Ironic as hell, considering the EPA sanctions the city faced for its failures to deal with run-off and erosion when it was building the highly (at the time the city shoved it down the area's throat) Gabriel Park Community Center a mere 15 blocks away at 45th and Vermont.

Just goes to show how Portland needs an overhaul from top to bottom. Not only are our "leaders" crazy idiots, it has spread throughout all the bureaus.

This incident is similar to other BES dictatorial, time consuming, costly gestapo tactics.

A few years ago BES required a 1896 Victorian home to have gutters and downspouts. Evidence was given from a 1906 photo that the home never had gutters, which was somewhat typical of many homes of the time and even presently. By code that is a prior condition that didn't require the gutters. The home even had a roof eave detail where roofing was rolled at the eave, making installation of gutters almost impossible, requiring tearing into the old roofing edge to somehow attach the gutters.

BES now says they only ONE project they are working on. How many employees are working on the project? We wonder why CoP has a deficit.

The Portland problem is spreading to Milwaukie. The home at 4232 SE Mason Ln is a replacement for one that burned a couple years ago. The current owners, who I believe lived in the house that burned, were required to put in a sidewalk. It's the only sidewalk section on this street, it butts against a fence on the east and a fence and large tree on the west. This is wasted money, energy and damages respect for development codes and building officials. (The sidewalk is barely visible on portlandmaps.com; google maps just shows the empty lot after the burned house was cleared.)

Well, since he's a "developer" now why doesn't he just propose a new high rise and redirect traffic on Bertha and 30th around it? That seems to be the way things go around here.

Or possibly, city was making it so expensive for him, that they thought he might sell to escape those costs. Why this "useless" project he had to built?

Another party may have been waiting in the wings to do just that, use the property for a new high rise, get the codes changed or an adjustment if necessary.

May not be the case at all, but anything is plausible with that group downtown.

I rented a place just next door and downhill from this guy... trust me, this is one time when the city got it right. The years-running "house project" is as big and awkward as multi-family housing or condos.

The runoff and debris flow is beyond excessive... the 'river' inevitably flowed directly towards my house, rather than to the street storm drains (a full 60 degrees off-course...amazing). Needless to say, we dealt with water damage on numerous occasions. On a daily basis, drivers and bicyclists on Bertha have to dodge 3-5" rocks, and those traveling down steep 30th ave find it's hard to brake while skidding on gravel.

For the record, I was never consulted by the city, the neighborhood, or this gentleman, so I have no horse in this race. I moved out in part because that hill is seriously steep... soil and water are being diverted in a dangerous way. Enjoy that hill-slide, Mr. Kolin!

I'm calling "Bullsh*t" on at least a portion of the story in the Hillsdale News.

The passing of two summer construction seasons didn't result in higher construction costs.

Construction costs of all kinds have been dropping like a stone over the last three years.

I'm sure the "fish ladder" requirement added costs, for that item, but the mere passage of time resulted in lower costs for the house expansion than would have been the case had the house expansion been constructed 3 years ago.

As for the need for the "fish ladder" I've seen the old driveway on the south side of that house at 6120 SW 30th look like class three rapids many times over the last 20 years.

Go two blocks south of that house, along 30th, and take a left on SW Carolina Street to the east, and go to the dead end on Carolina, at the north side of the circle there, and look at the slide remnants and the massive retaining walls holding up both the street and the house at 2711 SW Carolina after a slide about 20 years ago.

This is a bad area for saturation, poorly percolating soils, and slides.

Come

"Or possibly, city was making it so expensive for him, that they thought he might sell to escape those costs."

Puh-leeze, whoever owned that house would have to pay these outrageous prices. CoP pulls this kind of pricing crap with BES and PWB because they want the money for pet projects like bike lanes, solar panels, green houses and eco-roofs. The fees have a bare connection to the actual costs involved.

When I call BDS and get told SDCs to connect a single-toilet house to the sewr = $45K, it does make one take pause about what is going on in this town.

Dteve -

The SDC (system development charge) scam is just that.

And once the SDC funds get collected - and its not just for sewers, but for roads, sidewalks, and local motor vehicle infrastructure, too - folks like S Scam Adams come along and hijack $ 10 million her or $ 600 million there and "repurpose" the SDC funds to other projects and other areas of the city.

Vide the $ 10 million from the SoWhat street infrastructure hijacked for Milwaukie light rail, of the projected spending on the bike foolishness over the next 30 years.