[MarkDaMan]

MitchE has created an extremely impressive photo thread of Portland's (mostly new) burban developments, and an interesting discussion has followed. I know Dougall mentioned this in another thread, but if you haven't checked it out, it is comforting to see that Metro's policies are leading to quality and dense suburban development. MitchE in one of his posts makes an interesting case that in 15 years or so, if these policies stay in place, many burban neighbohoods will be more dense than many inner Portland neighborhoods.

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=125601

[MarkDaMan]

As city eyes future, 'It's all about connections'
Planning - Proposals for biking and walking mesh with those for parks, mass transit
Thursday, February 15, 2007
ERIC MORTENSON
The Oregonian

Talk about being transported by a vision.

A Wilsonville city plan describes a bike and pedestrian bridge over the Willamette River that would take off from the original Boones Ferry landing and connect to the Charbonneau neighborhood south of the river. It also talks about a "water trail," a designated stretch of river for canoes and kayaks, with restrooms and camping spots.

The bicycle and pedestrian master plan, which the Wilsonville City Council adopted in December, connects all the dots. It speaks of adding bike lanes and extending sidewalks where there are gaps. Hooking into regional trail systems. Extending connections with city parks, the South Metro Area Rapid Transit bus system and the city's future commuter rail station.

The idea, says Chris Neamtzu, Wilsonville's long-range planning manager, is to make it possible to walk or bike "from wherever you are to wherever you want to go."

"It's all about connections," Neamtzu said.

Which is why the bike and pedestrian master plan is not intended as a stand-alone document. Up next for City Council adoption are master plans for parks and mass transit. City officials, emphasizing the connectivity they're seeking, describe the documents as "Three plans -- one vision."

The parks master plan will be discussed at a city work session March 19, followed by public hearings April 2 and 16. Dates have not been set for review of the transit plan.

Neamtzu ("NAM-soo") said the master plans reflect the city's aspirations for the next 20 years. "It's a list of things we'd like to do in a perfect world," he said.

Which is to say the projects listed in the bike and pedestrian plan don't come with funding attached. Nonetheless, here are some key recommendations:

Creating a Willamette River bike and pedestrian crossing. Estimated to cost $7 million to $12 million, the bridge would carry the added benefit of providing an alternative river crossing for emergency vehicles. If the Interstate 5 Boone Bridge were blocked or damaged, cops and firefighters would be unable to reach Charbonneau.

Improving bike and pedestrian crossings over I-5. The freeway bisects the city north to south and impedes east-west city traffic. Adding or improving bike lanes on the roads that cross the freeway could encourage more people to leave their cars home.

Appointing a city coordinator of nonmotorized transportation to facilitate walking, biking and transit use. Also, establishing safe biking and walking routes to schools.

Hooking into regional trails. The Tonquin Trail, connecting westside Wilsonville residents with Tualatin and Sherwood, will pass through the Coffee Creek wetlands, Graham Oaks natural area and the Villebois housing development. Wilsonville's share of the trail would cost $1.2 million to $2.9 million.

The Boeckman Creek Trail, on the east side of I-5, will connect parks, schools, shops and major employers. The estimated cost is $1.5 million to $2.5 million.

Neamtzu said the bike and pedestrian bridge is particularly appealing. It could link to the Willamette Valley scenic bikeway that stretches from Eugene to Champoeg State Park and also could serve as a gateway to the south Portland area for bicycle tourists. "What a landmark," he said.

Funding might include economic development grants, because of the tourism tie, and homeland security funds, because the bridge could handle emergency vehicles, Neamtzu said.

"We think we can do it -- we're optimistic," he said.
http://www.oregonlive.com/swweeklylww/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/metro_southwest_news/117106170417950.xml&coll=7

[pdxstreetcar]

Wilsonville is really embracing dense development. I explored the area about a year ago and was pleasantly surprised especially considering it is exurban and very car oriented.

Then there's the huge Villebois (http://www.villebois.net/) under construction, its being built in phases.

http://www.villebois.net/image_file/site_map.gif

I believe the Village Center is now under construction...
Village Center
Villebois’ Village Center will be a bustling village center with townhomes, loft-style condominiums, urban apartments, shops and restaurants. At the heart of the village center there will be an inviting plaza lined with shops, sidewalk cafes and balconies from the homes above. Architecture in the village center complements the design of Villebois’ homes. Following are the conceptual designs of the first rowhomes planned for the Village Center: Les Bois Rowhomes and The Seville Rows.

[Snowden352]

Out of curiosity, does anyone know how well this project is doing? If it's doing well, is there any reaon to not expect additional villebois-es elsewhere? (What does Villebois mean, anyway? Village of... bois?)

[Urbanpdx]

I don't know how well they are doing but about this time last year I heard that at least half of the sales were from "investors" hoping to flip for a profit. It would be interesting to know how things are going now. Most of the investors were from Marshall Reddick seminars in California.

http://www.marshallreddickseminars.com

a critique of what they are really about is here

http://www.johntreed.com/Reedgururating.html#anchor535653

[MarkDaMan]

(What does Villebois mean, anyway? Village of... bois?)

:haha:

You probably wont see many large scale projects like this. Possibly something similiar in Damascus, but the UGB limits large tracks of land available for these type of mega-developments. Villebois is being built where the an old mental hospital used to be (the one in the movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest). Since the hospital closed decades ago, the land has sat mostly vacant.

