City Council, October 14th - The Cannery Approvals

That didn't take very long. On the 25th of last month the "Cannery" redevelopment for the former Truitt Bros. site went before the Hearings Officer. The Hearing attracted no opposition and the project was not contested. A few people offered comments or questions on some details, but no substantive objections. Despite it being a complicated project, with the Willamette River Greenway and the railroad bisecting Front Street offering real constraints, the Hearings Officer was able to adopt the Staff Recommendation and approve the project in a straightforward way. At Council on Monday is the approvals as an information item. Since no one raised any great objections at the Hearing, any appeal seems improbable. The smooth sailing was surprising and nice to see!

Along Front Street, looking northwest
(updated project website)

Previously:

• "Questions on the Cannery Proposal" (2023)
• A little, and links to more, on an historical homage, "A Mansard Roof for the Cannery Project"
• On the disposition of surface parking, "Latest Version of Cannery Project Retreats from Walkability, but may offer More Housing"
• On Front Street, "Questions on Front Street"
• "The Cannery Project at the Hearings Officer Tonight"

Part of Condition 15 (options 1 & 2 omitted)

The 10-foot path along the river seems narrow, and the relation between the conceptual design work for the "street improvements" in condition 15 and the $2.7 million RAISE grant has not been explicated. The conceptual design work now adopted will determine elements for the RAISE grant work and narrows its possible outcomes, quite possibly in non-optimal ways. The City really should discuss this relation more. The cart sure looks like it's before the horse here.

Separately, it looks like some kind of strand lumber, mass timber, or other newfangled wood products will be used in the construction and this will be interesting to follow. 

On the whole the project is exciting.

Bullets for the rest:

• Until the City gets a handle on the short-term rentals — the AirBnB problem — the City proposes to carve out an exception for TOT monies. "Travel Salem has requested that the Code be amended so that operators of short term rentals are not...required to collect or remit the 2% fee, nor will they be eligible to object to renewal..." It looks like the owners of short-term rentals could band together and vote out the TOT! This eliminates that possibility.
• There's an update on the bond projects. There did not seem to be anything new here.
• The MU-III zoning has attracted another car dealership, this time on Silverton Road. The evidence piles up that the MU-III zone is misnamed and allows the City to inflate claims about the scope of actual mixed land use.
• There's an Intergovernmental Agreement with ODOT for more ADA curb ramps on State Highways, most of them this time on Mission Street, the Ferry/Trade couplet, and the Commercial/Liberty couplet north.
• And at last month's technical meeting for the MPO, the City shared that the "City of Salem did not receive the Safe Routes for All grant that would have improved pedestrian crossings." You may recall the ambitious list of 19 sites from back in May. Boo!
• Salem Reporter has more on the ambulance transition in, "City councilors to discuss authorizing funding for 60 new emergency medical employees."
  

Addendum, October 15th

Salem Reporter adds more in "Cannery redevelopment project gets green light from city."

The tone on the path and bike connectivity is odd.

The development will have more spaces for bikes than cars, with 439 bicycle parking spaces, and 422 for vehicles — most in a garage....

A greenway path will run the length of the property next to the Willamette River. That will provide space for bikes and pedestrians.

“We just didn’t want to have bikers riding up next to trains and cars,” Michels said.

Though it’s beyond the scope of the project, Michels said he’s hopeful neighboring property owners could eventually extend a greenway path along the river to connect the Front Street corridor to Riverfront Park.

There's just not room on a ten-foot path for a lot of bike traffic and foot traffic, especially if table dining is right there with people having to cross the pathways often. It's great there will be good bike parking, but if there's no connectivity on Front Street, it will be a total island with a bike path to nowhere.

Separately they note "Rogue Brewing has signed a letter of intent to occupy the brewery space."

(Also compare the paint scheme change between the image here and the image at SR! The mansard roof got a lot darker, and more brooding.)

The Cannery Project at the Hearings Officer Tonight

The Cannery redevelopment for the former Truitt Bros. site is at the Hearings Officer tonight, Wednesday the 25th. The project generally looks like a good addition to Salem, but it also still seems uncertain and complicated.

Previously:

• "Questions on the Cannery Proposal" (2023)
• A little, and links to more, on an historical homage, "A Mansard Roof for the Cannery Project"
• On the disposition of surface parking, "Latest Version of Cannery Project Retreats from Walkability, but may offer More Housing"
• And on Front Street, "Questions on Front Street"

The project is for 382 homes in three new apartment buildings and for 422 off-street parking stalls, 291 of them in a basement garages under each building.  The City eliminated minimum parking requirements last year, but we still have maximum limits, 930 stalls in this case. So 422 is very much a middle quantity of parking.

