City Council, August 8th - Crowley and Royvonne Avenues

Council meets on Monday, and I don't think I have anything much to note here. Mostly agenda items are just information reports. So, bullets with a few comments and links.

• There is an information report on approvals for the new Vietnam War Memorial on the corner of Cottage and State in Willson Park. Previously see "Proposed Vietnam Memorial at the Historic Landmarks Commission" (2020) and "Breyman Fountain Lost Between World War II and Proposed Vietnam War Memorials" (2019).
• Information reports on approvals of replats, consolidating smaller lots, at the former UGM/Saffron Supply site, one for the west half, and one for the east half. (See recent notes tagged "UGM shelter relocation" for more on the history, particularly the remnants of the State Insurance Building, in whose footprint the City intends for an affordable housing project, and other redevelopment prospects. Probably it is time to split off the redevelopment with a new tag now that the shelter is fully operational in the new location.)
• There is an information report on the new City flag, revised with a more pink flower. It was supposed to be more allusive, nodding more clearly to the cherry blossom, but I find it wan and less allusive. It looks washed out rather than vibrant. Maybe they will revert to the bolder red.
• There is the Business and Economic Development quarterly information report. It does mention the the Urban Land Institute consultation for the Edgewater Industrial District finally happened. Soon we'll get to see the first of ten hype videos: "the Urban Development Department signed a contract with Allied Video to produce 10 business marketing and lifestyle videos." Often such videos seem more cringey or fake than realistic. Previously on fakeness in a "sizzle video" see "Performing our City: There's Something about Salem" and on greater authenticity "New Heritage All-Star Video Surpasses Sizzle Video" (both 2016).
  

There is also a final order affirming the Planning Commission's approvals of a new development for single detached housing on 46 lots south of Hilfiker Park and the Meyer Farm site. The application was for a kind of early stage approval, "Subdivision Tentative Plan, and Urban Growth Area Preliminary Declaration." Consequently, critique of the plan along some lines the City regards as premature, and they do not need to respond substantively to those parts.

Reaction to proposed RM2 zoning, Spring 2021

Back in the first iteration and proposal for Our Salem, it was in a band of parcels, including the Meyer Farm property, for RM2 apartment zoning. This generated a lot of criticism, and perhaps because this project was already in process, that zoning was abandoned.

As our housing crisis continues, not planning for more housing here, in an area not far from frequent transit and from both Winco and Trader Joe's, may be looked back on as a real missed opportunity.

Critics also highlighted traffic.

Commercial Street at UGM and the Police Station, a Survey, and a Congestion Plan: At the MPO

The technical committee for our Metropolitan Planning Organization meets on Tuesday the 12th. They have information on a segment of Commercial Street, some interesting survey results, and bits on the approach to congestion and project scoring.

TIP Amendment

One of the items in the meeting packet is a TIP amendment.

Start of multi-use path along new UGM facility
New Police Station in background
(at D and Commercial, 2021)

Alas, the TIP amendment is really only a formality and a bit of a Potemkin instance of public process. The Staff introduction says, "This is considered a full amendment because it is adding mile points on a new section of roadway." But otherwise it doesn't really meet the spirit of a substantive amendment. It's hard to imagine any amount of public comment that might cause the project to change.

As you can see at top, the City already required a multi-use path as part of the new UGM redevelopment between D and Division along Commercial Street. (See also "City Fails to Solve Charlie Foxtrot, Uses Kludge at Front-Division-Commercial Intersection.") In the amended project there is no real opportunity for a new bike lane or a new configuration. There's not a decision point with options on which the public might comment or show a preference.

What to do with Remnants of State Insurance Building?

The Historic Landmarks Commission has an especially interesting agenda for their meeting this week, Thursday the 21st.

When it was the YMCA (WHC 2014.064.0060)

Even if they don't necessarily intend to get at the question directly, they will have to consider indirectly what exactly is the main purpose of historic preservation. Is the accent on telling better history? Or is the accent on the preservation of old buildings and building parts as much as possible as a defense against development? Is narrative history or anti-growth the engine of historic preservation?

The topic is prompted by a formal request from the Willamette Heritage Center:

[A representative from the Mill] has requested that the Salem Historic Landmarks Commission (HLC) initiate the local historic resource nomination for the State Insurance Co. Building (1888). While the building dates back to circa 1888, the exterior of the building has gone through significant alterations beginning in 1960 when the upper stories of the building were removed....The building is significant for its association with the State Insurance Company, the Oregon Land Company, the Salem YMCA and former President Herbert Hoover. The original structure was a good example of the commercial Second Empire architectural style for this period.

