Yesterday, the City Council unanimously approved a set of updates to the City’s Limited Tax Exemption (LTE) program.

The LTE program, administered by the Portland Housing Bureau, offers property tax breaks for homebuilders and developers in exchange for including affordable apartments in their developments, or for selling newly-built homes to modest-income buyers at an affordable price.

The LTE is a small but effective tool to promote housing choice throughout our community. It offers developers a way to partner with us to make sure exciting, up-and-coming neighborhoods remain open to all and to encourage the neighborhood revitalization, stability, and wealth creation that come from homeownership.

The program updates were part of the "Big Look" process, co-chaired by County Chair Jeff Cogen and Nick, with strong support from County Commissioner Deborah Kafoury and City Commissioner Amanda Fritz.

Along with the Big Look's leadership, a diverse stakeholder committee developed recommendations, and refined them through a thorough public outreach phase.  The new updates will better align the program with our community’s housing goals and improve its efficiency, accountability, and transparency.

They include a new competitive process, a cap on foregone revenue, stricter requirements for proposals, and additional strategies to close the minority homeownership gap.

Visit the Portland Housing Bureau website for more information on the LTE program and updates.

New areas to see tax abatements: City council extends tax break boundaries, aids multifamily units in downtown area

Brad Schmidt in The Oregonian

Photo Credit: The Ramona Apartments - made affordable, in part, by the LTE program.