News

Redevelopment project
targets downtown core

pg1a6-21-00.jpg (40871 bytes)

Photo by Tom Morlan

Third-grader Jacob Snodgrass, 9, enjoys a chocolate ice cream bar while hanging upside-down from the monkey bars at Eccles Elementary School last week.

By David Howell
of the Herald

The city of Canby is stepping up its efforts to get residents and business owners inspired at the idea of downtown redevelopment and beautification.

Calling small businesses "the engine that drive our local economies," Canby Planning Department project planner Matilda Deas said work needs to be done to ensure local firms "survive and thrive."

Deas, addressing the Canby Area Chamber of Commerce's June 6 luncheon, outlined details of a downtown redevelopment project "that could generate significant positive impacts to Canby's commercial core."

State funding to the tune of $82,846 through the Transportation Growth Management Department, a partnership between ODOT and the Department of Land Conservation and Development, has been obtained.

About $65,250 of the state grant will go to consultants David Evans &Associates Inc., Marketeck, a marketing firm, Seder Architects. Karen Swirsky, AICP, of David Evans is the project leader.

Canby Business Revitalization, the chamber and other local groups will be actively involved in the ongoing process, Deas said.

About $17,596 of the state grant will go to the city of Canby for staff to do design, layer-enhanced imaging and to provide base maps and graphic support.

The state funding requires $9,482 in city matching funds. Deas explained why the project, which she said is now "all systems go," is important to local business people.

"The process of the plan provides the business community a window which you can see what the community wants, needs and expects from their downtown businesses," Deas said. "This will enable you to market more effectively to your community, and provide the type of customer service your community values."

The project, which will last one year, is a key part of a larger state-mandated requirement.

"This is an important piece of the periodic review process," she said. "Periodic review is required by the state. Every community has to, periodically, update their comprehensive plan, which is the guiding document for land-use, planning, and follows statewide goals. You have to update it and review all the different pieces."

Assessing and brainstorming for the project will enable business owners and workers to forge new partnerships to come up with inventive ideas for the future of downtown Canby commerce.

Too many store units remain vacant, including the landmark five-and-dime Mangus Variety Store, and Canby Video is in the process of closing down on North Grant Street.

Statistics from 1996-97 continue to show an alarming number of small businesses going bust, which is worrying because 74 of all firms in Oregon employ less than 20 people.

Business failures were up 41 percent in those two years, and bankruptcies rose 90 percent.

"Less than half of all small businesses don't survive their first five years," Deas said, quoting data. "That's a sobering fact."

Nevertheless, small businesses remain the key to the local, state and national economy. They generate 50 percent of new innovation among businesses, and they create 40 percent of new high-tech jobs, the kids of jobs community leaders in Canby and elsewhere covet because they pay "family-wage" salaries.

Deas mapped out a brief timeline for the project, which will start with an inventory of downtown businesses and buildings and identifying what pieces of the economic mix are missing. City staff will meet individually with business owners, Deas said.

From mid-June to mid-September, a stakeholder task force will be assembled, and work will begin with the project's consultants. The design, drafting, coding and public meeting process begins in October.

"I need people involved because it is a tool to help you visualize what your community might look like," she said. "We've been waiting a long time for this to come to fruition."

Digitized versions of maps, store facades and streetscapes will help people picture how things could look in the future. Transportation, parks, recreation and other issues will be addressed.

Redeveloping North Second Avenue will be one of the first projects in the city, she said.

Deas, and the rest of the city's elected officials and full-time staff, hope people take the time to make their opinions known.

If the City Council eventually approves the downtown redevelopment plan, it will be recommended to businesses, but would not become law.

Focus meetings will be held monthly, and city staff will go door-to-door to spread the word about the project. Four charettes will be held to allow for interactive problem solving.

Appropriately, they will be held in the old Mangus building, which has been empty for about three years. The charettes will be filmed and aired by OCTS Channel 5.

"I want them to call in, get involved and help shape the future," she said. "It's going to be developed by the businesses for the businesses and the community, as a whole."

Deas and the rest of the Canby Planning Department can be reached at 266-9404.

Annexation bid
looms on horizon

By David Howell
of the Herald

The city of Canby, representing about 30 rural property owners and farmers, intends to ask voters to approve the annexation of about 300 acres of land into the city for future industrial use in three months' time.

The 36 lots, which include five city-owned parcels, are located between Southeast First Avenue to the north, South Mulino Road to the east, Molalla Forest Road to the west, and Southeast Thirteenth Avenue to the south.

If annexation is ultimately granted by Canby's registered voters, the lots will form the newest part of the three-phase Logging Road Industrial Park.

