Land Use in Multnomah Village: What’s Happening, What’s Coming, and What Actually Matters

One of the roles of the neighborhood association is keeping an eye on what’s being built, proposed, or quietly moving through the City process. Each month, we’ll share a short land use snapshot so neighbors know what’s changing nearby and what’s simply part of the normal development pipeline.

Land use in Portland can feel opaque and overly technical, so the goal of this series is simple: clarity. These updates focus on activity within our Multnomah Neighborhood boundaries and highlight new development applications, meaningful milestones, and projects that are realistically moving toward construction. Some months will be quiet. Others will have more to report. Either way, this is meant to be a consistent, plain-English overview of what’s actually happening.

In January, the development at SW 45th and SW Carson officially moved into the building phase, with permits issued for a new eight-unit cottage cluster. Construction drawings will be posted to PortlandMaps soon, and once they’re available, I’ll review them and share highlights so folks know what to expect as the project gets fully underway.

There were no new land use applications in our neighborhood in January. One existing project on SW Custer between SW 25th and 26th received its land use decision from the City just before the new year and will move toward building permits next. Based on typical City timelines, construction on the approved four-unit cottage cluster will likely begin later this summer.

I’ll continue tracking development activity within our neighborhood boundaries and flag anything new, noteworthy, or worth broader community discussion. If you see a notice posted and think, “Should I be paying attention to this?” that’s a totally fair question. Sometimes the answer is yes. Often, it’s simply “FYI, this is part of the process.” This series is designed to help make that distinction clearer and reduce unnecessary alarm while still keeping neighbors informed.

As always, if you have questions about a specific project or notice, you’re welcome to contact me anytime at land-use@mnapdx.org.  I’m happy to help interpret what you’re seeing and explain where things stand. More to come next month as this series settles into its groove.

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Shelbey Campbell Lett

VP & Land Use Chair, Multnomah Neighborhood Association