[Lville]

Villebois, French for “village near the woods,” is a 500-acre master planned community near
Wilsonville, Ore. featuring elements reminiscent of European villages and small U.S. towns built
before World War II and the proliferation of suburban sprawl. The planning for this 2,500 home
community is based on the tenants of connectivity, diversity and sustainability.

[zilfondel]

However, at 500 acres, it's not very dense: 5 units/acre. Even considering that half the site is open space, it's still only about 10 units/acre. I had higher hopes for it. =(

[pdxman]

It still seems like a pretty cool development...better than most and sorta europeanesque, just without the density that europe has. If anyone wants to see bad, low density developments head 50 miles south to salem and you'll see great examples....

[65MAX]

^^^^
Regarding the Villebois map.... notice there are only 2 cul-de-sacs in the whole development, compared to the existing development directly to the south. :tup:

[Snowden352]

(Just a belated thanks to the people who answered my questions)

[MarkDaMan]

The Cove work to start next year
Housing - Oregon City has high hopes for the complex development project
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
STEVE MAYES
The Oregonian

OREGON CITY -- Developers of a high-end residential project that will bring new life to an old industrial area expect to start work next year.

The 103-acre site includes Clackamette Cove, a city-owned lagoon that serves as the development's centerpiece. An office building, two restaurants, 86 townhouses, and 180 condominiums will be built along the shore.

The Cove "will be a spectacular place to live," said Ed Darrow of Pacific Property Search, the project's developer. "It will be an enclave unto itself."

City officials see The Cove as a showcase, a project that could revamp Oregon City's mill-town reputation and persuade other developers to take a look at the historic riverfront community.

The site, just north of downtown Oregon City, borders the Clackamas River close to where it merges with the Willamette River. The project includes a private marina and a public boat dock. About 85 percent of the area, including the lagoon, will be open space or parks.

Darrow and his partner, Randy Tyler, are finalizing their financial plan and will meet with city planners next week to discuss land-use issues.

"This isn't a standard project," Darrow said. "There are extraordinary costs."

For example, the land is in a flood plain. About 250,000 cubic yards of dirt will be moved around the site to fill in low areas. The lay of the land will affect the design of roads, building foundations and parking areas, Darrow said.

The lagoon also is bordered by a shopping center and a wastewater treatment plant. Darrow said landscaping, building design and improvements at the wastewater plant will offset concerns about the unsightly or unpleasant neighbors.

Darrow and Tyler are no strangers to complex real estate ventures. They developed similar projects on Portland-area industrial sites: Oswego Pointe in Lake Oswego and Tidewater Cove in Vancouver.

Oregon City owns about 75 percent of the property -- once occupied by an asphalt plant and a gravel-mining operation -- needed for the project.

The city will sell its property to Darrow and Tyler. It's possible that the price will be less than the $2 million the city paid in 1998 when it bought most of the land, said City Manager Larry Patterson.

Property taxes generated by The Cove eventually will outweigh any public subsidies, Patterson said.

Mayor Alice Norris said The Cove will help change the way outsiders view the town.

"It's a symbol of the opportunities that are coming to Oregon City," Norris said. "It's our time."

Steve Mayes: 503-294-5916; stevemayes@news.oregonian.com
http://www.oregonlive.com/metrosouth/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/metro_south_news/1176861345134020.xml&coll=7

[MarkDaMan]

Oregon City struggles with growth, identity
Daily Journal of Commerce
by Kennedy Smith
05/23/2007


It’s a half-an-hour drive south through Milwaukie, Clackamas and Gladstone to reach Oregon City, by most accounts a small town. Its quaint downtown has a lazy-Sunday feel, with the occasional passer-by waving to his neighbor.

But the 163-year-old city with a population of just under 27,000 is attempting to update its sense of place with two major projects, a retail-oriented lifestyle center and a mixed-use waterfront project complete with condos, town homes, restaurants and office space.

The lifestyle center, in the hands of Bridgeport Village-maker CenterCal Properties, is on the “fast track” to being developed at the site of the former Rossman Landfill, Larry Patterson, city manager, said.

Called The Rivers at Oregon City, the lifestyle center will sit right off of Interstate 205 and include large-format retailers as well as office space and some residential units.

The second major project is a high-end residential, commercial, retail and open-spaces development on 103 acres along the confluence of the Willamette and Clackamas rivers.

Pacific Property Search, the power behind Lake Oswego’s Oswego Pointe mixed-use development, has submitted pre-application documents and plans to go ahead with a waterfront development that would comprise 180 condominiums in six four-story buildings, 86 town homes, a public amphitheater, an 18-foot-wide esplanade for public use, 58,000 square feet of office space and two restaurants.

Called The Cove, the development is expected to cost between $120 million and $130 million, Ed Darrow, principal of Pacific Property Search, said. And although the development would include some of the same elements as Oswego Pointe, the developer went through more than a year of planning and 15 public meetings to ensure the development would be built with an Oregon City stamp.

“This is a new representation of where the city is headed,” he said. “Our initial position with the city was, let’s do a first concept and then meet with entities that have a stake in this. When you do projects of this size, if you don’t understand that you need to work through those bodies and incorporate their thoughts into the design, you shouldn’t be in the business.”

So far, residents have taken kindly to the proposed developments, Patterson said.

Patterson said Oregon City’s ultimate goal is to create more than $500 million worth of assessed value within the city.

“If that happens, we’d see more development that would stretch into the downtown core,” he said.

Inviting new development while keeping a sense of place is a challenge that many smaller communities surrounding Portland face, David Bragdon, president of regional government Metro, said.

“Oregon City has assets in its historic architecture,” he said. “It will help if they can preserve that as the place grows.”

