4a. Development Allowances: Default Urban Form

Default Urban Form Map (PDF)
Focus on: Central City/West 1/2 | North | Inner East 1/2 | East
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This depicts Portland’s current direction regarding its urban form, showing the relative building heights and mixed-use areas (red) that would result if all properties were to be developed to the maximum allowances of the Zoning Code.

The Default Urban Form map is a depiction of Portland’s current direction regarding its urban form. It shows the relative building heights and mixed-use areas (red) that would result if all properties were to be developed to the maximum allowances of the Zoning Code.

(Note: height depicted for topographical features and allowed building heights is exaggerated to provide clarity at a citywide scale.)

• Zoning guides the tallest buildings and most intense concentration of commercial and residential uses to the Downtown area.
• Outside Downtown and the Central City, allowances for mixed-use development (commercial and residential) and mid-rise buildings are focused in centers (such as Gateway and Hollywood), light rail station areas, and along major streets (such as Hawthorne Boulevard, Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard, Foster Boulevard, 82nd Avenue, and Barbur Boulevard).
• Zoning for medium density apartments and other multifamily development (orange), generally limited in height to four stories, is focused in areas along or near transit corridors and adjacent to mixed-use centers.
• The city’s industrial areas and corresponding industrial zoning are generally located in low-lying riverfront areas or along railways.
• Single-dwelling zoning, intended for houses and sometimes duplexes, is Portland’s most wide-spread type of zoning and applies to large areas of the city between major streets.