The Recommendation from the City is negative:

Staff recommends the HLC take no action to initiate the local historic designation of the State Insurance Co. Building because the proposed resource is not eligible for designation due to its lack of historic integrity.

The history of the building's form is even more complicated than the materials from the Mill and the City suggest.

Its very first version was a two-story brick without the Mansarded third floor.

An early two-story version of
State Insurance Building
1887, detail
(Salem Library Historic Photos)

Another view of the two-story version
March 28th, 1931

In the late 1880s it was remodeled by the addition of the third story, and this is the form in which we have mainly remembered it as "historic." (See YMCA postcard at top.)

City Council, September 13th - Make an Un-Hooverville!

Council convenes on Monday the 13th. Because of Delta and the fourth wave of infection, they have returned to videoconferencing only.

We've already mentioned cueing up some materials for the Work Session on the Climate Action Plan.

That was the most important thing here.

Early image of State Insurance Building
NW corner Commercial and Chemeketa
Oregon State Library

Also interesting are finally some details on the proposed redevelopment of the former UGM/Saffron Hardware block.

Corner proposed for affordable housing

The northwest corner of the intersection of Commercial and Chemeketa (or the southeast corner of the block) is occupied by a heavily modified, but nonetheless remnant first floor of the State Insurance Building (at top). They just whacked off the top two floors and disguised the bottom floor. But if you look at the window frames and mouldings, some original detailing is still there.

City Council, May 13th - Minor Updates on OSH North Campus and UGM Shelter

Council meets on Monday, and this week it's the formal "information items," rather than action items that are of greatest interest. Status reports on the North Campus of the State Hospital and on the new UGM Shelter lead the way.

Proposed path system at the North Campus
They're just lines on a map

At the North Campus of the State Hospital, the Planning Commission approved the first development. It will have single-family lots on Park and D, but no driveways on Park or D, and the interior streets with cul-de-sacs will function as an alley. The multi-family portion will just have a parking lot system, and the provision for "pedestrian connections" looks problematic. Once it is built out, we will mourn the fact that the grid breaks down and there will not be a full set of interior streets. There will be lines on the map to "connect" Center and D Streets, Park and 25th, but these will not be very effective, and will be a set of Potemkin connections instead. If you are walking in the neighborhood, you probably won't feel "invited" onto the path. Instead, you will skirt the development and keep on Park, 25rd, and D. Streets signal "public space" in a way the path system does not, and the paths will look private, even though there will be public access easements.

North Campus: These amended conditions look hinky

The total effect will be for a compound, and the project does not appear headed to a vibrant outcome.  It's dull.

UGM will retain the green cottage, but demolish the other two
(via Streetview)

The Planning Administrator approved some changes to the UGM Shelter project on Division and Commercial. Two lots that had been excluded, with a century old cottage and a boxy storefront, will now be purchased by the UGM, and they needed to be folded into the site plan. Plans indicate the cottage will be saved, but the storefront demolished. The way the project greets Division Street looks nice and human and reasonable. Hopefully the businesses will be able to move and will not be adversely impacted. (Update: It's been appealed. Update 2: CANDO reports the appeal has been withdrawn.)

City Council, November 13th - Public Bike System and the Airport

Council meets on Tuesday following the observance of Veterans Day on Monday. They've got transportation projects great and small to consider.

Most interesting here is the small one, "bike share," a public bike rental system. (As with "ride share," there's not really much sharing going on, and it's a ride rental. It is interesting that ride-hailing and ride-booking have become standard for the TNCs, but "bike share" is hanging around. The term also seems inaccurate.)

After word came out in the Bicycling Magazine rating from 2016, and then the SJ wrote a feature later in the year, it's been a winding road. But here we are finally.

Three park sites, one at the transit center

They've been talking about six or seven total stations for launch, but right now at Council there are four only, all in public areas.

Two would be in Riverfront Park, near the playground and Carousel as well as at the Union Street Bridge. A third would be in Bush Park near the Winter Street parking lot, and a fourth at the downtown Transit Center.

Exclusive franchise for Riverfront Park

Most interesting is that the proposed contract includes an exclusive franchise for operating in Riverfront Park.