But the city is taking a risk by pushing for a lifestyle retail center, he said, which “do end up looking generic after a while.”

The most important step to take, Patterson said, once the new developments take place, is to build a community – through public amenities and citywide events – around them.

Oregon City is in the process of amending its urban renewal plan, acquiring properties in and around the downtown core, as it prepares for growth, Patterson said. The city has been buying up lots peppered throughout the city that it could use as parking in the future. Oregon City’s population grows about 6.25 percent per year, he said.

The city’s current urban renewal plan has a maximum debt of $29 million, but already $17 million has been used, Patterson said. The amendments would allow Oregon City to extend its debt limits.

http://www.djc-or.com/viewStory.cfm?recid=29462&userID=1

[MarkDaMan]

LO’s Old Town faces age-old question: To build or not to build
Condo project has stirred the ire of area neighbors
By Lee van der Voo
The Lake Oswego Review, May 8, 2008


Here’s the existing hillside below Furnance Street where a seven-story condominum unit is proposed.

A development idea proposed in Old Town could plant seven stories of condominiums on the hillside between Furnace Street and the Willamette River, but residents there say they plan to stop it.

On the table is a proposal made by developer John Tercek, who wants to demolish a single-family house at 397 Furnace St. to build the Riverview condominiums.

Tercek has not made a formal application to the city to build the project yet. But plans for the Riverview condominiums were introduced in pre-application meetings with both the city and the neighborhood in April.

As proposed, the condo’s façade would stand two stories tall and front Furnace Street. But the backside of the development would span another five stories, sloping down the hillside in tiers of windows, capturing views of the Willamette River.

The 10 condominiums inside would range from 2,500 to 3,800 square feet and a ground-floor garage would offer 17 parking spaces inside the building. Each unit is projected to sell at approximately $1.5 million, Tercek said.

Old Town residents are balking at the idea.

They say the proposal compromises the neighborhood’s historic character and doesn’t adhere to a city plan designed to protect it.

The Old Town Design District, adopted as part of the city’s comprehensive plan, calls for preservation of the area’s village-like character. It also requires protection and privacy for single family homes and compatibility between new and old developments.

In letters sent to the Lake Oswego Planning Department last month, more than a dozen Old Town residents pointed to the design district plan and urged the city to scale down the Riverview proposal.

They have formed a committee called the 397 Group, named for the project address, to formally oppose the plan.

“We have not, as a group, said what our bottom line is yet. We’re not that far. But what we see here is unacceptable,” said Jeannie McGuire, a former president of the Old Town Neighborhood Association and a member of the 397 Group.

“For now we just want the city to be aware that this is a slippery slope. If this goes through, this could happen to all the properties (on Furnace Street) as they change hands,” McGuire said.

Tercek said he and partners were meeting Wednesday to discuss how to address neighborhood opposition.

“We’re working very hard to make it work,” he said. “I want to make the neighbors happy but I also know people are opposed to change. All I can do is combine all the variables I’m up against” such as height and parking requirements, Tercek said.

Zoning along Furnace Street and other parts of Old Town currently allows for multi-family dwellings like the one proposed.

But for many, the Riverview proposal is a test case for where the city will draw the line on neighborhood density as infill boosts Old Town’s population.

Related issues like tree preservation, wildlife habitat, parking and traffic are also being watched.

“It’s disturbing to us because there are other properties along the riverfront there that could become available and all of a sudden Furnace Street is going to depart from the character that was given to it … and it’s going to become a thoroughfare,” said Dick Reamer, chair of the 397 Group and vice chair of the Old Town Neighborhood Association.

Tercek agrees city officials must make the call on how much density Old Town can add. He said zoning currently allows high density despite strong opposition from the neighborhood.

“The city has to decide where that lies,” he said.

Records show that a second developer once backed down from a high density proposal on the same site because of neighborhood opposition.

Pacific Property Search, LLC, registered to Edward Darrow, proposed a 10-unit condo complex at 397 Furnace St. after buying the single-family home there for $1.2 million in 2006.

Pacific pitched the 10-unit condo idea for more than a year without success. In the interim, the company sold the property to the city of Lake Oswego so officials could take a chunk for a riverfront pathway. Pacific retained a development option for more than a year, then bought the land back.

Instead of moving forward with development plans, the company sold the land to Tercek’s Riverview Holdings, taking a $400,000 profit. Tercek said Pacific Property never disclosed that neighborhood pressures caused the company not to build.

City officials now have the latitude to determine how densely the lot will develop. In city documents, planners note the height of the Riverview condominiums, as proposed, is almost 20 feet above the 50-foot height limit for the building.

They also note the land is part of a conservation zone that protects natural lands along the Willamette River and that the property has significant landslide potential and is partially located in a flood plain.

[urbanlife]

I am surprised this hasnt been posted yet.

Clackamas County to experiment with zoning around light-rail station
By Dana Tims, The Oregonian
December 13, 2009, 7:57PM

Camellia Dalai can see the future as she boards a Portland State University-bound MAX train at the foot of her Mount Scott neighborhood in unincorporated Clackamas County. "This whole area is really going to increase in population," said Dalai, an 18-year-old PSU biology major, standing at TriMet's newly opened Fuller Road Station between Interstate 205 and Southeast 82nd Avenue.

"Before light rail, not having a car made living out here very difficult," she added. "But considering how much less it costs to live here and how fast light rail is, there's no way this won't be a small city of its own pretty soon."

