Scott Swanson
Of The New Era
The developers of the Edgewater development at the corner of 54th Avenue and Highway 20 are planning to open a 49-space recreational vehicle park on the west side 60th Avenue by the start of summer.
Dan McGarry and Steve Leith, who have been partners in the five-acre development on land they bought in 2002, are finishing up the nine lakeside condominiums on the east side of 60th Avenue. All but two have been sold, McGarry said, and the developers are turning their attention to the rest of the project, the RV park and a proposed marina.
The RV park will include a 24,000-square-foot three-story commercial building which, ideally, will be completed by the summer of 2009, he said, and will house four to six condominiums on the upper floor, a restaurant and lounge on the second floor, and a retail store that will sell bait and tackle and RV supplies, along with typical market fare. He said other possibilities for the building include spas, offices and conference facilities.
The RV park was reduced one space from what was originally proposed to make the 49 remaining spaces larger, he said. The RV sites will range from 30 to 65 feet in depth and will be 12 feet wide.
Sweet Home city Planning Director Carol Lewis said the RV park is well under construction and she noted that the proposed building will be “a big commercial structure for us.”
She said the park is a permitted outright use, meaning that the developers will not need to get approval from either the Planning Commission or City Council.
“When we put the planned recreation/commercial zone in place in 2003 (in the city’s master plan), that’s the kind of use we intended,” she said.
McGarry said the RV park is being designed as a destination resort-type facility. He said the partners are getting “pretty regular phone calls” from RV owners interested in using the facility. Initially, he said, it will be first come, first served, but if demand builds sufficiently, they may go to a lottery system for those who want to reserve a spot.
The other part of the development, a proposed marina to be located on a 100-yard stretch of the lakefront behind the existing condominiums, has received “conditional support” from the Operations Division of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Portland District, which controls Foster Reservoir. The partners are working on a master plan for the development, he said.
Jaimee W. Hammit, the Corps’ project manager for the proposed marina, said that although the Corps’ Operations Division, which handles real estate issues, has given the project the nod, the Regulatory Division, which she represents, has yet to take it up.
“We haven’t even received an application for it,” she said. Hammit said Corps staff have held a pre-application meeting with her to give her a preliminary overview of the project.
McGarry said things have not gone “exactly according to plan, but they’re going,” he said.
The plan, currently, is for a marina with100 year-round slips and 150 high-pool slips, the latter only available during the summer when the lake is full, located between the staircase from the existing parking lot and the new condominiums on the lake.
McGarry emphasized that the partners plan to charge “competitive” prices – $17 a day for temporary use, $225-$375, depending on the size of the boat, for monthly use, and $650-$850 for seasonal use. They plan to have water and electricity available at the slips, fuel and a sewer dump for sailboats and larger craft.
He said Leith has been key in working with the Corps.
“Steve accomplished it,” he said of the progress they’ve made thus far.
Leith said establishing a good working relationship with Corps staffers has been critical.
“What we’ve done is build a relationship and we’re continuing to do so,” he said.
“We all need to work together to make this project come together,” he said. “It’s communication.”
McGarry said it’s important for local people to remember that the Corps is a federal agency and its staff is not constant.
“All of it is in the approach,” he said of the partners’ strategy. “People that start demanding things from the Corps, the Corps is going to shut that down real quick.”
Leith pointed out that Corps staffers work under a charter that requires them to balance competing concerns such as flood control, recreation, fish management and drinking water.
“The Corps is not here to serve us,” he said. “They have to manage all these other interests.”
So far, he said, the process has taken the partners and others four years and “lots of money.”
McGarry said once the Regulatory Division gets an application, the partners expect the agency to conduct a public meeting at which local residents can voice their opinions on the project.
He said he and Leith see the project as a “springboard for the community.”
“Our goal is to build something we can enjoy and that the community can benefit from,” he said. The partners see potential for a wide variety of activities, including boat races, water ski and jet ski competitions and X-games-type activities.
“We want to start getting Sweet Home on the map,” Leith said.
The partners are clearly confident that they’re on the right track.
“One thing we have stressed in the development of this property is that we have done exactly what we said we were going to do,” McGarry said.
“We don’t say we’re going to do something, then pull out and downsize from what was originally approved.”