Cherriots Board to Consider Short List of Potential Sites for South Salem Transit Center

Here's some real news. The Board for Cherriots meets on Thursday the 23rd, and they'll be looking at a new short list of potential sites for a South Salem Transit Center, which they are currently calling a "mobility hub."

Three potential sites on the short list

There are three candidate areas along South Commercial between Fabry and Wiltsey Roads.

The area currently, near Safeway and Beehive carts

The area is anchored by the Safeway, and has several fast food franchises along with the newer foot cart concept at Beehive Station. Lots of parking lot.

At one parcel (labeled f) a new mixed use building with up to 71 apartments has been proposed and approved. The outline of "f" does not exactly correspond with the lot lines, and it may be drawn on the other side of this proposed new building.The evaluation team says the site observations for this parcel were "performed from the right-of-way" only, and the discussion did not mention this proposed mixed-use project.

Conditional use permit approval

New apartments immediately adjacent to a transit center would be very useful!

I think I might have seen something proposed also for the site in purple marked "8," but I can't put my finger on it at the moment. The evaluation team did gain access to the property for a direct site visit, and that would mean the owner is aware of Cherriots' interest.

As the City considered a branch library for South Salem, adjacency with any new transit station should be a strong consideration. Maybe even co-location.

From the previous attempt, 2014

The current three candidate sites are all south of the previous study area, which was closer to Kuebler itself. At that time they settled on the Walmart parking lot site at Baxter, but after a few years of attempted negotiation that did not work out, and so we have this new round of candidate sites.

There is still more to do. From the Staff Report:

Now the project is nearing the finish line for the site selection study. The ultimate purpose of the study was to provide a short list (2-3) of sites at the conclusion, that, due to the criteria used to evaluate sites for the feasibility of use from an operational standpoint, for the Board of Directors to consider in selecting a final site for development. It is important to note that the inclusion of these sites in the study does not mean that development is inevitable, but that they scored the highest in the feasibility for development according to the study.

Negotiation, site purchase, and construction funding are also yet to be determined and would follow the selection of that "final site."

The Board meets at 6:30pm on Thursday the 23rd. The agenda, meeting packet, and transit center report can be downloaded here.

See previous notes on both attempts for a South Salem Transit Center.

Addendum, June 23rd

A concept drawing in the report shows space for a food cart pod and bike parking and repair station. These may be a little ornamental: While the drawing's perspective shows them in front, they are actually on the interior, in the back, and away from the main street and access. It's great that Cherriots is thinking about this kind of thing, but concepts may not yet be integrated sufficiently. Remember problems with Keizer Station, "New Keizer Transit Station has Nice Bike Racks - But Getting to them? Not so Easy" (2013).

Potential for multiple amenities