City Council, August 27th - To Buy the old UGM

Council meets on Monday, and there's little in the way of transportation-related issues. There are other topics of interest, of course!

Under Runaway Arts, Saffron Supply, and the UGM
are the bones of old buildings, heavily remodeled.
But also - apartments over retail!
(Salem Library Historic Photos)

Same view today - via Streetview

Bullets only for this one:

• The Urban Renewal Agency will consider purchasing the UGM property. The price was reduced $80,000 to compensate for prospective environmental clean up. The deal also includes an exit clause if UGM is not able to raise the funds for the new site. See previous notes here and here.  Though there is reason to think old bones are under the layers of remodeling, the buildings may well have reached the end of their useful life, and as long as new buildings are constructed, and there is no vast new parking lot, there is little argument for "preservation" and reuse here. Redevelopment may occasion a rare instance of benign demolition.
• The Police Station appears to have sailed through at the Planning Commission, and Council will get the decision as an information item. I think we will regret the opaque fencing in back and along the creek, but clearly this wasn't a detail that mattered to others. 
• A ban on single-use plastic bags has been proposed. It will get a formal Public Hearing next month. Councilor Andersen has comment here, our 350.org chapter here.
• The Ice Rink at Riverfront Park looks like it was a success and the agreement will be renewed for next year. They listed 34,228 skaters, 105 parties, and six charity events. That seems like a substantial number of visitors, many of whom weren't already planning trips to the park and were therefore new visits generated by the ice rink. The dates of operation will also be extended.
• There's an appeal on a zoning change and Urban Growth Preliminary Declaration on some former State of Oregon/Corban U. land off of Aumsville Highway.
• And the City looks to adopt formal City positions on November ballot measures. These are important, and worth a close look. Councilor Andersen also has some comment. 

Soil Contamination and Monitoring Wells Point to History of UGM Site

It was interesting today to see the front page item on soil contamination at the current UGM Shelter site downtown at Center and Commercial.

McKinney car lot, Center & Commercial, 1961
on the north side of Center Street (Rite-Aid lot)
(Salem Library Historic Photos, and similar here)

This probably shouldn't be surprising. The area was a center of car dealerships and service at one time. This McKinney lot is just to the north kitty-corner across Center Street.

Otto J. Wilson garage, May 1952.  Image courtesy of John Wilson

You may recall the story of Otto J. Wilson. His garage and warehouse is now the site of Santiam Bikes just across Commercial Street.

The UGM site itself had different garage and gas station when the 1926 Sanborn Fire Map was compiled. (I have never seen any photos of it, unfortunately.)

City Council, May 14th - UGM and Lone Oak Decisions

Council meets on Monday, and while the opportunity for Public Comment is closed, Council will deliberate on both the UGM Shelter expansion and Lone Oak Reimbursement District.

Vacation Lane SE:
Private Drive or Public Street? A little ambiguous!

Time and additional comment hasn't offered much additional clarity on them, and it may just be that these are difficult, ambiguous civic matters with no easy and obvious resolution. The outcomes will be imperfect compromises and there is no way out of that bind.

On both of them, however, the need to drill into, analyze, and discuss very specific conditions has meant that debate about homelessness and about the fiscal sustainability of development patterns here has been less theoretical and abstract and instead become concrete. This seems like a feature, not a bug! Instead of a task force and its generalities and cliches and baggy reports, Council has to interpret policy and code concretely, make a decision, and attach specific conditions as appropriate. In most ways, then, the appeals and resulting debate seem more positive than not.

So let's talk about other things.

It even looks like an appendix!

The most interesting thing from here is a proposal to vacate an odd little vestigial street, Vacation Lane SE.

City Council, April 23rd - Greenhouse Gas Resolution for Earth Day

Council meets Monday, and it is very nice to see a draft letter to our Metropolitan Planning Organization on a goal to reduce greenhouse gases in the 2019 Regional Transportation System Plan.

That's a way to mark Earth Day.

Draft letter on Greenhouse Gases

GHG reduction more popular than SRC

In the tabulation from the survey the MPO conducted, it's clear that interest in reducing greenhouse gases was much stronger than interest in the Salem River Crossing.

Between the survey results and a strong statement by Council, this could be an important moment, a tipping point, in a course-correction at the MPO.

(The MPO will meet on Tuesday, and there will be more to say on that agenda. See previous notes here and here.)

