Residents of West Linn’s Willamette neighborhood are pushing back against the proposed development of 26 duplexes near the Willamette River in an area called “Willamette Wetlands.”
Rivianna Beach, as property owner Bob Schultz plans to call the new housing development, would be located on 5th Avenue between 4th Street and 7th Street just above the wetlands and the settling pond of the old Blue Heron Mill.
Residents are primarily concerned about the development’s impacts on the wetlands, though their Change.org petition also cites worries about traffic impacts, pedestrian safety and overall inadequate infrastructure for 52 new families.
“Harmful construction waste, vehicles, machinery, and equipment, construction and residential chemical runoff into wetland riparian zone, increased air and noise pollution from construction and new resident’s vehicles, wildlife movements limited by human activities and light pollution from 52 new homes will harm nocturnal creatures,” are issues listed in the petition, which has been signed by just over 1,000 people and provided to city leaders.
Residents of the Willamette neighborhood and members of a group called “Friends of the Wetlands” attended a Willamette Neighborhood Association meeting July 10 to hear about the project and voice their concerns to Schultz and a team of consultants working on the project.
Mercedes Serra, a project manager at 3J Consulting, informed those at the meeting that the project was still in the pre-application phase, with the official development application not expected to be submitted to the city until the fall.
Serra said the current plan is for the 52 housing units to be attached duplexes, though she stressed the plans are not final, nor are the prices of the new homes. She added that the homes will be market rate.
The project team hopes construction of the homes will begin in the summer of 2025.
Addressing concerns about wildlife
Consultants also assured residents that homes would not be built on the actual wetland.
“The entire wetland in its current configuration will be preserved,” Serra said. “In addition to that, the invasive species that are currently there will be removed and it will be replanted with native habitat species that better serve the habitat ecology.”
After the neighborhood meeting, Friends of the Willamette Wetlands flagged an earlier development submittal which referenced the removal and relocation of beavers living in the wetlands, though Serra and West Linn planning manager John Floyd assured the group members that removing the beavers was no longer part of the plan. Floyd shared with the friends a letter sent to him from a beaver expert hired to work on the project.
“The goal is to safe-guard the beavers and their habitat, while exploring opportunities for people to engage with the rich ecology of this site. I have been contracted to write a ‘beaver plan’ for this site, which will recommend strategies and tactics to achieve this goal as this project moves forward,” Jakob Shockey of Beaver State Wildlife Solutions wrote in the letter to Floyd. “For example, this beaver plan will recommend the installation of a pond leveler at the beaver dam near 4th street to keep it at its current elevation, discuss maintenance for this flow device and contingencies if beavers build a new dam in the 4th street culvert. Neither the beavers or their dam will be removed. This beaver plan is a priority and it will be made publicly available once it is complete.”
Serra also noted that a vegetative buffer will run between the settling pond and wetland and the homes, which she said will not have a backyard but back up to the buffer.
As for traffic and safety concerns, the project team said 5th Avenue will be widened and sidewalks will be added. The team also said a traffic study is underway.
At the Willamette Neighborhood Association meeting, consultants emphasized that they were there to hear residents’ thoughts and concerns about specific aspects of the proposal. The planning commission will ultimately decide whether to approve the land use application for this project based on whether it meets the applicable code. However the appeals process could eventually take the decision to the City Council and the Land Use Board of Appeals.
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