Portland & Western Railroad is facing a federal complaint before the U.S. Surface Transportation Board alleging that the railroad is shirking its obligations in the aftermath of a railroad bridge’s collapse into the Marys River in Corvallis in January 2025.

The complaint from farmer Larry Venell alleges that the railroad “refused to take any action or provide any information regarding a timeline to resume service” in the 17 months since the bridge collapse.

The railroad is stuck between its legal obligation to provide “common carrier” rail service, and the reality of an estimated $4 million to $6.5 million cost to rebuild the bridge and restore rail service for a handful of small-scale agricultural customers.

Portland & Western Railroad (PNWR) has left two locomotives and 16 railcars stranded on tracks south of Corvallis’ airport.

PNWR has taken no apparent steps to rebuild the bridge. The city of Corvallis has received no permit applications related to bridge reconstruction, city spokesman Patrick Rollens stated in an email.

An attorney for the railroad, Justin Marks of Clark Hill in Washington, D.C., referred questions to the railroad, which did not respond. The complaint names Portland & Western and its parent company, Genesee & Wyoming Inc., a holding company based in Connecticut.

In a February email to the 91��Ƶ, Genesee & Wyoming spokesman Tom Ciuba stated: “We’re still evaluating repairs as well as a plan to retrieve the locomotives that were involved in the incident, as we do need them for operations.”

The complaint charges that the railroads are violating their obligations as common carriers under federal law. Rail carriers are generally required to provide rail service upon “reasonable request.”

Venell charges that PNWR plans to remove the locomotives rather than resume rail service. The railroad has sought contractors to remove the locomotives by truck; one quoted $409,890 for the job.

“By attempting to remove its stranded rail equipment from (Venell’s) property by truck at a significant cost — while failing to take steps to restore interchange service as a common carrier — PNWR has demonstrated that it has no intention of resuming such service anytime soon,” the complaint alleges. The complaint was by local journalist Hasso Hering.

The railroad denied the allegations in a May 28 legal filing, and suggested it does not plan to rebuild the bridge. The railroad estimated it would cost $4 million to replace the bridge span if the remaining timber foundations and spans could be used, or approximately $6.5 million to replace the whole structure.

PNWR also instituted an embargo on the rail line, formally placing it out of service.

“Given the high cost of rebuilding the bridge and the anticipated low volume and revenues from traffic that would move to and from the Bailey Branch extension, (Portland & Western) was justified in not moving forward to rebuild the bridge, and in imposing the embargo,” Portland & Western’s attorneys stated.

If funding is not available to rebuild the bridge, the attorneys added, “then (Portland & Western) would be justified in seeking discontinuance authority from the board with respect to its lease of the Bailey Branch” in that area.

Venell’s companies VFRC, a limited liability company, and Venell Farms Inc. are the plaintiffs for the federal complaint alongside Albany & Eastern Railroad Co. Venell did not respond to a message seeking comment Thursday.

Venell recently sent the railroad a $400,000 invoice for “16 months siding and yard rent for two locomotives, PNWR3532 & PNWR3549, Jan. 2025 through April 2026.”

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality fined Portland & Western $81,600 for the bridge collapse, which plunged railcars into the Marys River. The agency found that the crashed railcars released approximately 199 tons of urea — a common fertilizer ingredient — into the river.

The DEQ further ordered PNWR to report on the condition of its other wooden trestles in Oregon.

“Given the circumstances of this incident, DEQ is concerned about the condition and safety of Portland & Western Inc.’s railroad crossings over water bodies,” DEQ interim enforcement manager Erin Saylor wrote to the railroad on Nov. 25, 2025.

The trestle was previously damaged in a 2002 fire started by a meth lab explosion, according to the plaintiffs’ attorneys. The cross braces “were severely burned and sustained substantial damage,” but the railroad did not replace the damaged portions, the complaint alleges.

The trestle collapsed on Jan. 4, 2025, under the weight of railcars.

The railroad disputed that the bridge failed because of fire damage, instead blaming “extreme high-water conditions” on the river.

PNWR operates the line, known as the Bailey Branch, under a lease from Union Pacific. The branch extends 17.7 miles from Corvallis to Monroe, with a spur to Dawson.

Venell, who farms wheat, grass seed and animal feed, has a long history of disputes with the railroad. He sued Union Pacific and Genessee & Western in 2007, alleging the railroads had failed to repair and maintain the track. Venell later purchased a section of the line from Union Pacific rather than continue the lawsuit.

The Marys River incident came amid a spate of rail accidents that raised questions about the quality of Oregon’s rail infrastructure. A PNWR train derailed near Toledo in January on a trestle over another small body of water, Ollala Slough. Then in February, seven boxcars derailed in Union Pacific’s Eugene rail yard.

