Envisioning a “cottage cluster” in a south Philomath neighborhood, property owner Martin Kribs wants to build 16 small-scale housing units with residents sharing a common open space while getting to know each other and enjoying life in a small community.
“We’re intending to live there ourselves and we want it to be a nice project and fit in with the neighborhood,” Kribs told the Philomath City Council Monday night, later adding, “It’s a community atmosphere that we’re hoping to build.”
The 1.59-acre lot is located on the west side of South 15th Street across from the Millpond Crossing development just south of the Cooper Lane-Timothy Street intersection. Following public hearings on the matter, the council unanimously approved the property’s annexation into the city and then rezoning it as high-density residential.
Most of the neighbors to the project — at least those who spoke during Monday night’s public hearings — do not share the same vision. Instead, they see a range of issues that include fears of flooding, inadequate sidewalks, lack of parking and an overall ruined dynamic to the community.
During the annexation hearing, one person spoke in favor and five people spoke in opposition. One neighbor wrote that the cottage cluster would integrate well into the neighborhood.
“We need more affordable housing, within the city and its schools and shopping,” he wrote. “This project brilliantly caters to those needs and offers flexible solutions to diverse family needs.”
During the hearing, a neighbor from across the street testified in favor of what Kribs wants to do with the property.
“These types of houses would be perfect for people who want to get into a smaller community,” said the resident who moved to Philomath three years ago and got to know Kribs’ late father, who lived on the property. “A lot of people might come in and want to build a big apartment complex or something but he’s wanting to keep it small, he’s wanting to live here and be a part of that.”
But not everybody sees the project as an asset and those folks got their points across during the annexation hearing. ,One resident who said he has lived in Philomath since 1987, spoke with specific examples about flooding in the South 15th Street vicinity.
“We know how the water moves through the area and when it comes through, it comes through with quite a velocity,” he said, later adding, “My concern on the size of this development and the density of this development and the location of this development is what happens in the winter on the south end of Philomath — not what happens in July.”
Others had similar comments.
“How many people were here in ’96 … ’98 wasn’t much better,” another resident said while approaching councilors. “As long as the Marys River hits the Willamette and the Willamette is up, the Marys is going to back up and that’s where the problem lies. And until you can resolve that problem, this area is going to be a flood zone.”
The potential of flooding was mentioned often among those testifying in opposition but sidewalk accessibility, traffic, parking and well-related health concerns were also mentioned. One resident talked about how the development would ruin the neighborhood.
“We’re excited to be in the neighborhood and finding this out kind of threw us for a loop, kind of a curveball,” a next-door neighbor testified. “The whole neighborhood has kids, I see it all the time — they’re throwing the football out on 15th Street … With the addition of 16 houses in this pocket neighborhood, it’s going to increase traffic through that zone, limiting the opportunities for kids to play out there.”
The resident then submitted a petition with signatures to the city recorder.
Kribs responded during a rebuttal period that he is following everything that is required legally and through development agreements that will be in place.
Beyond the development plans, another component of the annexation came down to Benton County’s decision about the private septic system’s status. The property owner was informed in August that it considered the system “failed” based on its proximity to a well and drainfield and access to city services.
The property currently has a single-unit detached house and two outbuildings. With the annexation, the city can provide water, wastewater, storm drain, park and street services. The private system would be deemed “abandoned” and sealed.
Following approval of the annexation, the property came into the city limits automatically as low-density residential. But to move forward with the development, rezoning to high-density residential would be needed.
The rezoning hearing featured a similar tone. Nobody spoke in favor, four people were against and two people spoke as neutral. Flooding again represented the most-often mentioned concern. Said one resident, “Basically, I hope you guys would say ‘no’ and leave it as it is.”
The neighborhood’s makeup again surfaced as an issue. Speaking about small-scale residences, one person said, “I don’t have a problem with doing some affordable housing for families but that is a family neighborhood (nearby) and that is a big concern.”
Two others spoke as neutral — one mentioning inadequate parking concerns and another speaking on how the units would be owner-occupied homes, which would “bring up the status of the neighborhood as far as how it comes across to neighbors.”
Kribs, later speaking to concerns that had been aired about the lack of driveways in front of the cottages, said, “What ends up happening is by walking to the units, folks tend to interact more and it builds more of a community. We see it as a feature more than a bug and so it is that way by design.”
A homeowner’s association would oversee the cottage cluster neighborhood and collectively maintain the property, he said.
The annexation and rezoning requests went through the Planning Commission earlier this month and were moved forward with recommendations for approval.
Even if councilors had some of the same concerns as those who spoke in opposition, they are legally tasked with making a decision based on whether the applications conform to applicable criteria as required by the city’s development code.
City Councilor Christopher McMorran voiced support for such projects during a time when housing options in Oregon communities have become few and far between.
“I’m personally a big fan of providing more options for various age ranges,” McMorran said, who as a man in his mid-20s shared that he wants to spend his future in Philomath, perhaps someday with a family of his own. “I think something we run into in Philomath is we raise really great kids with great educations and great skills and then we don’t have opportunities for them to stay here. So, they leave and we kind of export our greatest asset and then maybe they come back in 10, 20 years when they have a family.”
In the meantime, he added, those young people spend their “prime years” entering the workforce and contributing to local economies somewhere else.
During the public hearing, more than one resident indicated that they did not want to see the small-scale residences in favor of larger, traditional family homes.
Speaking in that vein and continuing with his point, McMorran said, “I’m all for family housing but I also think we should have opportunities for folks to stay here and continue to contribute the gifts that we’ve given them as young people around Philomath.”
