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Smart Growth In Action: Belmont Dairy, Portland, Oregon
 The Belmont Dairy is a mixed-use, urban infill project in the Portland, Oregon, neighborhood of Sunnyside. Located approximately 1.5 miles southeast of downtown, Belmont Dairy has expanded housing and retail choices for Sunnyside residents, spurred reinvestment, and created a vibrant anchor for a changing neighborhood.
After 70 years as a functioning dairy, the 2.5 acre site was burdened by environmental contamination and abandoned in the early 1990s. Where many people saw a wasteland, the developer, community residents, and public officials saw a vibrant community center. The reason for such optimism was obvious despite neglect: the site was near downtown, close to public transportation, and in an established business district.
Completed in 1996, Phase 1 of the Belmont Dairy project converted the dairy facility into 19 market-rate, loft-style apartments and 26,000 square feet of ground-level retail, including a specialty grocer, restaurants, and shops. Also as part of Phase 1, the developer constructed a new apartment building, with 66 units of affordable housing. The net density of Phase 1 is 70 units per acre.
In Phase 2, completed in 1999, 30 rowhouses were built next to the dairy building. The net density of Phase 2 is 33 units per acre, double that of the typical rowhouse density in Portland.
A central, private courtyard bisects the project, allowing four rows of homes to be sited in a 200-foot block dimension and providing each unit with a small, private, garden area. The garages are accessed from the rear so that the view from the street is of front porches, balconies, and bay windows, not a wall of garage doors. A community courtyard that adjoins the apartments and loft structures forms the lid of an underground parking structure.
Design emphasizes the site’s historic connection to the neighborhood and creates a pedestrian-friendly streetscape. The brick walls of the dairy were saved and the scale of the anchor building maintained, and the name and logo of the project remind the community of the project’s roots. The rowhouses’ architectural style is consistent with the wood-frame, cedar-shingled homes that dominate the blocks adjacent to the project.
“This project is about the preservation of a building, a community and a vital urban neighborhood. Creating a mix of new retail and residential space contributes to the value and livability of the entire community.” — Thomas Badrick, president, Sunnyside Neighborhood Association
Get a copy of this project summary in Adobe Acrobat® format.
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Conservation: An Investment That Pays from Trust for Public Land is intended to help agency personnel and community conservationists make the case for conservation as a long-term economic investment.
Based on the National Building Museum's exhibit, Green Community is a collection of thought-provoking essays that illuminate the connections among personal health, community health, and our planet's health.
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