Clackamas County planners, coincidentally, think Dalai's predictions are spot on. And they think they have the ideal tool to make the most of the potential that light rail brings to the area. It's called form-based code, and the area around Fuller Road Station is on the verge of becoming the county's first test of the concept.

If successful, county officials say, the new type of zoning will help spawn the range of urban features -- taller buildings, denser populations, mixed uses -- that light rail is intended to foster.

"The market is changing to embrace places where people live, work and play all on the same site," Lynn Peterson, the county's chairwoman, said. "That's exactly what form-based code encourages."

Since the end of World War II, America's suburban landscape has been shaped by use-based code, which embodies the notion that certain areas should be used in certain, segmented ways. Separating stores from employment centers, from housing, the thinking went, resulted in optimal community design.

That model, still embraced by many, worked to create quieter, safer, friendlier communities of single-family homes.

But that same separation now means that some areas, including acreage around TriMet's Fuller Road Station, will have difficulty taking advantage of the social and financial benefits mass transit offers.

The station platform itself, for instance, is cut off from busy Southeast 82nd Avenue by a row of big-box stores. Local streets that used to connect the area -- and which now could be used to get riders to and from the station -- were long ago vacated for the sprawling Johnson Creek Crossing shopping mall.

And acres and acres of prime real estate immediately adjacent to the region's newest light rail line are used exclusively for surface parking. Area merchants say that some of the outlying parking spots are filled only once or twice a year.

Form-based code, a notion now picking up steam elsewhere in the country, could foster a denser, more vibrant mix of uses in the area, planners say.

It starts with uniform building design standards, on the thought that physical form most characterizes a neighborhood. And since form-based code was specifically crafted to aid suburban-to-urban transition, it envisions multistory buildings with minimal setbacks, all to create a pedestrian-scale streetscape.

Most importantly, it takes a freewheeling approach to how any particular building could be used. That means a single structure could easily contain residential, commercial and retail elements, allowing residents living on an upper floor in one building to walk across the street to a job site and back again for a workout at a downstairs gym.

"It's a return to the way we used to develop our towns and main streets," said Marcy McInelly, associate principal with Sera Architects and a form-based codes veteran. "It takes a much more holistic approach to urban development."

Not everyone is enthused.

Tom Eppler has lived on Southeast Fuller Road since 1971. He remembers when 82nd went dead at 7:30 p.m., and large farms occupied the roadway's eastern side. But as promising as the county's new plans for the area may sound, he doesn't think they are realistic.

"A community develops a feel not based on what planners have in mind for it but on what the people in that area want," Eppler said. "For them to think they can create a community is a concept that can't be done."

The Green Line is so new that future development patterns are difficult to predict, said Jillian Detweiler, a TriMet senior planner. And there are complications.

Interstate 205 severs access to the east, and some houses and a mobile-home park north of nearby Johnson Creek Boulevard, for instance, are still on septic tanks.

But with studies showing that new development is denser within station areas than outside them, Detweiler expects the same thing to happen along Fuller Road.

"There are great opportunities for affordable housing there, and it could also be good for different kinds of employment than retail," Detweiler said. "Form-based code allows either of those scenarios to play out rather than just guessing at what's going to occur."

If the Fuller Road experiment is successful, Camellia Dalai said she could well be one of the first residents.

"I would definitely consider that," she said. "I'd like to see things either developed as cities or left rural, the way it used to be. Having houses sprawled out all over doesn't make a lot of sense."

-- Dana Tims

[Okstate]

It has

[urbanlife]

It has

where??

[65MAX]

Here...

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=83367&page=89

But this is a better forum to discuss suburban happenings.

[urbanlife]

That makes sense, I hate it when the Oregonian does the same article more than once on their website and it has different dates on it. They should have the original date that the original article was posted.

Anyway, this is probably something that does deserve its own thread in the future when potential projects begin to happen.

The PSU architecture department should jump on this for a studio project...it would be interesting to see what students could come up with and could be a good way to get the ball rolling with ideas during a down economy.

[Okstate]

Besides the land adjacent to the stations...are they referring to redeveloping the massive parking lots which they deem as being underused to denser projects? That would be interesting if so.

[pdxtraveler]

I know I may have just overlooked this, but, does anyone know what the large scale construction project is right off I-205 just before the 99-E exit at Oregon City? It is right about where the Clackamas and the Willamette meet.

[Okstate]

I asked that question literally months ago & got no response.

[bvpcvm]

seems like i read somewhere (this is very vague) that there was going to be some sort of retirement community/shopping center, which then got scaled back to just residential. does that sound right?

[CouvScott]

I asked someone who lives down in this area, and they said it was a waste treatment plant, but it really doesn't make sense to me to build this with a 100' tower crane. If you zoom in on this area from Googleearth, you do see an existing water treatment plant (if I'm looking at the correct spot).

[Eco_jt]

http://www.kgw.com/news/business/Wilsonville-to-get-new-Fred-Meyer-99436674.html

Their is a pretty cool video in the link as well. Pretty exciting project for Wilsonville.

$60M project breaks ground in Wilsonville

Posted on July 28, 2010 at 7:06 AM

WILSONVILLE, Ore. – Fred Meyer broke ground Tuesday on a new store that’s part of a mixed-use $60 million project in Wilsonville.

The project has been in the works for 20 years and will include a mix of retail, residential and office space when it officially opens next year.

It will also create hundreds of new jobs.

One of the future tenants is McMenamin’s, which will open up a new restaurant nest to a restored church.

