that seems quite easy compared to a lot of what we'll hear about, I'm sure, in the future, because the argument for this specific demolition for that piece of the project is so clear and is so clearly important for achieving the results of the project as a whole. And thank you to the landmark commission for also making this vote much easier than it might otherwise have been. We truly appreciate all of the time you took today, I vote I the vote passes with ten yeses. We will return to this matter on February 5th. Do we have a time certain set? 9:45 a.m. At 9:45 a.m. This was the only item on our agenda. We are adjourned.