Newer renderings: 1914 building, food hall,
mansard roofs, interior driveway, river path
(updated project website)

There's also some adaptive reuse for buildings along the river, conceptually assigned to food and wine businesses. Riverside dining, perhaps!

We've already discussed the Mansard roof on the main buildings along Front, and in the packet are revised drawings for a tasting room on the interior of the lots, and food hall and market along the river. 

The oldest building is retained with few modifications, and currently the concept is for a tasting room and perhaps even a small winery or brewery. (There may not be enough room to deliver grapes and such at the site, and also the wine industry is currently experiencing a contraction with an oversupply of grapes and wine inventory, so this is very much a detail not to attach to.)

Adaptive Reuse: Tasting room

For the food hall and market concepts, these would use structural elements from older existing buildings but not maintain much else of the buildings themselves.

Latest Version of Cannery Project Retreats from Walkability, but may offer More Housing

The City's now published a formal Notice for a Public Hearing on the former Truitt Bros. site. It will be before the Hearings Officer on September 25th.

We've already mentioned the big style shift for a mansard roof detail echoing the mansard roofs of the long-gone 19th century mill buildings just to the south.

That's essentially a decorative detail for a bit of historical context.

Last year's renderings with plaza/walk
and retained 1914 building (2023)

A more structural element is the way what had been represented as a central plaza and walk (above) is now a parking lot with a smaller path alignment (below).

New plan. Building 5 = 1914 structure
The courtyard/walk is now a parking lot

That really shifts the project from something centered on walking to something much more autoist. There's still a line on the map for a path, but it is more peripheral now.

Latest overall site plan = tiny path, lots of parking

The retreat from a pedestrianized plaza not a reason to oppose the project, but it is a reminder not to get too attached to the first concept drawings and the hype around walkability. This is going to be a much more autoist project.

At No. 7 a parking garage previously (2023)

One reason for the change might be that the third building is housing now instead of a parking garage. (The two images flip north from right to left.) It might be that the total number of parking stalls is less and the total amount of housing is more. That would be a good change!

Additionally, even if the project wins approvals now, the applicant does not yet own the property, a design for Front Street is not settled, and the details for it in the 2024 drawing remain speculative.

Note also that these latest drawings do include trees. On FB a person objected that the elevations showing the new mansard roof did not include trees, but the site plan does show numerous trees in the landscaping.

Once the Staff Report and applicant narrative is published there might be more to say. But with ownership not yet transferred and with a new design for Front Street a few years away (not to mention funding for it, which will not be small), it's hard to project this as a near-term project and it seems unwise to get very attached to any details.

See previous notes on the Truitt Bros. site and cannery here.

A Mansard Roof for the Cannery Project and other Infill Bits

Yesterday's announcement about removing a skybridge over Front Street at the old Truitt Bros. cannery complex suggested that the redevelopment project was moving along and worth checking on.

Indeed the file is thick and it's met some "completeness" milestones.

A Mansard roof for the main building

Maybe the most striking element is the Mansard roof proposed for the main building.

Capitol Flour Mill as design cue
(Detail, Salem Library Historic Photos)

The designers are clearly nodding to the long-gone flour mill buildings a block south on Front Street, just across the creek. Even the building height is about the same.

• See "North Front Street Study Likely to Reveal Interesting Archeology and History"
  

Other than what is a kind of post-modern rhyme with decorative detail, in basic form it looks like pretty standard 5-over-1 construction, five floors over a podium.

There will be more to say as the project moves along! The timeline is still hard to see with the question of reconfiguring Front Street. Even with the Federal grant to fund the study, actual construction remains a little distant. Probably we should not get too attached to any particular design details just yet.

An urban mode greeting the sidewalk,
but a flood-prone site

Separately, there's a small apartment block proposed for a long vacant lot on State Street. The homes are in front, and parking is in back, and that looks good. It might be the first new project on State Street after the corridor study with new zoning and an improved street design. But it's right at the diversion dam for the Mill Race, and in years like 1996 and 2012 it's flooded significantly. It will be interesting to learn more about what provisions are being made for flooding.

Also, just north of the Police Station and across the street from Grocery Outlet there are two mixed use buildings proposed for a different long vacant lot. 

These are nice to see and maybe there will be more to say later on these also.

Questions on the Cannery Proposal

Despite the PR success in the media, with any sale of the former Truitt Bros. Cannery not yet closed, recent talk of a redevelopment project remains conceptual and speculative. 

Here are some questions and things that we'll be watching here. Maybe you will have others, too. (Drawings here are mainly from the project site.)

Realistic Schedules

As proponents hype the project, how much will published conceptual schedules be accelerated beyond realism?

Consider real schedules at the former Boise Cascade, the former Fairview, and the former north campus at the State Hospital (as well as the EWEB Steam Plant on the riverfront in Eugene). They all have taken longer than initial timelines suggested.

