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The piece of land at the corner of Murray Boulevard and Cornell Road in Washington County may not look like much to most people passing by. The .76-acre site has access issues. The ghost of the foundation and some remnants of pipe work of a building that once housed a dry cleaning business can still be seen.

But Stephen Roberts, Washington County Land Use and Transportation special projects coordinator, thinks that in the hands of the right developer, the parcel could become the gateway to the neighborhood known as Cedar Mill.

The county earlier this week issued a for the property. The hope is that using the flexible approach will encourage input from as many people as possible.

Drumming up ideas for the property, which sits at the southeast corner of the intersection of Murray and Cornell, hasn’t been easy in the past. Since obtaining the property about six or seven years ago as part of a road improvement project, the county has been approached by a couple of interested parties. But that interest has never surfaced at a time when the county has been in a place to consider development of the parcel, Roberts said.

When the county did finally decide to put it on the market, there weren’t any takers, not even when the parcel was listed as a sheriff’s sale.

Since then, though, the area has gone through some noticeable changes, spurred in large part by steps the county took to make Cedar Mill more attractive to developers and business owners, according Roberts.

The dry cleaning business that once sat on the property left behind some ground contamination issues that the county has cleaned up. The county also changed zoning in the area to encourage more mixed-use projects and construction closer to the street.

鈥淭here are some cool businesses going into the area, more restaurants, a Walgreens,鈥� Roberts said. 鈥淭here’s a lot of stuff that’s been going on down there, so it feels like it’s the right time to get something going (on that piece of land).鈥�

Turning the property into a viable development will require some innovative thinking, according to Washington County Commissioner Greg Malinowski. Street access to the parcel, for example, is a challenge, including a bordering one-way street.

鈥淵ou have a hard time getting in and a worse time getting out,鈥� Malinowski said.

Malinowski and Roberts agree that a best-case scenario for the property would be a mixed-use project that encourages pedestrians. The area is served by two bus lines. The demographics are what Roberts calls 鈥済ood,鈥� and traffic counts are high, with more than 30,000 cars passing by the property on a daily basis.

While Malinowski, who represents the Cedar Mill area, admits he isn’t a developer, he does think the inclusion of a semi-public plaza in any development on the land might help attract foot traffic.

鈥淲e don’t want Cedar Mill to just be part of a five-mile-long commercial strip,鈥� Malinowski said. 聽鈥�(A project built on the parcel) could become the front door to the Cedar Mill area.鈥�

The county would like to see construction on the site start by the end of 2016 and is requesting Requests for Expressions of Interest be submitted by Sept. 14. But that’s a 鈥渟oft鈥� deadline, according to Roberts.

鈥淚 think if somebody contacted us and said they were interested, we would keep that in mind,鈥� Roberts said.

For more information on Washington County’s Request for Expressions of Interest for the Cornell/Murray project in the Cedar Mills area, visit the . Those interested in submitting a proposal can contact Stephen Roberts, Washington County Land Use and Transportation special projects coordinator, at [email protected] or at 503-846-3798.

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