Early Assistance Zoning and Infrastructure Review
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Source: Early Assistance Zoning and Infrastructure Review ↗ Last modified: Sun, 19 Apr 2026 20:02:46 GMT
Early Assistance appointments are informational-only meetings between city staff and you, the applicant. Members of the public are not participants in these meetings. However, summary notes of meetings can be obtained through a public information request ↗.
Early assistance requests help you prepare a complete project proposal, usually a land use review application. Significant issues and relevant city requirements and procedures will be identified early in the process.
Specialized information can be provided for a wide range of projects:
- Residential infill options (including cottage cluster) and middle housing land divisions
- Land Division - For land division or planned development proposals
- Environmental or Greenway - For proposals (including land divisions) located within environmental or greenway overlay zones
- Design - For proposals in design overlay zones
- Historic Resources - For proposals in historic or conservation districts or landmark buildings
- Other Land Use Review - For proposals involving reviews such as Adjustment, Conditional Use, Master Plan, Nonconforming Situation Review and Zone Change
Choose the type of early assistance request that meets project needs. For help with early assistance, please contact Planning and Zoning through our General Inquiries contact.
Early zoning assistance only
A City planner from the Land Use Services area of Portland Permitting & Development will review the proposal. You can choose to either have an online meeting with the City planner and follow-up written information or written information only.
This option can also be used for a meeting with a planner to discuss residential infill options, including cottage clusters on single-dwelling and RM1 multi-dwelling lots, and middle housing land divisions. When selecting this option, you do not need to provide a site plan of the proposed development. At the meeting, the planner will walk through all the possible middle housing infill options allowed at the site and answer any specific questions you have about middle housing regulations.
Early zoning assistance and other areas of the City
A city planner and city employees from infrastructure areas like Transportation, Environmental Services and Water, or other city staff as needed will review the proposal. You can choose to either have an online meeting with the city staff and follow-up written information or written information only.
Please note that city employees will prepare a response based on the information submitted at the time of application. We can answer a limited number of additional questions raised before or at the meeting time in regard to the specific proposal.
If your proposal changes in scope or configuration after you receive the summary report, or you have additional questions regarding the original proposal, an additional early assistance review must be requested in order to get responses.
Early assistance is recommended in these situations
Early assistance requests are not required. However, early assistance is recommended in situations where you have lots of questions or have a complicated site or issue.
A pre-application conference ↗ is required prior to the submittal of all Type III and Type IV land use review applications. An early assistance meeting does not satisfy the requirement for a pre-application conference.
Submit an early assistance application by email
Submit your early assistance request by email to landuseintake@portlandoregon.gov.