@Laura Young I agree with your thought process. Assemblage is a great strategy. It's just very important that the R7 assembly happens within close distance to R2, in order to get the zoning change. That's what planners will do......look at the nearby vicinity to see if the zoning you're wanting to change to is already in existence. In fact, there is a distance requirement as part of the "criteria" they review when making a judicial decision. Also, cost for a plan ammendment is around 20K at the city level....a planner would be helpful as well, which is another 5-10K depending on the project.
Take a look at this portlandmaps link. The blue dotted lines are "underlying lots of record" and the title 30 zoning code has a special section dealing with "lots of record", "adjusted lots" and "lot remnants".
https://www.portlandmaps.com/detail/assessor/5734-NE-27TH-AVE/R190185_did/
In regard to the cluster housing....are you referring to Eli Spevak's projects? I thought he was working in an R1 or R2 zone, with larges lots and went the Planned Development route for approval (density increase without a land division).
