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The Portland Development Commission is considering a proposal to move the Belmont Goats to a vacant lot in Lents.
WW first reported in last week's cover story that the PDC, which owns 12 acres of vacant property in the Lents business district, was weighing a proposal to place goats on one of those properties.
The herd of 14 goats is being evicted from its current home at Southeast 10th Avenue and Belmont Street by a new apartment complex. So their owners are looking to Lents—the East Portland neighborhood where the PDC has spent $96 million but has not sparked a building boom.
The goats' owners submitted a proposal Jan. 17 to the PDC—one of six proposals for three properties the urban renewal agency is shopping to developers. (The PDC also crowdsourced ideas for two of the lots, erecting pink signs reading, "What Would You Like to See?")
The proposal is for 9316 SE Woodstock Avenue—a grassy field next to Interstate 205. Plans call for a climbing structure on the land, "creating pedestrian and family friendly energy from the curious dichotomy of livestock in an urban environment."
The goats' owners have also inquired about two other properties along Southeast 91st Avenue, across the street from the new plaza the city built in front of a pest control shop.
Christopher Frankonis, one of the Belmont Goats' caretakers, says the vacant Lents lots are a great match.
"We had a specific surge of interest from Lents residents, which is not something that's happened out of other neighborhoods," Frankonis tells WW. "Residents themselves argued the herd would be a good fit, and that's actually what convinced us to revisit the PDC initiative there, which we'd originally heard about in November but didn't pursue."
The PDC is considering five other proposals for the three lots, including a mixed-use building, an outdoor photography installation, and a bicycle delivery service for fruit.
WWeek 2015