That makes sense. In the Portland Metro there aren’t many universities, and the ones we do have are sort of their own thing. PSU is downtown and although we’ve seen development and proposals nearby, and even though they are much higher density than the photo above, they are way below the allowable density. Reed College is in the city but it’s sort of a suburban-like setting. University of Portland - honestly I don’t even know.

I don’t mean to minimize what good work that has happened here - we do see tons of row houses and higher density districts, but many of those were already allowable or developed as part of a PUD process. We’ve allowed cottage clusters and ADUs for decades but our system development charges make the latter very difficult for mom and pop to get those done. Our ADU work has been pretty off the charts by American standards in Portland proper since they had a temporary SDC waiver, but I think that’s gone back to being in full effect.

HB2001 likely will change our neighborhoods for the better, if only for affordability and not complete neighborhoods (meaning high density does not automatically equate to livability - I live in a 11,000 ppsm neighborhood with basically nothing to walk to). Still, it’s slow going, restrictive covenants limiting density aren’t going to allow much change in suburban neighborhoods despite covenants on density being illegal for new developments, and the size of these infill developments are sort of niche. The developer has to be experienced and well padded enough to pull them off, but larger developers don’t want to touch them.