If your neighborhood has been thinking about adding some color with a new street painting or updating an existing design, you can be ready to get started on it once the weather is better by submitting your application now. The application should take less than 10 minutes and it’s free to apply. Any resident, business or nonprofit may apply to install one.
Since street paintings become a part of the neighborhood in both its identity and aesthetic, the design should help build a stronger community. By talking to and collaborating with neighbors on the design and painting, you can create a sense of shared ownership and stewardship. Restrictions on designs include a prohibition on speech, copyrighted material, mimicking of traffic control devices and games or sports courts (such as basketball or pickleball). Buffers must be maintained around traffic control devices and paintings on side streets adjacent to large streets may not encroach on any legal crossing of the roadway, marked or unmarked.
When applying for a permit, you will need to submit a drawing of the design overlaid on the street where it is to be painted and the actual colors to be used. A map of the location, showing the entire roadway that you plan to paint can be submitted as a simple drawing or as a map as long as it includes the design, street names, a north arrow and the dimensions of the painting. Dimensions needed include length and width, distance from curbs and how far the design extends beyond an intersection. For midblock paintings, include address labels for all properties that are directly next to the proposed painting and how far from the nearby intersections the design will be.
Two permits are needed to complete a painting. For the painting itself, you’ll get an “encroachment permit” which is the type of permit issued for installations in the public right-of-way that will remain in place. In addition, you’ll need a Healthy Blocks permit to close the street to motor vehicles for the painting event.
Additional information and details about applying for a street painting permit can be found at portland.gov/transportation/permitting/portland-streets/street-painting. The Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) offers lessons learned information from previous projects, design guidance, engineering review and design approval.
Once an application has been approved, people should notify their neighbors of when the street painting will take place and invite them to participate. Installations must match the design that was approved.
