An Update From Your Ward 8 Salem City Councilor, Micki Varney
By Micki Varney, For The West Side Newspaper
Two land use issues are top of mind for Salem residents these days -- a proposed hyperscale data center in South Salem, and a new housing development near the high school in West Salem. Both are significant, but they've unfolded very differently in how the public learned about them, how much input residents had early on, and how transparent the process has been.
Members of the public learned about the Verrus data center project on July 13, when the city's 16-month long nondisclosure agreement with the company was lifted. Verrus filed its first land-use application with the City only two weeks later, on July 31.
The Cherry Hill development in West Salem followed a more open path. Plans were first shared publicly at a WSNA meeting on March 5, followed by my early April meeting with the project consultant where I expressed my concerns about traffic impacts from so many housing units on our already-stressed local streets and Wallace Road NW. Soon thereafter, a resident group called Friends of West Salem Hills was formed to organize concerns and push for solutions. But I’ll let one of them tell their story:
“Often the government decisions most important to our daily lives are those that begin at the local level. In West Salem, the local government level is the West Salem Neighborhood Association. Every homeowner or renter who lives west or north of the Willamette River within Salem’s Urban Growth Boundary is a member of the WSNA. West Salem property or business owners are members, too.
It is important for each one of you to show up and use your voice. Here is one example from our area of how you can help shape your local land use decisions:
Plans are underway for the approximate 127-acre Cherry Hill Development along Orchard Heights Road NW. Currently, it is largely farmland and wetlands, surrounded mostly by nearby residences. Its development will have a huge impact on West Salem.
City procedure requires the developer to share its plan with WSNA before submitting its application to the City. The pre-application plan the developer presented called for 730 to 930 housing units, including 500 apartments or senior-housing facility units on 18 acres and one 16-acre park.
Member Doug Cody learned of the project through the WSNA. He created a Facebook page for the Friends of West Salem Hills and organized two well-attended ice cream socials for neighbor-to-neighbor information sharing and discussion. At the next WSNA meeting, members turned out in force, packing the room and raising objections.
The developer heard your voices and modified its plan. In place of the 500 apartments or senior-housing facility units, the developer added a natural park area on the west. The plan keeps a developed park in the northeast, which is to be funded by system development charges.
Doug said, “No one plan is going to please everybody. But, instead of upsetting all of us by radically changing the existing tranquil neighborhood, the developer is now giving back to help preserve it. The planned developed park on the northeast end will give the larger community safe, accessible walking and biking access, including for the 186 new Orchard Heights Apartments and the close-by schools. The west park area will continue to provide habitat for the birds and wildlife, the wetland area remains in its natural state, and the park’s undeveloped nature will help moderate climate.”
The developer’s plan needs to work its way through multiple stages of evaluation and review before it reaches the City Council. Still, change for the better always begins at the grassroots level.