Posted on 11/26/2005 10:47:29 PM PST by Lorianne
Don Morissette looks like a character from a 1950s sitcom — clean-cut, with a square jaw and quick grin. He talks like one, too, saying that all families should have the opportunity to live in big houses with big backyards.
“Kids need lots of room and backyards to play in,” said Morissette, who owns one of the region’s oldest, largest and best-known home-building companies.
It’s the sort of thing the 49-year-old Morissette has been saying for much of the 32 years he’s been building homes in the Portland area — including his term as the only home builder to serve on Metro, the regional government responsible for managing growth in the tricounty region, in the 1990s.
Now, Morissette is voicing a new rallying call: He is publicly calling on government to help save traditional subdivisions in the region. Morissette has been talking with local and regional officials about the need to invest millions of dollars in new streets, sewers, water lines and other infrastructure improvements necessary to support thousands of new single-family homes throughout Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties. Morissette said the investment is needed because there’s not much vacant but fully serviced land left within the urban growth boundary — the dividing line between urban and rural land administered by Metro.
“Something has to be done, or we’re going to completely run out of buildable land,” said Morissette, owner of Don Morissette Homes Inc. and its land development arm, Venture Development.
Not everyone believes single-family homes should be such a high priority, however. Metro Councilor Robert Liberty thinks Morissette is out of touch with the way people live these days.
“Ozzie is dead, and Harriet is a working mom,” Liberty said. “What we need are homes for single-parent families who want to live near where they work, shop and go to school.” Morissette does not apologize for what he calls his “pro-growth” views, however. “Families have certain needs that my homes meet. I don’t build anything that people don’t want to buy,” he said. At first glance, Morissette’s concern may seem hard to understand. Single-family home construction is booming in the metropolitan region, supported in large part by the thousands of new people moving to the Portland area every month.
More than 770 more building permits have been issued for single-family homes in the area so far this year — 6,447 through Nov. 9, compared with 5,675 by that point last year.
But Morissette is looking a few years ahead and does not like what he sees. The price of land is increasing dramatically, especially for large parcels with streets, sewer, water and electricity. “In 1990, land was $50,000 an acre. Now it’s $600,000 an acre, when you can find it with services,” he said. Despite their disagreements, Liberty believes that Morissette has identified a flaw in the region’s land-use planning effort that threatens even future mixed-use developments.
Under state law, Metro must maintain a 20-year supply of buildable land within the growth boundary. To accomplish this, Metro has added 6,651 acres to the boundary since 2002. But little of this land is ready for development. No money has been set aside for infrastructure improvements to 4,827 acres of the so-called expansion land. The local governments that have control of the land say they do not have the money to pay for the streets, sewers, water lines and other improvements necessary for development.
In fact, Liberty already is working on a possible solution he hopes to present to Metro voters in the May primary election. It would impose an excise tax on land brought into the boundary. Some of the money it would generate also would be used to preserve farms and open spaces.
“Property owners get a windfall when their land is brought into the boundary. We need to find a way to capture some of that increase,” said Liberty, who calls the measure the Farmland, Fairness and Building Great New Neighborhoods proposal.
Liberty has yet to present his proposal to the Metro Council, which would have to place it on the ballot. Morissette thinks the proposal is promising, although he wants to see details before endorsing it.
If Liberty cannot get Metro voters to approve his plan, Morissette already is working on his own plan. He thinks the 2007 Oregon Legislature could allow local improvement districts to be formed on the expansion lands to pay for the infrastructure improvements. Under Morissette’s proposal, the districts would issue bonds that would be financed by property taxes paid by new homeowners.
Until then, Morissette already has begun to build homes on land he would otherwise pass up. One of his most recent developments — Bannister Heights at Northwest Laidlaw and Saltzman roads — is pressed into steep hillsides. Many of the 200-plus homes in the development back up to rocky slopes or retaining walls, with no room for even a small backyard.
“The truth is, I probably shouldn’t even be building here, but it’s one of the few sites left where it was legal to build, and the utilities were available,” he said.
It’s different out there
New homes that get the most attention these days are in high-density, mixed-use, transit-friendly, pedestrian-friendly developments that meet or exceed national environmental and energy-saving guidelines. At least, those seem to be the kinds of projects that win design competitions and receive prestigious awards from architectural organizations and qualify for urban renewal financing.
But drive out of Portland and a whole other world emerges. Secondary roads throughout the tricounty region cut through massive residential developments that look like traditional subdivisions on steroids. Thousands of single-family homes line winding streets that begin just off freeway exits.