[Shilo Rune 96]

Frey Meyer is bomb nowadays! :yes: :yes: :yes: :yes:

[MarkDaMan]

Developers circle Blue Heron site
Premium content from Portland Business Journal - by Wendy Culverwell
Date: Friday, March 11, 2011, 3:00am PST

The shutdown of Oregon City’s 103-year-old Blue Heron paper mill puts 60 acres of property on the Willamette River in contention for redevelopment.

The mill, which closed last month, occupies 24 acres adjacent Willamette River Falls at the edge of downtown Oregon City. Blue Heron also owns a 36-acre “lagoon” property two miles upriver and an office and parking lot complex.

It will be years before Blue Heron’s two properties, including the mill and the lagoon site, are cleaned up and ready for redevelopment. The mill is contaminated by lead and asbestos.

Real estate brokers are undaunted.

“It takes very little imagination to think that couldn’t be a killer site for something better,” said Paul Breuer, a broker specializing in industrial reuse in the Portland office of Colliers International, a commercial real estate firm.

Breuer is one of many watching the company’s bankruptcy unfold with an eye toward future redevelopment.

Breuer declined to reveal his ideas for the plant, saying he didn’t want to tip off competitors. He expects there will be plenty.

“I can’t imagine with an asset of that magnitude that every brokerage house in town isn’t looking at it,” he said.

At full production, the Oregon City mill complex, at 419 Main St., produced up to 210,000 tons of newsprint and other recycled paper per year. Its customers included large and small newspapers on the West Coast.

In Oregon City, businesses see an opportunity to reclaim Willamette Falls, said Lloyd Purdy, executive director of Non-Profit Main Street Oregon City, a downtown business association. The mill occupies five full city blocks between First and Fifth streets.

“Everyone is anxious to see that develop,” he said.

The Oregon City mill property is zoned for general industrial use but in theory could be rezoned. Whatever happens with the property, the city wants it reserved for public access to the falls and river.

Dan Drentlaw, Oregon City’s director of community development, said the city is awaiting the outcome of the bankruptcy process. At a minimum, he said the site needs an environmental assessment to determine what if anything can safely operate in the future.
bankruptcy filed in 2009

The employee-owned company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December 2009. The mill’s leading creditor, Wells Fargo Bank N.A., petitioned U.S. Bankruptcy Court last month to liquidate the firm. Blue Heron shut down a few days later. About 175 workers lost their jobs.

In court documents, Wells Fargo says Blue Heron lost an additional $5 million after filing for bankruptcy while racking up approximately $7.8 million in court costs. Blue Heron missed a Feb. 15, 2011 deadline to pay its $107,049.08 property tax bill.

Wells Fargo’s liquidation request is on hold pending a March 22 hearing in Portland.

In the interim, Judge Randall Dunn ordered Blue Heron and Wells Fargo to negotiate over disposition of the assets. Those talks are ongoing, said Robert Vanden Bos, special counsel to Blue Heron on the case.

Wells Fargo declined to specify if it expects to take possession of the real estate that secures much of its $14.6 million debt, or if it would see it sold through the bankruptcy process.

“It’s too early to tell how the courts will settle this case. But we expect and hope to recoup 100 percent of our loan prior to any liquidation of the real estate,” said bank spokesman Tom Unger.

If the case proceeds into liquidation, Blue Heron’s assets, including its real estate, will be turned over to a federal receiver and sold.

A liquidation analysis valued Blue Heron assets at $26.3 million, with about $7 million associated with its mill property, office, parking lot and the upriver lagoon site, where it treats wastewater.

The analysis identified $20.5 million in secured debt. It did not identify assets that could be used to satisfy the unsecured creditors. The plan anticipates that John Davidson, a corporate turnaround expert and managing partner of the Inverness Group LLC, would oversee the liquidation. He declined to comment Wednesday.

Mark Childs, an industrial broker with Capacity Commercial Group, said rising energy costs, the difficulty of accessing the site and the residential development on neighboring hillsides make it a tough sell to manufacturers or paper makers.

In one promising sign, Blue Heron successfully shut down and sold another mill at the dawn of the current economic malaise. It closed its newsprint mill in Pomona, Calif., in October 2006 after a price war ravaged its earnings.

It sold the property in November 2007 to a development firm for $18.95 million. Seventh Street Development LLC said it would construct a 408,000-square-foot industrial complex at the site. The deal closed after Blue Heron abated environmental issues.

Fast facts

Oregon City has almost 32,000 residents. It is about 14 miles southeast of downtown Portland.

wculverwell@bizjournals.com | 503-219-3415

http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/print-edition/2011/03/11/developers-circle-blue-heron-site.html?comments=1#readercomments

[MarkDaMan]

Blue Heron mill out, development moves in
POSTED: Friday, March 25, 2011 at 03:13 PM PT
BY: Nick Bjork
Daily Journal of Commerce

When officials at the Blue Heron mill announced late last month that it would cease operating immediately, Oregon City lost a tax-generating business and 175 employees lost family-wage jobs.

But when one door closes, another can open.

Local developer Fred Bruning knew Blue Heron Paper Co. had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and that the mill’s future was uncertain. He has since offered $20 million for two parcels - a total of 63 acres - owned by the company. Bruning’s development plan would be to transform the swath of land along the Willamette River into the area’s next big destination, with retail, office and urban living spaces.

“I had an idea of what was going to happen so I approached management at the mill recently and gave them an initial offer. I wanted them to know I was interested,” said Bruning, whose development company, CenterCal Properties, has been responsible for such metro-area projects as Bridgeport Village in Tigard, Cascade Station in East Portland and Gresham Station.