Scope of Preservation and Adaptive Reuse

The amount of preservation and reuse at Boise, Fairview, and the State Hospital have all been much less than originally hoped for.

The initial concept drawings on this project appear to show the retention and reuse of only one small building, a boiler and steam plant. The structure of two other buildings looking out over the river may be retained, but as buildings they appear to be wholly gutted and turned into covered dining pavilions. So a kind of half-preservation on those?

The gabled building dated 1914 only really retained

The long, main cannery building visible from Front Street looks like it is demolished and replaced by wholly new construction, probably the 5-over-1 style that prevails now. This demolition/replacement has not much been directly addressed in the early press.

5-over-1 construction along Front Street

Here are current conditions, with my interpretation of the plan added.

History in the Sunday Paper: Truitt Bros Cannery, Bush House, Saun Lee Lewis

A theme of history and change rings in several articles in the Sunday paper today. It's a reminder that the bundled product of a print edition remains pretty neat.

Concrete imprint on a loading dock (2015)

On the front page was news that the former Truitt Bros. cannery had a proposed sale and redevelopment project in the works.

Front page today

A century ago they were hyping dehydration at the plant.

June 1th, 1923

Dehydration hype, Canning Age, January 1920

It ran its course, important but not quite as revolutionary or enduring as it might have at one time seemed.

• "A Century Ago: Truitt Bros Building on Market and Front to Celebrate 100th" (2017)
  

The area has been of interest. Here's a proposal for mixed-use zoning from the 1997 North Downtown Plan.

Two Venerable Properties: Truitt Bros. Cannery for Sale and Fitts Seafood perhaps Sold

The Monday paper has a nice piece that ties the sale of a set of historic cannery buildings and land to the mixed-use zoning proposed in Our Salem.

Dehydration hype, Canning Age, January 1920

From the piece:

“We’d love to see waterfront housing — three- to four-story apartment buildings with a main commercial floor,” [owner Jordan Truitt] said. “I would love to see the existing buildings stay and the greenway stay and be repurposed.”...

He said the new Mixed-Use Riverfront zoning for the property proposed in the city’s “Our Salem” project would open the door for the Truitt brothers’ vision for a revitalized waterfront like those seen in other northwest cities.

Front page today

Previously from 2017, "Truitt Bros Building on Market and Front to Celebrate 100th."

Fitts Sold?

There have been rumors that Fitts Seafood has sold, and while its storefront is not the commanding riverfront property the cannery enjoys, it is an even more venerable enterprise, having started in 1901.

A Century Ago: Truitt Bros Building on Market and Front to Celebrate 100th

In the summer of 1917 the cannery on Front and Market Streets, now a Truitt Bros. facility, was constructed. For its age and role in a key Salem industry, it could be eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places or for other protection and notice under our historic preservation code. But it is also a working industrial building that has been remodeled, is not a high-style exemplar of anything, and is not something that needs to be "frozen in amber" with a fixation on any "historic integrity." As of 2013, it was not considered an "historic resource" in Salem.

While it's a building that deserves a certain deference, it is valuable mainly because it has remained useful. Hopefully can be adapted and readapted as each generation finds new uses. As our canning and food processing moves out onto the edges of the city, like the new Norpac complex at 25th and Madrona, and our riverfront property is gradually redeveloped with the concomitant demolitions, this is something to watch.

Concept drawing for Wittenburg-King Evaporating Plant
May 29th, 1917

From an announcement in May 1917:

Plans for the first unit of the big fruit and vegetable evaporating plant proposed by the Wittenburg-King company in Salem are being completed by Sutton & Whitney and construction on the unit will be commenced within a short time. The same architects have charge of the work on the branch plant for The Dalles. The plant in Salem will be an exceptionally large structure of its type when completed in all units. It will cover a total ground area 100 by 700 feet, fireproof construction in the first story and basement. The general structure will be one story and basement only, but there are two units, one for each end, to be 50 by 100 feet, which will be two stories and basement and more elaborate in their construction than the remainder of the plant. The first unit, which is now to go it, is one of these two-story portions planned for the general plant. The building will be at Market and Front streets, in Salem, and will serve as the headquarters and parent plant for the fruit and vegetable evaporating industry which the Wittenburg-King company is developing. The demands of the business are growing so steadily and rapidly that it was necessary in planning the plant to proved for quickly increasing calls for floor space and hence the expansive unit design that has been developed. The first unit, completed, will represent an outlay of approximately $30,000 and the entire plant when completed will represent between $150,000 and $200,000.

Wittenberg-King Ad, Better Fruit, vol 13, May 1919

Wittenberg-King was a Portland company, and was expanding in The Dalles and in Salem. It appears they were developing a cooler air dehydration in competition with hot canning and with hot dehydrating as a major industrial form of food preservation.