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Sitting among commercial and industrial properties on the east side of Interstate 5, an old Wilsonville farmhouse looks eerily out of place.

Motorists passing the property just north of a Xerox corporate building and south of a Target store, at 26120 S.W. Parkway Ave., might think some stubborn farmer refuses to sell. They would be partially correct.

Ralph Elligsen, 87, admits to being stubborn, but not because he refuses to sell his 32-acre property. He wants to sell the land, he said; he just doesn’t want to sell for industrial use. That presents a problem, because the land is zoned regionally significant industrial.

鈥淭hat’s kind of a big word, ain’t it?鈥� Elligsen said. 鈥淓very Tom, Dick and Harry has had his eyes on that property. I’ve had many suitors for that site over the years.鈥�

One of them was Cabela’s 鈥� an outdoors retailer. Company executives in 2010 expressed interest in building a 125,000-square-foot store on the property. The zoning conflict killed the deal, and Elligsen blames city officials.

鈥淭hey kind of ran them out of town,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hat’s the God’s honest truth.鈥�

Well, not exactly, Wilsonville city planner Kristin Rutherford said. Because it’s regionally significant industrial land, she said, zoning is determined by Metro, a regional agency, rather than the city itself.

鈥淚t is really out of our hands,鈥� Rutherford said.

Besides, she added, traffic through Wilsonville is often notoriously congested. Generating more commercial traffic would only make matters worse, she said. But Elligsen doesn’t buy that argument.

鈥淲ell, I don’t think that’s going to make a 鈥� bit of difference,鈥� he said.

Stafford and Wilsonville roads could be connected, Elligsen said. In the meantime, he added, the land continues to be farmed.

鈥淚 still got a farm deferral, but I can’t do a thing with it,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 make dust, and everyone complains.鈥�

Elligsen added that one thing is certain: Wilsonville doesn’t need more industrial land.

鈥淭he city has more industrial land than they know what to do with,鈥� he said.

Elligsen’s family bought the Wilsonville property from the original owners in 1957. At the time, Wilsonville was not incorporated; it didn’t become a city until 1969.

Elligsen continues to live on a separate parcel 鈥� in the Stafford area of West Linn, near Wilsonville 鈥� that George and Katherine Elligsen began farming in the 1890s. Southwest Elligsen Road, at an Interstate 5 interchange, is named after the family.

The Wilsonville farm dates back to at least 1900, when the farmhouse was built.

In 2006, Elligsen filed a $7.3 million claim under Oregon Measure 37. The measure, passed by voters in 2004, let property owners file for damages when land-use regulations significantly reduced their property values. The result was a flood of costly complaints that led voters in 2007 to reverse or limit the provisions of Measure 37 via Measure 49. Elligsen’s claim was denied the same year it was filed.

Tax records place the total taxable value of the land at $630,750.

For now, Elligsen said, he’ll keep farming the property.

鈥溾�� I’m still farming it myself,鈥� he said. 鈥淢y dad always said he’d farm until the money ran out.鈥�

The tussle over the land has become a waiting game between him and the city and regional officials, he added.

鈥淚 think they’re waiting for me to die,鈥� he said. 鈥淏y God, that’s the truth.鈥