The current and former farm and rural land proposed to be annexed is subject to the Industrial Area Master Plan, as adopted by the Canby City Council in September 1998.

Land owners and city officials and staff have met numerous times in the 18 months since the master plan was approved to discuss developing the area.

In January, the City Council voted 4-2 to become the annexation applicants, which is allowed under state law.

The council's resolution stated "a city-sponsored annexation would help achieve uniform and logical development of this industrial area, and would reduce negative property tax impacts to property owners therein."

In March, the council approved a resolution which establishes that, should councilors approve the annexation proposal, it would be voted on at a Sept. 19 special election.

The subject parcels are currently zoned EFU-20 (exclusive farm use minimum 20-acre lot sizes) by Clackamas County.

The land is bordered to the north by land within the Urban Growth Boundary, but outside current city limits, that is designated for low-density residential development.

If annexation is approved, the city would rezone the land for light industrial, heavy industrial and heavy commercial/manufacturing, and make zoning changes under its Comprehensive Plan.

To get to the voter-approved annexation stage, the application - ANN 00-02 - must first be considered by the Canby Planning Commission first, and then the City Council.

Canby planning commissioners are due to consider the annexation issue at its 7 p.m. meetings on June 12 and June 26.

The matter would then go to the City Council for readings on July 5 and July 19.

If the council recommends approval of the application, the annexation will be placed before the voters at a special election on Sept. 17.

If councilors deny the application, the issue will not go to the voters. According to Canby Municipal Code, the Canby Planning Commission must give ample consideration to the following major approval criteria:

Annexation shall be in keeping with prioritization categories as designated on adopted maps showing growth phasing (The urban growth element of the Comprehensive Plan).
Analysis of the "need" for additional property within the city limits shall be provided.
Smaller non-farm land shall be considered a priority for annexation over larger farm land.
Access shall be adequate to the site.
Adequate public facilities and services shall be available to service the potential (or proposed) development.
Compliance with other applicable city ordinances or policies.
Compliance of the application with applicable sections of Oregon Revised Statutes Chapter 222.
Risk of natural hazards which might be expected to occur on the subject property shall be identified.
Urbanization of the subject property shall not have a significant adverse effect on specially designated open space, scenic, historic or natural resource areas.
Economic impacts which are likely to result from annexation shall be evaluated in light of the social and physical impacts. The overall impact which is likely to result from the annexation and development shall not have a significant adverse effect on the economic, social and physical environment of the community, as a whole, according to the Land Development and Planning Ordinance.

In addition, the Comprehensive Plan Consistency Analysis requires the elements of urban growth, land use, environmental concerns, transportation, public facilities and services, economic, and energy conservation elements are duly considered.

City planning staff are recommending that the proposed annexation meets the requirements of the standards and criteria included in the Canby Land Development and Planning Ordinance, specifically related to criteria 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10.

As part of the recommendation, staff suggest: all annexed properties will carry the Industrial Area Overlay designation; all city and service provider regulations are to be adhered to at the time of connection of services and/or future development; a detailed traffic study be undertaken describing the impact of development in the industrial park area on Highway 99E and the city's street system; and the financing of public improvements in the industrial area be provided by public and/or private sources, as agreed upon separately by the city and the property owners group, the Industrial Area Association.

Financing mechanisms may include Advanced Financing Districts and Local Improvement Districts. Requirements for public improvements will occur during the site and design review process.

For more information about the industrial park and annexation issues, call the Canby Planning Department at 266-9404.

Local man
perishes in 99E wreck

By David Howell
of the Herald

A 32-year-old Canby man died in a head-on collision Friday afternoon near the intersection of Highway 99E and South End Road, about 2 miles north of Canby.

David Douglas Payne was killed when his pickup truck veered across the highway's center line, colliding with a northbound flatbed truck piled high with berries, the Oregon State Police reported.

The driver of the 1979 Chevrolet flatbed, Thomas E. Hynes, 66, of Salem, was treated at Willamette Falls Hospital and was released.

His passenger, Tyler John Bay, 8, of Salem, was not injured. Both were wearing seat belts. Payne was wearing a seat belt in his 1990 GMC pickup, but was pronounced dead at the scene.

Berries and carrying crates were strewn across the roadway after the 2:40 p.m. crash, filling up roadside ditches and making clean-up operations longer and trickier.

Payne, known to friends and family as "Red Dawg," was a lifetime resident of Canby. He played football and wrestled for Canby High School, lettering in both sports, and he loved to fish, hunt, golf and bowl.

Memorial services will be held at 10 a.m., Wednesday, June 14, at Zoar Lutheran Church in Canby. He is survived by his parents, two brothers, a sister, and a grandmother.

