A D V E R T I S E M E N T
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
Cliff Newell / Lake Oswego Review
Brenna Bell of Tryon Life Community Farm and friends of the cooperative farm community are gearing up to try to Re-Code Portland.
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Brenna Bell has found that Tryon Life Community Farm will have a lot of friends when it comes to Re-Code Portland.
The crusade to make city codes and zoning regulations more amenable to smaller sustainability projects had a public meeting on Jan. 17, and the large, enthusiastic outpouring of support made Bell highly optimistic that Portland really can be re-coded.
“There were natural builders, contractors, homeowners, the Portland Peak Oil Task Force, a whole gamut of people,” said Bell, president of the board of directors of Tryon Farm, which sits right at the doorstep of Lake Oswego on Boones Ferry Road. “Even some enthusiastic people from Albany.
“Re-Code Portland is going to be the voice for the grassroots. So far there have been organizations for people who do big sustainability projects, but not for people who want to do smaller projects.”
The main goal of Re-Code Portland is to change the “one size fits all” codes and ordinances that inhibit individual landowners or small organizations that “don’t have a big pot of cash.”
For example, current policies prohibit Tryon Farm from building its own composting toilets. Instead, the staff had to fork out $1,700 each for several toilets that met state plumbing codes.
Another roadblock: the city of Portland will charge the farm $20,000 to review and approve its proposed master land-use plan.
“As it stands now it’s easier to build a poorly built, energy inefficient home than it is to build a well thought-out, closed loop home that benefits the environment,” Bell said. “We’re asking, ‘Why is that?’”
Bell has already found lots and lots of sympathy for this position.
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