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By MIKE SCHNEIDER
Associated Press

Bye-bye, Bismarck. So long, Sheboygan.

Those cities in North Dakota and Wisconsin, respectively, are two of 144 that the federal government is proposing to downgrade from the metropolitan statistical area designation, and it could be more than just a matter of semantics. Officials in some of the affected cities worry that the change could have adverse implications for federal funding and economic development.

Under the new proposal, a metro area would have to have at least 100,000 people in its core city to count as an MSA, double the 50,000-person threshold that has been in place for the past 70 years. Cities formerly designated as metros with core populations between 50,000 and 100,000 people, like Bismarck and Sheboygan, would be changed to “micropolitan” statistical areas instead.

A committee of representatives from federal statistical agencies recently made the recommendations to the Office of Management and Budget, saying it’s purely for statistical purposes and not to be used for funding formulas. As a practical matter, however, that is how it’s often used.

Several housing, transportation and Medicare reimbursement programs are tied to communities being metropolitan statistical areas, or MSAs, so the designation change concerns some city officials.

In Corvallis, Oregon, the state designates certain funding sources to metropolitan statistical areas and any change to the city’s status could create a ripple effect, particularly when it comes to transportation funding, said Patrick Rollens, a spokesman for the city that is home to Oregon State University.

“I won’t lie. We would be dismayed to see our MSA designation go away. We aren’t a suburb of any other, larger city in the area, so this is very much part of our community’s identity,” Rollens said in an email. “Losing the designation would also have potentially adverse impacts on recruitment for local businesses, as well as Oregon State University.”

If the proposal is approved, it could be the first step toward federal programs adjusting their population thresholds when it comes to distributing money to communities, leading to funding losses for the former metro areas, said Ben Ehreth, community development director for Bismarck.

“It won’t change any formulas … but we see this as a first step leading down that path,” Ehreth said. “We anticipate that this might be that first domino to drop.”

Rural communities are concerned that more micropolitan areas would increase competition for federal funding targeting rural areas. The change would downgrade more than a third of the current 392 MSAs.

Statisticians say the change in designations has been a long time coming, given that the U.S. population has more than doubled since 1950. Back then, about half of U.S. residents lived in metros; now, 86% do.

“Back in the 1950s, the population it took to create a metro area is different than it would be to create a metro area in 2020,” said Rob Santos, president of the American Statistical Association.

Nancy Potok, a former chief statistician of the Office of Management and Budget who helped develop the new recommendations, acknowledged that officials in some cities will be upset with the changes because they believe it could hurt efforts to lure jobs or companies to their communities.

“There are winners and losers when you change these designations,” Potok said. “A typical complaint comes from economic development when you are trying to attract investments. You want to say you are part of a dynamic MSA. There’s a perception associated with it. If your area gets dumped out of an MSA, then you feel disadvantaged.”

Officials in some cities said they needed to research the impact of the change. Others were surprised to find their metro was on the list in the first place.

“Perhaps they made a mistake,” Brian Wheeler, director of communications for the city of Charlottesville, Virginia, said in an email.

While the city of Cape Girardeau, which is on the list, has a resident population north of 40,000 people, as a regional hub for southeastern Missouri, it can have a daytime population of more than 100,000 people, said Alex McElroy, executive director of the Southeast Metropolitan Planning Organization.

“It kind of seems misleading,” McElroy said of the designation change.

In a letter to the federal budget office, the mayor of Opelika, Alabama, urged that the proposal be dropped.

“The risk to vital services within our community, our state and the millions of impacted Americans across this country far outweigh any limited statistical value that might be gained from this proposal,” Mayor Gary Fuller said.

In a separate proposal, the U.S. Census Bureau is considering a change to the definition of an urban area.

The proposal made public last month would use housing instead of people for distinguishing urban from rural. An area will be considered urban if it has 385 housing units per square mile, roughly the equivalent of 1,000 people per square mile, under the new proposal. The current standard is 500 people per square mile.

The Census Bureau says the changes are needed to comply with new privacy requirements that aim to prevent people from being identified through publicly released data and it offers a more direct measure of density.

Some demographers aren’t sold on the idea of changing the definition of a metro area.

“It seems like everything is ad hoc, rather than having been determined by serious research,” said Kenneth Johnson, a senior demographer at the University of New Hampshire. “The definitions have been relatively stable since 1950. All of the sudden, they change these, and at least in my mind, there isn’t a compelling research-based process that has driven this decision.”

In Corvallis, Rollens joked that he was intrigued by the possibility of the city becoming a micropolitan area, suggesting the community could benefit from thinking small.

