A Change in Our Position on New Development

Dear Friends of Mount Joy.

We received a ton of feedback and commentary in response to our recent communications about Redfern Properties’ plans to develop the Northern Burner Supply lot adjacent to Mount Joy Community Orchard. Thank you to the many people that engaged sincerely with this topic and especially to those that provided us with the information and data that has caused us to reconsider our position on the development.

 

The most pertinent piece of data was shared by a Mount Joy volunteer, who turned us onto this extremely helpful tool for calculating shadow casts: https://www.suncalc.org/#/43.6697,-70.2543,19/2024.05.15/12:13/1/1. 

 

If you are curious, we recommend that you spend some time figuring out how to use this great tool, though we have provided some screenshots to give you a sense of what we found. Suffice to say, we now have a much more detailed understanding of the shadow conditions. We feel confident that the trees in the orchard will not be threatened by the shadow cast by the housing development at the proposed height of seven stories. While the shadow of the building will certainly affect the orchard, the shadow during the growing season is pretty minimal. In the shoulder seasons the orchard will be significantly shaded and the orchard will be almost entirely shaded in mid-winter. Activity and use during these times is much lower and the trees will not be harmed by shade during their dormant period.  We have attached some screenshots to give you a sense of what we found.

 

We do still have some ongoing concerns about the development:

• Portland desperately needs affordable housing.If the city is going to allow the developer a zoning variance, or rezone this entire area to allow for the development, we believe the developer should, in return, be required to increase the percentage of affordable units in the building from 25% to 35%. 

• We would like assurances from the developer and the city that the orchard will not be damaged during the construction phase of development.

• Mt. Joy is home to many birds. As biodiversity has increased, the bird population has increased as well. We would like to see any new development use bird safe glass. 

 

This development will change the area significantly, we hope that the new residents will want to enjoy Mt. Joy and participate in the care of the orchard.
 

This development proposal will certainly generate an ongoing conversation. We encourage anyone interested in the area to stay involved, go to the planning meetings and keep tabs on how things are progressing.

 

The accompanying screenshots contain a few different shadow views from different points of the year, all taken at noon (shortest shadow), using the tool to track the sun through the whole day gives a much better picture, but this gives the gist. Slide 2 shows the whole shadow of the building rather than just the line.

 

Sincerely,

Mount Joy Orchard Organizers