Each of the Blue Heron parcels is in a different city: a 23-acre site sits next to Willamette Falls in Oregon City, and a 40-acre site is on the west side of the Willamette River in West Linn. Both sites were used for paper production for more than 100 years, so environmental issues could arise.

Last week, in the initial bankruptcy hearing, U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Randall L. Dunn noted that $20 million would cover the $14 million that Blue Heron owes its creditors - and then some. Wells Fargo is the company’s largest creditor.

But Bruning acknowledged that there are many issues that could change the price and the timing of the purchase. One is the possible existence of pollutants requiring environmental cleanup, which often multiplies the cost of development. The mill itself has lead and asbestos, but a formal site assessment hasn’t been conducted. The Environmental Protection Agency already ruled out the possibility of the property becoming a federal superfund site.

Bruning said that if the company and creditors were willing to sign some sort of a letter of intent to purchase, he would be willing to conduct the phase two environmental assessment. The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality will conduct its own analysis of the site in the coming months.

“We don’t really know what’s there, but we also know that this is a unique opportunity,” Bruning said. “We want to sit down with the bank and the company … and work out a fair process to move forward.”

Bruning’s plan calls for turning the West Linn parcel into a residential area surrounded by mixed-use commercial space. He is even more excited about his vision for the Oregon City site.

“I envision it looking something like the Old Mill District in Bend, except less of a focus of retail,” he said.

A hotel and entertainment complex would be surrounded by retail and office buildings. Bruning also expressed desire to create public access to the waterfall’s base, which has not existed for more than a century.

Another one of Bruning’s projects in Oregon City, a 650,000-square-foot mall called the Rivers being built on a former landfill site, drew heated public opposition because urban renewal money was used. However, this possible new project likely wouldn’t cause a similar stir because only a sliver of the property is included in the current URA boundaries, and including it in the URA project list would require a major amendment and trigger a city vote, said David Frasher, the city manager for Oregon City. That is unlikely, he added.

“I had an upbeat conversation with Fred (Bruning) about this the other day and we both had similar ideas about how to maximize the potential for this project,” Frasher said. “Considering a zoning change will be necessary, and a master plan will be required, the city will work closely with whoever the property owner is.”

Bruning added that he is planning to go forward with both projects and that he intends to engage the public early in the development process.

Frasher said that city officials support the plan, and hope it can help accomplish several city goals. He is hopeful for job creation as well as elimination of some of the pollutants in the air and the water.

“For over 100 years we’ve accepted certain levels of pollutants in exchange for the economic benefits of the mill,” he said. “We are going to be interested in seeing a reduction if this goes forward.”

http://djcoregon.com/news/2011/03/25/blue-heron-mill-out-development-moves-in/

[davehogan]

Anyone know if the planned development is just another bunch of tiny two floor houses like every other suburb seems to build, or would there be a chance of this being a bit more of a "real" downtown area? Anyone know what FAR/height limits Oregon City has for their downtown?

[MarkDaMan]

Damascus voters make big decision in how to craft city’s comprehensive plan
POSTED: Monday, March 12, 2012 at 03:33 PM PT
Daily Journal of Commerce BY: Lee Fehrenbacher

City governance can be a thankless job – especially when land-use laws are involved.

“We’re not evil people like all the articles say,” said Diana Helm, president of Damascus City Council and owner of Terra Casa Home Decor on Oregon Route 212. “We’re just citizen volunteers. We’re giving our time to the city to try to put together a comprehensive plan to make the bulk of the people happy … and at this point it’s just impossible. It’s impossible. I’ve never in my life felt hopeless, and I feel hopeless about Damascus and where we’re headed.”

Damascus, incorporated as a city in 2006, is required by state law to adopt a comprehensive plan. But six years later, the city is still at square one, and Damascus voters rejected a proposed comprehensive plan its counselors adopted in November 2010, by a two-to-one margin.

On Tuesday, residents will vote on Measure 3-389, which would require any new city ordinance or plan adopted by the council to be accompanied by a financial impact report and be subject to a public vote before the council could submit it to Metro or the state.

Helm believes the measure – generally expected to pass – is vague to a fault and could clog the system with futile processes.

“I think (some people) think if they vote it down then we don’t have to have a comprehensive plan,” she said. “But that’s not true. We’re required by the state to have one, and if we don’t do it, then one very well could be put on us by the state and it might not be the one we’ve been working on.”

But Dan Phegley, chief petitioner for the measure and leader of a group called Ask Damascus, sees it differently. Phegley said he thinks the planning process has been exclusive and covert, giving rise to his battle cry, “They didn’t ask us in Damascus.”

“What we’re really up against is Metro and their forced land-use planning,” Phegley said. “Metro is a regional government that has been sending out disciples all over the world, but they’ve never gotten anyone to copy it and so they’re a big believer in spending money, and light rail is their religion.”

Some background

The city of Damascus recently conducted a phone survey to find out why people voted against the proposed comprehensive plan. Helm said the results weren’t too surprising.

Some people, she said, were concerned about conservation, and others worried about preservation of property rights. But many people just didn’t want growth.

“Most of the people moved here to get out of the city, to live in a rural community and not grow up,” Helm said. “Being in the urban growth boundary has been a big pill for people to swallow.”

That pill came in December 2002, when Metro expanded its UGB to include Damascus.

Robin McArthur, Metro’s planning and development director, said that expansion was the result of an urban growth report that Metro conducts every five years to identify the need for housing and jobs on a 20-year horizon.