New Paint for the Dome Building? A Crosswalk on Division? - Walking Bits

Did you get out for a walk on Saturday last weekend? The weather was good, and in the afternoon the sun came out and it became great. The Cherries at the Capitol and elsewhere around the city were in full bloom and just beginning to drop petals. Here's one slide show from midday, before the sun was fully out.

Elsewhere there were other things to note also.

It looks like the Dome Building is getting a paint job to match the Kirkbride Building.

A new paint scheme for the Dome Building?
Would match the Kirkbride!

Dome Building in winter 2013, South facade

The main Kirkbride Building in 2012

That color scheme on the Dome Building would really unify the two buildings across Center Street. I look forward to the finished state.

UGM Shelter Site, Parking at CANDO; 20 is Plenty at NEN

CANDO

The downtown neighborhood association, CANDO, meets tonight and they've got a couple of interesting items on the agenda.

For context, from the minutes of the meeting last month:

Business owners...expressed concerns about the size (300 beds, 54,000 SF) and potential negative impact of the shelter that UGM is proposing to build at Division and Commercial on community liveability and underutilized Riverfront property values. They said that with four shelters [UGM (men’s), HOST (transitional age youth), HOME (day, minors) HOAP (day, adult) and ARCHES (day, adult, currently not open)], CANDO has “more than its share” of homeless residents already, and suggested the board should take a position. The matter was deferred to the February meeting to allow notice and time to gather more information. (Note: The current site of the UGM Men’s Mission at Center and Commercial formerly had overflow capacity to about 300, but in 2016, the Fire Marshal cut capacity to about 185, where it has been since.)

Also:

City Traffic Engineer Kevin Hottman said he had been asked to convert the 12 or so on-street parking spaces on the west side of Cottage in front of the Willamette Valley Communication Center (595 Cottage St) into employee-only parking spaces, and wanted to know if CANDO had any objection. SPD Communications Director Mark Bucholtz explained that the Center has sufficient employee parking, that generally the spaces under discussion were empty (except Sunday mornings), and that it was for security reasons only that SPD was making the request. The matter was deferred to the February agenda to allow notice.

On this month's agenda in direct response, two motions:

• "Move that CANDO take a position opposing the request to convert the twelve or so spaces on-street parking spaces on the west side of Cottage in front of the Willamette Valley Communication Center (595 Cottage St) into employee-only parking spaces?"
• "Move that CANDO take a position opposing the Union Gospel Mission's application for a Conditional Use Permit to allow the relocation of the Men's Mission (Non-Profit Shelter) with expanded capacity to serve approximately 300 persons to the 700 to 800 blockof Commercial Street NE?"

CANDO meets Tuesday the 20th, at 6:00 p.m. at First Christian Church on 685 Marion Street NE.

NEN

The Englewood area neighborhood assocation, NEN, also meets. There is no item on the agenda of great interest here, but in the minutes from last month is a very nice note about increasing traction for a partial "twenty is plenty" campaign! From the "Pedestrian Safety Report":

1.  [T]o email Peter Fernandez to ask why zone Speed on 17th south State St. is 25 where there are multiple lanes and on 17th North of Market which is narrower the speed zone is 30 mph.
2. Look at the 20 is Plenty campaign. Report that Salem was taken out of the legislation that allows Portland to implement this rule.
3. Sidewalks are not ADA compliant. There is an issue of people walking in the street due to the dangerous conditions . Go to Budget Hearing Meetings. City is obligated to fix sidewalks. Advocate for funds. Use a group of people with a strategy to testify. Make front and center.
4. Enforcement of Cross walk violations is only done when city gets grant money. They will monitor school zones but not crosswalks. Work on changing this perception .

This is all good stuff!

Council has opposed a limited "20 is plenty" since at least 2011

A caveat, however: Back in 2011, which I think was the first attempt by Portland to pass a "twenty is plenty" for local neighborhood streets, the City formally opposed it, and with each iteration at the Legislature Salem did not alter its position. It's not that Salem was somehow "left out" or "taken out" in an accidental omission. Salem never wanted in.

This past session a bill was finally passed and signed into law for Portland, and it is great to see rumblings now in Salem about a change of heart and getting on board with it. Staff may still not favor it, but if neighborhoods lobby for it, and enough Councilors see merit, a top-down and bottom-up pincer movement will overwhelm staff's resistance.

