Neighbors for Sensible Development, a group of neighbors and local residents opposing a planned unit development proposed at the south end of Sunset Lane, have filed an intent to appeal the Sweet Home City Council’s approvals of the project last month.
Two intents to appeal was filed with the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals on Jan. 2. The first intent to appeal is over the council’s approval of the planned unit development (PUD) overlay zone for the project. The second appeals the Council’s approval of the subdivision related to the PUD.
Neighbors for Sensible Development appealed the Sweet Home Planning Commission’s approval of the subdivision to the City Council. The City Council upheld the Planning Commission decision 6-1, with Robert G. Danielson voting in opposition to the subdivision. Voting in favor of the subdivision were Bob McIntire, Jim Gourley, Craig Fentiman, Dick Hill, Jim Bean and Mayor Tim McQueary.
Danielson also opposed the PUD. Voting in favor of the PUD were McIntire, Fentiman, Hill and Bean. Gourley and Mayor McQueary abstained from the vote after missing parts of the hearings.
Neighbors for Sensible Development, last fall, filed an intent to appeal a pre-application meeting between the Planning Commission and Linn County Affordable Housing, which is proposing the PUD, Brookside Development. Neighbors for Sensible Development claim that there was no notice of the meeting, no public hearing and a decision was improperly reached.
City of Sweet Home officials say that a decision was never reached in the pre-application meeting.
Neighbors for Sensible Development primarily opposed the PUD under a claim that the infrastructure in the area was inadequate for the addition of the Brookside Development’s 23 units, including 13 single-family houses for sale and 10 duplex units for rent by low-income seniors and disabled persons. They also claimed that Brookside Development would not be in keeping with the character of the neighborhood.
Following the filing of the intents to appeal, the City of Sweet Home must submit its record of the PUD and subdivision processes to LUBA.
Neighbors for Sensible Development are represented in the two new appeals by Sydney E. Brewster of Attorney Wallace W. Lien’s office in Salem.