The June 9 accident slowed traffic for about four hours, and traffic was diverted along winding country roads via New Era Road to Oregon City.

Troopers, deputies and ODOT workers blocked off the highway, and traffic flow was further hampered by motorists rubbernecking, or parking on the hard shoulder to view the wreck.

"That's something we encounter often at accidents," said OSP Lt. Gregg Hastings. "We just try to manage the situation. The highway was blocked off.

It's an unfortunate statement on people's interest in these kids of things." OSP and the Clackamas County interagency crash investigation team continue to investigate the crash.

Gary Duane Baker, a longtime Oregon City barber and Woodburn resident, was killed in a collision at the same location earlier this year.

Baker, 60, began to pull his 1984 Buick Century across 99E's northbound lanes from South End Road, and was struck on the driver's side door by a 17-year-old Milwaukie girl, OSP reported. He was not wearing a seat belt in the Jan. 25 accident.

The fatal accidents have occurred despite the installation of a new turn lane and safety refuge for drivers heading southbound on 99E toward Canby.

Injury and non-injury accidents continue to happen with worrying regularity on the heavily traveled 11-mile stretch of 99E between Canby and Oregon City.

The section of sloping roadway was made a traffic safety corridor four years ago, after Ackerman Middle School students involved in fatal collision with a drunk driver successfully petitioned ODOT and state lawmakers to increase safety on 99E.

Casa Verde opening is
cause for celebration

By David Howell
of the Herald

After a long, sometimes heated, planning process and seven months of building work, the Casa Verde affordable housing complex officially opened last week.

The "green house" in Canby was dedicated June 8 during a ceremony attended by the Archbishop of Portland, the Most Reverend John G. Vlazny, Catholic Charities Executive Director Dennis Keenan, Canby City Council President Walt Daniels, city councilors and staff, state Rep. Kurt Schrader, and Clackamas County Commissioner Mike Jordan, among others.

The $3.1 million Casa Verde is a 26-unit subsidized housing project for low-income farm and nursery workers and their families. More than 60 families applied for the two-, three- and four-bedroom apartments, which cost tenants between $435 and $495 per month. Many families who met the strict application requirements have already moved into their new residences. Applicants are required to work in agricultural jobs in the area.

Speakers praised the collaborative effort for successfully bringing the non-profit, private and government sectors together to create Casa Verde. "This is an example of shared community, shared opportunity," said Schrader, a Canby Democrat. "That's what this community has been all about to me . . . Catholic Charities and the city of Canby deserve credit for stepping up." Daniels, representing the city and Mayor Scott Taylor, said the opening marked a "truly historical occasion" in Canby and the county.

"We're very supportive of this project," he said. "Agriculture is very important to Canby, and we want to keep people who work in agriculture in Canby . . . We realize that language is a barrier, but we feel the Latino population are a part of our community, and we want them to be a part of the government of our community."

Robert Repine, the director of the Oregon Housing and Community Services Department, said the need for affordable housing for farmworkers is very real.

"Oregon's economic vitality in agriculture is crucial," he said. "We've never factored in the human side of it . . . The main essence of the success of agriculture is our farmworker families."

Repine said the state of Washington pledged an additional $40 million to provide more farmworker housing in 1999, while Oregon only up its ante by $1 million. More needs to be done to support affordable housing ideas, he added.

"This project is one more example of the hard work non-profits do across the country," said David McConnell, vice president of the Enterprise Foundation, which supported Casa Verde along with other benefactors. "And the work they do is always against the odds . . . I can't tell you how happy I am to see it all bear fruit.

''This is part of the community development movement nationwide. It is real, and it is being led by non-profits . . . Affordable units are being created and the lives of families are being transformed."

Archbishop Vlazny blessed the new complex, and said it represented the kind of work the Catholic Church is committed to.

"We really believe in the fundamental dignity of every person," he said. "We want to provide safe, affordable and decent housing to people who provide us with safe, affordable and decent food for our tables."

The new South Township Road complex, which features a community center and recreational amenities, is a partnership of Catholic Charities of Western Oregon and CASA of Oregon, who were represented at the opening by Peter Hainley, its executive director.

The Canby City Council rejected a citizen appeal of planning approval for Casa Verde in September 1999. Seabold Construction of Beaverton began building the units a month later, and they were completed in May.

Casa Verde is owned by Caritas Housing Initiatives, a subsidiary of Catholic Charities, which owns two other low-income housing projects in Molalla and Sutherlin, and which established Centro de Canby at St. Patrick's Catholic Church nearly four years ago.

E-mail Editor to submit information.