The law doesn't change road design, just signage and enforcement possibilities. But it's a message and hopefully it spurs the start of shifting cultural norms for urban speeds.

NEN meets Tuesday the 20th, at 6:30pm in the Salem First Church of the Nazarene, 1550 Market Street NE. 

City Council, October 23rd - Downtown UGM Block

Part of the UGM lot, Center and Commercial

Council meets on Monday, and I was going to lead with the Strategic Plan. But a more interesting development is the City has negotiated an option to buy the Union Gospel Mission and Saffron Supply buildings downtown.

You might recall some preliminary talk a while back about downtown "opportunity sites." This is one of them. A year ago (at Council, and in more detail at DAB) the City made no moves, and the UGM site was identified as a "medium-term" prospect. The calendar seems to have moved up. At the same time, there are still many moving parts:

Due to concerns regarding timing of the property transfer, the sellers’ concerns regarding flexibility, interest from third parties, and the due diligence involved, staff and the sellers’ broker determined an option agreement was the most prudent means to place the property under contract.

So this is a little bit exciting and still quite a bit uncertain.

Senior Living Project for Riverfront at Mill Creek at Planning Commission

South building from Front Street at D Street

Buried a little in the post on the Truitt Bros. facility, you might have seen the brief note on a senior living and nursing home facility proposed for Front Street between D Street and Mill Creek.

Both buildings, from Front (top), from River (bottom)

It is at the Planning Commission this evening. (Agenda here, full Staff Report on the nursing home complex here.)

They will knock down the existing warehouse and replace it "with two buildings, a 48-unit memory care facility and a 69-unit assisted living facility."

There are a few interesting, and one or two even a little perplexing, matters raised in the Staff Report. It's hard to have a settled opinion on the nursing home complex - it's good in some ways, maybe not so good in others - but it seems worth registering the proposal with a little bit of comment, perhaps to come back to later.

Overall, it's a bit of a bummer that for two prime riverfront parcels (at Boise being the other), a nursing home seems to be most viable. People of all ages, including seniors of limited mobility, deserve beauty. So it's not like this is wrong. But if the goal is for walkable mixed-use neighborhood here along the riverfront, nursing home facilities are not the most vibrant or active, and it will be necessary for other adjacent developments to be more active if the district is going to be fully vibrant. This nursing home thing is just very middling and ordinary.

Car Dealership Site for Police Station Chance to Fix Terrible Intersection

Last night the Police Station Council Subcommittee met, and over at SCV and Hinessight they've got some detailed discussion of the current state of the debate. Indeed the overall costs remain high and the refusal to include seismic work on the library seems foolish. But here there's nothing new to say on these.

Instead of considering proposed building size and cost - what to build - which others have done plenty well, let's just consider the leading site candidate - where to build - from the long list of eight, and short list of four finalists.

Of the four finalists, the O'Brien parcel at Commercial and Division Streets scored highest by a significant margin.

O'Brien Parcel Sale Flyer

A project here would be across the street from the proposed new United Gospel Mission development, and right at one of Salem's most dysfunctional intersections.

Remember the crash with all the chickens?

Proposed Union Gospel Mission Shelter Could Change Division Street Neighborhood

Well, the Union Gospel Mission has a picture for the proposed new shelter!

Proposed new UGM center
(Note stop bar and median on street,
also a sidewalk stub where there is no crosswalk)

It is said to be north of Division and South of D Street on Commercial.

The stop bar and median suggests it is right at the corner of Division and Commercial.

Can't quite get the angle right in the google, but
the rendering appears to show this section
 of Commercial at Division.

Earlier, a letter from March suggested the whole half block, but the architectural rendering here suggests about a quarter block instead.

Union Gospel Mission Considers Move North out of Downtown Location

You probably read about the fire at the Union Gospel Mission thrift store at the corner of Commercial and D Streets.

But you might not have heard that the shelter is considering moving from the downtown location at Center and Commercial a few blocks north to a half-block site that includes the store property.

At the Planning Commission on Tuesday there was a proposed zoning change to permit a shelter in the Riverfront Overlay Zone.

Letter requesting zone change

The shelter could be the whole half block;
addresses correspond to those in letter.
The thrift store is in the NE corner at 885

There's a lot of parking lot there right now, and across the street is the cluster of O'Brien car dealerships, so it's not like the area is well used at the moment.