In 2000, the population in the seven-county statistical area was 1.9 million people with approximately 973,000 jobs, according to Metro’s 2009-2030 Urban Growth Report. Metro estimates there is a 90 percent chance that by 2030 the population will grow to between 2.9 million and 3.2 million people, with between 1.3 million and 1.7 million jobs.

McArthur said Metro chose Damascus for the UGB expansion because, at the time, the state’s primary focus was on preserving farmland and forestland. However, Damascus, she said, has a lot of “exception lands” – open land not primed for farming.

State laws have since changed to protect more exception lands through urban and rural reserves for the benefit of businesses like wineries, vineyards and nurseries – often the first to go in a UGB expansion, McArthur said.

“So we changed state law and … if the new urban and rural reserve work had been in place, we may or may not have brought in Damascus,” she said. “But that’s water under the bridge.”

The controversy continues

Meanwhile, Damascus is struggling to comply with state requirements; the city’s incorporation in 2006 was arguably the first attempt by citizens to control the process. But with that move came a controversial price tag for the cost to provide infrastructure for development – $3.5 billion. That estimate motivated Phegley.

“They later did a study on the sewer and water supply, and that was between $2 billion and $8 billion,” he said. “That’s a heck of a spread and when you’re talking about a town of 12,000 people. We’re talking $300,000 per household, well over.”

John Morgan, Damascus’ community development director – the man tasked with forging a path forward for the city’s comprehensive planning process – said that interpretation of the costs for infrastructure is, “frankly, ludicrous.”

Morgan said the original estimate for infrastructure – i.e., sewer treatment, water treatment, a major sewer trunk line and extensions to new development – was $3.5 billion spread out over 50 years. He said most of that money would come from system development charges placed on developers, with some community block grants and/or bond measures picking up a small remainder of the balance.

“So the thought that the $3.5 billion is going to be paid for by the existing residents of Damascus is just completely out of the ballpark from how this stuff works,” Morgan said.

Meanwhile, Peter Walker, a University of Oregon professor and the author of the book “Planning Paradise – Politics and Visioning of Land Use in Oregon,” said the story of Damascus is indicative of a greater problem stewing in Oregon.

“(Damascus is) a symptom of a bigger problem of the state land-use planning system, which is that in many ways it’s really sort of lost touch with ordinary people and local communities, and needs to take seriously the concerns of local people, and actively engage in a bilateral and substantive process of political negotiation with communities,” Walker said. “Rather than saying, ‘By the power of fiat, this community will now become part of the city.’ ”

Instead of asking Damascus residents if they wanted to be included in the UGB, Walker said Metro started the conversation by saying, “ ‘This is going to happen. Can we work with you to try and make it happen in a way that you can live with it?’ ”

Moving forward

The answer, at least so far, has been a resounding “no.” But Morgan said he has a plan.

“It makes more sense to me to create a plan that revolves around the core values (of Damascus) in how it’s written and formatted, rather than the statewide planning goals,” he said.

Morgan said the original plan, the one rejected last May, took the exact opposite approach. Rather than centering around the legacy the city hopes to establish for itself, Morgan said the city previously made the state’s 14 land-use goals the top priority.

McArthur said she understands that some people are dissatisfied with Metro’s decision to bring Damascus into the UGB. But she added that the process also involves an extensive period of research and public hearings.

“I think the idea behind the comprehensive plan is for the community to manifest its own destiny, and Damascus has that opportunity as well,” she said.

Morgan said decisions will be reviewed to assess whether they align with citizens’ hopes. And by traveling that path, he said, meeting the state’s requirements should be a breeze.

Phegley is skeptical. He believes a comprehensive plan is not representative of the will of the people and that Measure 3-389 will bring accountability to local government.

Morgan, hoping to get buy-in from the citizens, doesn’t think the measure will hinder the process one bit.

Whatever happens, the winds of change are coming.

“The community is going to urbanize,” Morgan said. “That is a fundamental fact of change that is real. There is an extreme transformation that is going to occur over the next 40 to 50 years, and since that change is going to happen, how do we make that acceptable and desirable for the vast majority of the citizens of Damascus?

“That’s a challenge, and it’s a big one.”

http://djcoregon.com/news/2012/03/12/new-law-could-further-stymie-damascus-comprehensive-plan-city-leaders-say/

[zilfondel]

Thats funny. Its not Metro that requires UGB plans, its the State. Big fail with these guys. It will be even more funny when 1000 Friends of Oregon sues their pants off.

Its kind of a strange area, however. My wife and I visited Happy Valley off Sunnyside this past weekend and it really reminds me of Seattle-area sprawl and how abruptly the urban area just kind of peters out into trees. A little bit like Tigard or Wilsonville, but with hills.

Damascus is even further out and arguably shouldn't have been brought into the UGB - it will be decades or longer before there is infrastructure money to improve it, and it is so far out in Clackamas County the big question is "why?"

The area should have been a rural preserve/green belt isntead (just look to the North on Google Maps).



Just sayin'

[eric cantona]

Get off my lawn!

[Black Box]

The greenbelt preserve description sounds appealing. I imagine a large natural reserve with light park features (hiking trails, other areas for bicycling and swimming). A place for people to interact with nature, but without the hyper infrastructure of a city park (i.e., Forest Park). By Pacific Northwest standards, Seattle rules the sprawl universe. When driving to the Cascades, toward Snoqualmie Pass, it's always a trip to see 468th Avenue as the offspring of 1st Avenue. Because of all the hills, you can see the sprawl from the central city. And then there's exurban areas in Pierce County, like Bonney Lake, that seem to push up against Mt. Rainier National Park's borders. What a sad irony it is to be so disruptively close to nature.

