Kelly Kenoyer
Sweet Home planning commissioners on Monday, Sept. 21, approved a property line adjustment which will allow for a new subdivision on the north side of Long Street and east of 41st Avenue.
That property has been considered for development twice before, but a new owner is again requesting permission to split the 13.57-acre property into 54 lots.
The development, called “Duck Hollow III” for its role as the “third phase” of a development project that started with the adjacent property in 1998, will create a new 42nd Avenue off Long, and will intersect with a neighboring street called Lily. A prior attempt to develop the property came right before the 2008 financial crash, so the project was abandoned at the time and sold to a new developer named Don Jensen.
The 54 new houses will be built in two phases, said Brian Vandetta, an engineer for the project.
Commissioners Henry Wol-thuis, Jeff Parker, Eva Jurney, Greg Stephens and Greg Korn attended the Planning Commission meeting, with Lance Gatchell and Candice Unger absent.
Associate Planner Angela Clegg said the plan will have to go through the state Department of Environmental Quality for approval because the property includes some wetlands – namely, Duck Creek. Only about eight acres of the land will be set as plots for development, with the rest remaining as tracts for wetland preservation and drainage.
Maintenance of those tracts falls to the future homeowners within the new development, city staff said. The commission discussed requiring a Homeowners Association, but the developers asked that the actual options remain open.
“We would request that the HOA be included as a condition unless city staff finds another acceptable mechanism,” Vandetta said.
Commissioner Henry Wolthius said he was amenable to that concern.
“Let me say one more thing about HOAs. They seem to be a solution to a lot of things, but they also can sour,” he said. “HOAs are not the answer to everything.”
Commissioner Greg Stephens agreed.
“They are the answer to very little, generally.”
A few neighbors attended the Planning Commission meeting to voice concerns, though none came out against the entire development. Concerns ranged from requests that certain trees remain on the property to calls for a fence to go up around the creek to protect children.
City staff connected the neighbors with the owner of the property for further discussion.
To prevent the first phase of sold homes from dealing with construction traffic, the commission also mandated that a temporary construction access road be placed along 42nd to manage traffic during Phase 2 of the project. Each phase has a 24-month deadline for completion. Before that, the developers have 24 months to get permits together, and a year to provide the city with a permanent plat. The commissioners in attendance voted unanimously in favor of the amended plan.
SHFAD Storage Building
Also at the planning commission meeting, the Sweet Home Fire District received a conditional use permit for a 40-foot by 50-foot storage building on its property at 1099 Long St.
Fire Chief Dave Barringer said the new building would meet the department’s growing needs for the next 10 to 15 years.
“We have some water rescue equipment that needs to be housed inside. It’s not good for it to be housed outside,” he said. “We’ve been there for 25 years and we’re outgrowing what we have.”
The new building will meet those immediate needs and cover future needs as well, he said, and should last “as long as I’m alive.”
Commissioners voted unanimously to approve the permit. They also approved a simultaneous property line adjustment, which made it possible to place the building on the property.