Philomath grew by a couple of acres a few weeks ago with the City Council’s approval of an annexation request.
The property sits on North Ninth Street adjacent to Marilyn Drive. It currently has an unoccupied house and two outbuildings. Included in the annexation was an adjacent portion of North Ninth as requested by Benton County. Although now in the city limits, the county will continue to have jurisdiction over the street and handle maintenance.
The annexation allows for up to 22 “housing units” to be constructed (duplexes or triplexes). As part of annexation applications, city code requires that a conceptual development be included to give residents an idea of what could be constructed on the property. The city always looks at the highest, most-intense use of the property under the zoning designation.
All of the infrastructure capacity boxes were checked and among the conditions of approval is that the property must tie into the city’s sidewalk system within 18 months (unless the house is demolished).
The council unanimously approved the annexation on a 6-0 vote (Chas Jones absent).
In conjunction with the annexation, the applicant, Gregory Phelps, also submitted paperwork to request that the property be rezoned to high-density residential (upon annexation, the 1.99 acres automatically enters the city as medium-density residential). However, the City Council arrived at the same conclusion as the Planning Commission and rejected the zone change.
The City Council was reviewing the rezoning request after Phelps appealed the Planning Commission’s decision. If approved, it would have allowed for up to 57 high-density housing units.
The city received a good number of written testimony from residents and there were two proponents and four opponents that spoke at the July 22 public hearing.
During deliberations after the close of the hearing, councilors did add more specific language to a particular finding of fact in the Planning Commission’s denial that basically related to the existence of alternative locations with better transit and pedestrian access. In other words, they believe the adverse effects outweighed the advantageous benefits if the rezoning occurred.
There were many more points brought up and the residents had interesting testimony. You can watch a video of the public hearing on the city’s YouTube channel.
2. More timber mill closures
Back in mid-February, we reported on the unfortunate closure of the Interfor sawmill that unemployed around 100 people. The sawmill ceased operations immediately with 57 layoffs and by the following month, the shipping, kiln and planer part of the business shut down.
At the time, Interfor described the action as an “indefinite curtailment of the operation” that was “in response to persistent high log costs in the region and ongoing weak lumber market conditions.”
News surfaced earlier this week that another sawmill in the area, Western Cascade Industries in Toledo, closed at the end of July. The decision means about 50 people will lose their jobs.
“They’re shutting the power off Aug. 1, is what I’ve been told,” the mill’s general manager, Walt Adams, told the Lincoln County Leader. “They’re pulling the plug here, so everybody’s going to be laid off by the end of this month.”
So far this year, seven timber mills have closed in Oregon. Just recently, Malheur Lumber Co. in John Day shut down and laid off 76 employees. Other closures this year have included Hampton Lumber at Banks in January, Rosboro Co. in Springfield in February, Prairie Wood Products in March and C&D Lumber in Riddle.
Perhaps mill closures will be a topic for Sen. Ron Wyden upon his visit to Philomath next week.
3. Fire and Rescue’s busy July
Philomath Fire and Rescue responded to 112 calls in July — that’s 50 involving firefighters and 62 for emergency medical services, Public Information Officer Rich Saalsaa said. The fire district’s response percentage was more than double than the average.
During the week of July 5-11, the department had 41 calls, which was nearly six calls per day on average.
Last week was more of a normal week for staff and volunteers with 21 calls but there doesn’t appear to be much relief on the horizon.
“With the return of the heat, comes increased fire danger,” said Saalsaa, who is also Philomath’s deputy fire chief. “There is a high probability of dry lightning to the east and northeast part of the state, increasing the risk of lightning-caused wildfires.”
Just recently, the Oregon State Fire Marshal’s “Green” incident management team was deployed to the Telephone Fire near Burns along with four task forces (20 apparatus made up of brush engines, tenders, personnel and leaders) due to extreme fire behavior and rapid growth with structures threatened.
As of Saturday morning, the Telephone Fire was at 49,821 acres. Philomath Fire and Rescue was on standby for the deployment of a brush engine. Saalsaa himself was also on standby as part of the Oregon State Fire Marshal’s “Red” team.
(Brad Fuqua is publisher/editor of the Philomath News. He can be reached at News@PhilomathNews.com).