Appeal 7206

Appeal Summary

Status: Held over from ID 7177 (item #1) for further staff review.

Appeal ID: 7206

Submission Date: 6/29/10 12:41 PM

Hearing Date: 6/30/10

Case #: B-018

Appeal Type: Building

Project Type: commercial

Building/Business Name:

Appeal Involves: Reconsideration of appeal

Proposed use: M, B, F-1

Project Address: 1111 NE Flanders St

Appellant Name: Dana Moore

LUR or Permit Application #: Permit 10-132488-CO

Stories: 2 Occupancy: M, B, F-1 Construction Type: III-B

Fire Sprinklers: No

Plans Examiner/Inspector: Jed Sampson

Plan Submitted Option: mail   [File 1]

Payment Option: mail

Appeal Information Sheet

Appeal item 1

Code Section

Agreement by and between The City of Portland and Northwest Fence and Wire Works, LLC (please see attached agreement recorded 02-23-05)

Requires

Current special agreement between the City and the Property Owner caps the number of occupants and hazard level areas to the time of the building shell permit dated 11-02-04.

(please see attached agreement recorded 02-23-05)

Code Modification or Alternate Requested
Proposed Design

Review and re-evaluate the agreement between the City & the building Owner.

(please see attached agreement recorded 02-23-05)

Reason for alternative

This project was the first in the City reviewed under Title 24-85. We believe that the interpretation without benefit of precedent resulted in a well-intentioned but overly severe restriction. Such restriction has become a disproportionate burden to the property whenever the tenant mix changes, even in the most minor of ways. The Owner completed an ASCE 31 seismic upgrade at the time of the shell permit, even though the project did not trigger the upgrade based on Title 24.85. The Owner did however want to add more windows than the 5% allowed outright on the north wall. On balance, even with the additional windows, the building is significantly safer than it was before the project was performed. The current agreement, however, does not allow the Owner to continue to add occupants or change areas to higher hazard use as allowed by Title 24.85 so long as they remain under the triggers defined in that chapter of the code. Please note that we are not proposing to take advantage of the additional areas and occupants allowed by having performed the ASCE 31 upgrades. We are simply asking to be allowed to use the tables that allow up to 1/3 of the floor area to be changed and up to 149 occupants which are allowed without any structural improvements and which are monitored and tracked over time through the permitting process. We have met with the structural reviewer, Jed Sampson, on this and upon his request, Mike Hagerty analyzed the stress in the north wall under seismic loads to evaluate it's potential performance. It was found to be safe and in conformance with the Life Safety Performance Level of ASCE 31-03, which further alleviates the need for this additional restriction that is in place.

(Please refer to attached calculations & drawings)

Appeal Decision

1. Re-evaluation of agreement between the City of Portland and Northwest Fence and Wire Works pertaining to seismic upgrades: Granted provided:

1. The total number of occupants allowed in the building now or in the future is 289 (unless entire building strengthening is required by Title 24.85).

2. A maximum of 12,082 sf of B and/or M space is allowed in the building now or in the future (unless entire building strengthening is required by Title 24.85).

3. The above items will be summarized in an amended Agreement and recorded with the County prior to issuance of the permit.

Note that the occupant calculations for B, M and F-2 are to be based on gross square footage, so the 2,885 sf needs to be assigned an occupancy and occupants in accordance with the code.