The vast majority are miles away from the nearest light-rail stop and receive only minimal, if any, bus service.
Despite their locations, they house many people who work in Portland, or at least drive through it on their way to work.
These are Morissette’s customers. Currently, he is overseeing seven new developments in the metropolitan region. Each features an array of three-, four- and five-bedroom homes with prices ranging from $355,900 to $477,900. Most have been sold before being finished.
When it comes to catering to this market, Morissette is far from alone. Several major developers are building similar homes throughout the region: D.R. Horton, Legend Homes and Renaissance Homes. Some, like Buena Vista Custom Homes, are building as many homes as Morissette, if not more.
Buena Vista founder Roger Pollock said the demand for new single-family homes is being driven by several factors, including the influx of out-of-state residents and near-record low borrowing rates.
But, more than that, Pollock insisted that single-family homes have historically been a better investment than the condominiums in the city’s mixed-use developments and residential towers.
“Hot housing markets have cooled before, and when they do, condominiums lose more value than single-family homes,” he said.
Pollock is not as worried as Morissette about running out of buildable land in the near future — partly because Buena Vista is aggressively buying as much land as possible right now, he said.
“Don’s right that land availability is becoming a huge issue, at least land at a reasonable price,” Pollock said.
According to Pollock, shrinking supply and increasing demand are driving up land costs. Pollock said the price he pays for land in the region has nearly doubled in the past year alone, rising from $125,000 to $225,000 for fully serviced lots.
Pollock predicted that the region’s overall economy would suffer if homebuilding slows down. The industry currently supports approximately 17,000 full-time jobs in the tricounty area, according to the Home Builders Association of Metropolitan Portland, generating around $500 million a year in wages and $290 million a year in state and local taxes.
“We’ve still got one of the highest unemployment rates in the country,” he said. “Home building is one of the only industries that’s doing well locally. If we get into trouble, everyone’s going to feel it.”
Some people think traditional suburban developments have their own set of problems, however.
Marcy McInelly is a Portland architect who has worked on such residential projects as New Columbia, the high-density, mixed-income development that is replacing the low-income Columbia Villa in North Portland. She believes communities are better served when different kinds of people can live together. McInelly believes traditional suburbs are “missed opportunities” because they separate people by incomes.
“To the extent that we are continuing to build to a single segment of the community, where only people with a certain income can afford to live, then I think we’re squandering opportunities,” said McInelly, owner of the UrbsWorks Inc., architecture and urban design firm.
Sam Chase, executive director of the Community Development Network, also questioned the wisdom of traditional subdivisions.
“Children get stuck in their own cul-de-sacs and can’t even get anywhere without being driven there,” he said.
A builder from way back
Even people who disagree with Morissette’s focus on single-family homes say they like him personally. Liberty said he believes Morissette has the best interests of the public at heart. Henry Richmond, founder of the land-use planning watchdog group 1000 Friends of Oregon, praised Morissette as a straight shooter.
“I wish there were more Don Morissettes in the world,” Richmond said.
Morissette speaks from personal experience about kids needing room. He and his wife, Alicia, have four sons: Teddy, 9; Henry, 7; Jack, 5; and Luke, 3. They also have two dogs — Winston, a 13-year-old yellow Lab, and Lucy, a 3-year-old German shepherd — who spend their days at Morissette’s office at 4230 Galewood St., just off Kruse Way in Lake Oswego.
Morissette was born in Edmonton, Alberta, and moved to Portland when his father, a Monsanto executive, was transferred here in 1962. When his father left the chemical company a few years later and went into home building, Morissette was hooked. He loved everything about it, from the heavy equipment that cleared the land to the sight of a crew framing an entire home in just a few days.
Morissette’s father got him a job with a framing crew in 1972 when he was 16 years old. He worked primarily in Beaverton, Tigard and Southeast Portland, framing so-called “starter homes.” They ranged from 1,200 to 1,400 square feet and sold for between $25,000 and $30,000.
Did he ever fall off a house?
“Almost every one,” Morissette acknowledged. “But when you’re young, you can fall off things and get back up and keep going.”
Morissette built his first home in 1974 under the name Don Morissette Building. He borrowed some money from his father to purchase a lot in the Garden Home area and made a small profit — he can’t remember how much — when it was finished. At the time, Morissette was 18 and still in high school. Although he briefly considered college when he graduated, he stuck with home building.
“I sometimes wonder what I missed, but there’s no going back,” he said.
Morissette’s company grew slowly but steadily. He completed two homes in 1975, four in 1975, more in 1976. The company name changed over time, first to Don Morissette Builders and, finally, Don Morissette Homes.
