UPDATE: On February 17, the Portland City Council passed a deconstruction resolution. As of October 31, 2016 any home that was built before 1916 and is coming down must be deconstructed rather than demolished with a backhoe and discarded [some exceptions apply]. READ: First of its kind: Deconstruction resolution approved.
The Portland City Council is pushing to create a viable deconstruction alternative to demolition in the hope that deconstructions will one day out number demolitions. According to Mayor Charlie Hales, the city’s role is to maintain neighborhood character and affordability, but when a demolition is necessary it’s important to our community and our environment to harvest salvageable materials for reuse in new building projects.
Last fall the city began to offer grants to foster the education, training and awareness of deconstruction methods and practices. Just how effective those incentives were is up for discussion this month. Metro’s Deconstruction Advisory Group is working to bring an update to City Council during their meeting January 27, 2016.
The first phase of incentive money ended in December, but more incentive money will be available for 2016. To learn more about the current incentive program to promote deconstruction, check out exploredecon.com. You can also talk to Stan Seals, our salvage service manager. He can help you with questions about deconstruction and what our salvage service has to offer.
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