[RED_PDXer]

The state needs to just allow the City of Portland to annex the Damascus area. These crazies obviously can't self-govern. There have been so many pubic involvement meetings and opportunities to date that these accusations of exclusion are beyond ludicrous. I doubt the City of Portland would want this mess of a place, but at least something would get done. Who knows how many millions have been spent attempting to govern this place with no results.

[bvpcvm]

why burden portland with all those hillbillies? leave 'em to clackamas county!

[Okstate]

wow.. Nice to see any density getting packed into the suburbs.

[dabom]

i hope they build buildings there that look good with the rest of the buildings

on the top of the hill they should build more buildings
around here

http://i462.photobucket.com/albums/qq347/booglue33/Untitled.png

[dabom]

some more stuff happening in oc
http://i462.photobucket.com/albums/qq347/booglue33/canemah-bluffpng-886abc4333fd5da1.png
theres just one more piece of land they need to purchase

Metro bought another 29.6 acres of Canemah Bluff land and is close to linking two large parcels it owns south of Oregon City.

The agency paid $560,000 for the forest land along Oregon 99E. It is adjacent to a 160-acre parcel Metro bought last year.

Metro owns a 120 acres to the north. The two sites are separated by a 22 acres that is in private ownership. A Metro spokeswoman would not say whether the agency is now negotiating on the property.
http://www.oregonlive.com/oregon-city/index.ssf/2012/07/metro_buys_more_land_on_canema.html

[dabom]

New home construction starts to revive in Oregon City

There are signs that new home construction is starting to revive in Oregon City.

John Jones Construction is planning a 30-lot subdivision on South Maplelane Road near its intersection with South Holly Lane. Homes would be built on 3,500-square-foot lots.

The 4.4-acre site is adjacent to the company's 81-lot Crabtree Terrace subdivision, which was completed in 2009.

The Oregon City Planning Commission will hold a hearing on the subdivision application on Monday at City Hall, 625 Center St. The meeting starts at 7 p.m.

http://www.oregonlive.com/oregon-city/index.ssf/2012/07/new_home_construction_starts_t.html

[NJD]

Rural conservatives and liberal urbanites can both agree that a smaller UGB is good for growth management for different and similar reasons... would anyone oppose this plan?

Damascus considers partial withdrawal from urban growth boundary
Published: Friday, July 13, 2012 By Emily Fuggetta, The Oregonian

DAMASCUS — Nearly a decade after Metro brought then-unincorporated Damascus into its urban growth boundary, residents may vote this December on whether they want all of the city to remain therein.

In light of new a recent Metro population forecast that predicts the city's 2035 population at about 30,000 — about 8,000 fewer than previously estimated — the Damascus City Council has begun to consider asking to remove a large eastern portion of the city from the boundary.

(more) (http://www.oregonlive.com/clackamascounty/index.ssf/2012/07/damascus_considers_partial_wit.html)

[Grantenfuego]

Rural conservatives and liberal urbanites can both agree that a smaller UGB is good for growth management for different and similar reasons... would anyone oppose this plan?

Damascus considers partial withdrawal from urban growth boundary
Published: Friday, July 13, 2012 By Emily Fuggetta, The Oregonian

DAMASCUS — Nearly a decade after Metro brought then-unincorporated Damascus into its urban growth boundary, residents may vote this December on whether they want all of the city to remain therein.

In light of new a recent Metro population forecast that predicts the city's 2035 population at about 30,000 — about 8,000 fewer than previously estimated — the Damascus City Council has begun to consider asking to remove a large eastern portion of the city from the boundary.

(more) (http://www.oregonlive.com/clackamascounty/index.ssf/2012/07/damascus_considers_partial_wit.html)

Makes sense to me. Keep the UGB as small as possible. Especially, when it's not needed and clearly there is plenty of develop-able space within the boundary.

[RED_PDXer]

Rural conservatives and liberal urbanites can both agree that a smaller UGB is good for growth management for different and similar reasons... would anyone oppose this plan?

Damascus considers partial withdrawal from urban growth boundary
Published: Friday, July 13, 2012 By Emily Fuggetta, The Oregonian

DAMASCUS — Nearly a decade after Metro brought then-unincorporated Damascus into its urban growth boundary, residents may vote this December on whether they want all of the city to remain therein.

In light of new a recent Metro population forecast that predicts the city's 2035 population at about 30,000 — about 8,000 fewer than previously estimated — the Damascus City Council has begun to consider asking to remove a large eastern portion of the city from the boundary.

(more) (http://www.oregonlive.com/clackamascounty/index.ssf/2012/07/damascus_considers_partial_wit.html)

Good riddens! Lesson to region.. don't allow UGB expansion without an established city in control. Small town politics is a serious waste of time and obviously inefficient - Damascus has been stuck in a holding pattern for years due to politics and it seems like nothing can happen without a public vote. Talk about slow, inefficient government... Hillsboro is far from ideal, but they at least know what to do with land they bring into the UGB and waste no time in doing it.

[philopdx]

See, here in the city of Damascus, we wanna build up dem walmarts and parking lots, just like Vancouver! We don need no stinking hippies tellin' us how to build us a fine, fine city with backyards and McDonalds for all our white citizens.

The way I see it it fellow Damascusites, it's high time we sprawl out with the @#$% out.

[zilfondel]

You know, since the 'burbs real estate tanked in the recession, and will likely never be coming back... I doubt Damascus will be built out int he next 50 years. Real estate values and demand has done a complete 180 over the past 10-20 years.