Morissette stopped framing homes and began managing his company full time in 1979. The change was not by choice. Chronic back pain was sending him to bed for several weeks every year.
“I was never the biggest guy, but I always carried a ton of weight. I slipped and compressed a few discs and, after awhile, I knew I just couldn’t keep doing that,” he said.
By the early 1980s, Morissette was wondering if he had made the right career choice. The recession was killing the home-building business. Mortgage interest rates were 16 percent, and construction was way down. The only thing that kept his company going was the Federal Housing Administration, which offered a special home loan known as the FHA 235. It offered money at low interest rates to first-time home buyers who could come up with a down payment and showed the potential to pay more in the future.
“To qualify for the loans, you needed to be able to make a large down payment but have no income. I went around to the medical schools and signed up students. They weren’t making anything, but most of them had parents who could help them with the down payments, and they had great earning potential,” Morissette said.
Morissette believes his current success stems in large part from the way he treated his company’s subcontractors during those lean times. Instead of forcing them to lower their prices to the minimum, Morissette said he cut them some slack and let them make a reasonable profit. This created goodwill that continues today, even among Morissette’s competitors.
“It’s a pleasure to do business with him,” said Randy Sebastian, president of Renaissance Homes, who has known Morissette since 1984.
The industry began to recover when interest rates finally started falling in the early 1990s. According to Morissette, around that time, he and other builders across the country woke up to a simple fact — they could build substantially larger homes for only a little more money.
“The foundations are the same size, the roof’s the same size, the permits cost the same, and the inspections cost the same. You can build a whole additional floor for not that much money,” he said.
As it turned out, many people were willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars more for the larger homes. Even if they did not need the additional room, Morissette said, they looked at them as good investments.
The trend has continued, fueled in recent years by low interest rates that have put such homes within the reach of even more buyers. Today, Morissette’s biggest homes include six bedrooms, 4 1/2 baths, media rooms, great rooms, dens and three-car garages. And, even at more than $475,000, he is selling as many as he can build.
But as Morissette sees things, without some help from the government, such homes soon may be in short supply.
Both sides of the fence
Morissette is no stranger to government land-use planning. He served on Metro’s elected council from 1994 to 1998. He said he ran for the council because he thought it needed to hear from businessmen like him.
“They were making decisions that affected everyone in the building community, but nobody on the council had any experience in it. I decided it would be better to run for the council than merely complain about it,” he said.
Morissette said he was frequently isolated on the council, the only member who did not care much for the New Urbanism trend that calls for compact neighborhoods to be built near where people shop and work.
“If some of these planners have their way, everyone will grow up in apartments built on top of parking garages. I don’t think that’s healthy for children,” he said.
Richmond gives Morissette points for being willing to serve on the council, however.
“He’s one of the few businesspeople at the top of his field who’s willing to engage directly in the political process,” he said.
Whatever the case, Morissette is trying to affect government policies again, using his position as one of the region’s leading home builders to call for more money for infrastructure improvements for Metro expansion lands. On Oct. 18, he gave several regional and local elected officials a tour of his Summit Ridge development on Bull Mountain, explaining the difficulties of finding affordable land with streets, electricity, water and sewers.
The event was organized by the Home Builders Association of Metropolitan Portland. It was attended by Metro President David Bragdon, Metro Councilor Brian Newman, three members of the Washington County Commission, and representatives from the cities of Tigard and Beaverton.
“We cannot build until the land is planned and zoned and the services are ready,” Morissette said. “Home prices are already high, but if we run out of buildable land, they will be a lot higher.”
What- you don't want a solid, non-moving line of traffic stuck between your driveway and downtown for 14 hours a day? (Like every small town in Massachusetts now has...)
Well, we could end population growth by ending immigration---but that would be too simple, wouldn't it?
So let's make more laws and bigger government instead.
Yeah, with more GovernMental EnvironMental Central Planning goons that over-regulate all land use with down zoning till all investment-backed expectations are totally consumend in a fit of socialistic anti-capitalism.
This is already occurring in CA under a supposed "Republican" Governor in an effort to destroy property rights in the eastern part of the state as they already have in the Coastal Commission commune! It's called the Sierra-Nevada CONservancey and GANG-GREEN is in full charge!!!
Here I was, thinking I was doing my kids a favor by keeping them away from crack houses and strip joints and gang wars, and along comes a pointy-headed expert to tell me I am "squandering" an "opportunity". Don't know what we would do without those pointy-headed experts!
-ccm
LOL. I don't think she gets it. Portland is full of socialists.
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