Portland Analyzes Housing and Park Uses for Potential School Closures

Fourteen Portland Public Schools buildings—13 elementary schools and Sellwood Middle School—could one day rise as seven-story housing developments, according to a preliminary analysis from the city’s Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, KATU reported. The memo lands as the district weighs closing the campuses amid declining enrollment and mounting financial challenges that have forced administrators to confront difficult decisions about the district’s footprint.

The city’s exploration is not a redevelopment plan and carries no recommendations about selling or keeping the properties, but it offers a detailed map of possibilities. While housing dominates the conversation, the report also floats child care centers, parks, and neighborhood businesses for the surplus properties. In some cases, the city could combine new housing with the existing school building or open space, preserving the campuses’ physical presence while changing their function.

Eight Sites Could Go Vertical Without Rezoning

The analysis splits the 14 campuses into two distinct camps based on current zoning. Eight schools—Beach, Irvington, Lewis, Marysville, Rose City Park, Sabin, Sellwood, and Woodmere—sit on land where existing regulations already support developments of up to seven stories. The remaining six would require zoning changes to permit buildings of seven to 10 stories, according to the memo.

Portland Public Schools proposes closing up to 14 schools amid declining enrollment

Taller buildings mean more housing units to address the city’s affordability crisis, but they also mean more traffic, more demand on sewers and sidewalks, and a fundamental change in the scale of neighborhoods built around single-story schools. The report weighs these factors alongside seismic upgrades, infrastructure needs, conversion costs, and the strategic question of whether the buildings should be preserved for potential future school use.

A Tale of Two Neighborhoods

Not every community around these schools looks the same, and the memo highlights stark demographic differences that could shape what happens next. Around Stephenson Elementary, 34% of households have children; near Lewis Elementary, the figure is 32%. By contrast, the neighborhood surrounding Buckman Elementary has just 6% of households with children, according to the report.

Portland study reviews future uses for up to 14 PPS schools under closure talks

The city also notes that all 14 school buildings are potentially eligible for historic protections or listing on the National Register of Historic Places, which could unlock historic tax credits and grants for renovations while requiring that notable architectural features be preserved even if the buildings are reused.

Councilor Ryan Seeks the Public Investment Ledger

The analysis follows a recent effort by Portland City Councilor Dan Ryan to catalog which school sites have already absorbed heavy public investment in roads, water lines, sewer systems, and parks. Ryan has cautioned that the city should not overstep into school board decisions, but he argues the city can provide crucial intelligence to inform the district’s choices.

“This index – something the City is uniquely positioned to provide – would give a full account of which schools and surrounding rights-of-way have already been heavily invested in through Portland’s Transportation, Water & Sewer, Parks & Recreation, Planning, and other bureaus,” Ryan wrote in a recent newsletter. “I worry if City Councilors wade too far into this conversation, it will create further confusion about which body owns decision-making for our public schools. However, what the City of Portland can provide PPS is the public investment intelligence we have access to as a way to inform decision-making.”

Sellwood Middle School at the Center of the Storm

Sellwood Middle School stands out as a potential test case for what comes next. The memo suggests the campus could be repurposed into housing, community services, daycare, or a park. Some neighbors living around the school told KATU they would be open to housing if the school closes, while others said they want the school to remain open at all costs and are concerned that the report is too preliminary to guide real decisions.

“I think the urgency of it was so jarring,” said Alice-Kate Lamb. “This is an entire class of kids who have gone through COVID in the beginning of their education program, the teacher strikes in the middle of their education program, and now this as another option, just being able to create stability, this does not make us feel great as families of the Portland community.”

The district has not announced any closure decisions, and the city memo makes clear that PPS alone decides if closures will happen, how the sites will be used, and whether any schools will eventually be sold. In a statement to KATU, a PPS spokesperson emphasized that facility decisions rest with the independently elected Board of Education.

“Decisions about PPS facilities and properties rest with the district’s independently elected Board of Education. No final decisions have been made about school closures, and any future consideration of how district properties might be used would follow the appropriate Board processes. Right now, our focus is on making the difficult decisions necessary to address our financial challenges while protecting educational opportunities for students.”

Policy Guardrails on Any Sale

Even if closures proceed, selling the land is not the default option under district policy and state law. Property sales are treated as a last resort, permitted only if the district does not need the land in the long term, and they require public hearings with a focus on public benefit, racial equity, and ensuring the land can be reclaimed by PPS if it stops being used for those purposes. The city memo echoes that caution, noting that long-term demographic trends may shift, birthrates could go up, or families could migrate back to the city, making it prudent to retain ownership or at least the school structures as a hedge against future needs. Interim uses that keep the buildings standing fulfill this desire and can be lower cost.

For now, the buildings remain schools. But the city’s analysis makes clear that if the district moves forward with closures, Portland is already sketching what could replace them—and how tall those replacements might stand.