“We enjoy our small-batch craft beers and locally grown produce here in Corvallis, so I have no doubt that we would find a creative way to market our region if we ended up with a ‘micropolitan’ designation,” Rollens said.

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After an earlier effort in Corvallis to build a hotel on a prime riverfront parcel failed in dramatic fashion, a development team devised a plan that fit the height envelope while still providing the needed parking: They put the hotel on top of the parking, and secured a franchise with an upscale brand.

“I don’t think the hotel is terribly unique from a design standpoint, but it’s certainly an interesting development for downtown Corvallis,” said Vern McDonald, a member of the limited liability company that’s developing a 75-foot-tall Courtyard Marriott hotel at 115 S.W. First St. – what will be the second tallest building in town.

Crews with A&A Construction are now pouring the concrete superstructure and cap of the 136-stall parking structure. The second phase of construction will involve building the four-story hotel tower that will add 176 rooms to the city’s existing 800. Construction should conclude by summer 2017.

Though many of the rooms will be considered “upscale,” the project includes standard hotel fare – an off-lobby restaurant, 2,000 square feet of meeting space, a fitness center and a pool. The $20 million, half-block project is situated across the Willamette River from the Orleans Natural Area, and a short walk to the Oregon State University campus and downtown Corvallis’ many shops and restaurants. It’s also across the street from the 82-foot-tall Renaissance on the Riverfront mixed-use tower, the tallest building in town.

An earlier plan to build a $23 million Hyatt Place hotel on the site was shot down by the city council after vehement public opposition over using $4.2 million in public financing to build an accompanying parking structure. Without the subsidy, developers argued at the time, a hotel on the site wouldn’t work.

The parcel was purchased in 2014 for $2 million. Though partnering with the upscale Marriott line will mean higher room rates, McDonald says that decision wasn’t made simply to charge more per room.

“There’s a lot more to it than that,” he said. “We wanted to be more appealing to the traveling public and the convention-going public … It has to do with having a product type that the market wants to use.”

Regularly recognized for its livability, Corvallis has faced challenges where growth and economic development are concerned, said Tom Nelson, Corvallis’ economic development director. With such a small market, one hospitality project can quickly upset equilibrium.

The riverfront area, and Corvallis in general, is ready for another boutique project, he said.

“We feel that downtown especially is underserved by upscale hotels,” he said.

Tourism to the city has long revolved around two things: home football games and academic conferences. But that’s starting to change as more people visit for business unrelated to OSU, according to Mary Pat Parker, executive director of Visit Corvallis.

“I like to think we have three seasons now – spring, fall and now also, summer,” she said.

The project was designed by Jensen Fey Architecture and Planning of Seattle. Devco Engineering of Corvallis is the civil engineer.

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Corvallis may be getting a new Courtyard at the Marriott hotel, and it will overlook Riverfront Commemorative Park on the Willamette River.

The hotel will be limited to 75 feet in height and the city will also cite other conditions when developer Corvallis River Run LLC has a July 1 public hearing.

Most of the conditions required by the city are mundane adjustments to make sure the plans meet city code requirements, said Kevin Young, planning division manager for Corvallis.

“Mostly they have to do with elements of the proposal that didn’t provide enough specificity to meet all code requirements,” he said. “Weather protection on a façade is one issue, and they requested to reduce window coverage on the south side of the building.”

City staff didn’t think the number of windows should be reduced, he said, but people in a neighboring building to the south have also asked there be fewer or no windows on the south side to protect their privacy.

Young said the planning body could approve the request for development at its meeting or bring it back for a second reading next week.

It’s not the first time someone has tried to build a hotel on the 0.71-acre lot at 115 S.W. First St. The city turned down a request to build a Hyatt Place hotel in July of last year, Young said. That plan would have included public parking with $4.2 million in public financing.

Public financing was a “troublesome point” in the previous proposal, Young said, and was the main reason the former project was turned down. But new plans for the Courtyard at the Marriott will have no public parking and no public funding, Young said.

Young said city staff is recommending the planning commission approve the Marriott plans.

“This project, given that it’s right on the riverfront adjacent to the riverfront park, has a high civic profile,” he said. “We as staff find it meets (city) criteria.”

Plans for another hotel were recently approved by the city for Ninth Street, he said.

“We’re seeing right now a few different proposals for hotels,” he said. “We’ve been hearing there is a real need for more hotel rooms in Corvallis.”

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As construction work ramps up heading into summer, the shortage of skilled labor is clearly affecting the industry. Labor costs are rising, apprenticeship programs are gaining attention, project schedules are taking hits and contractors are increasingly tapping union labor pools.

“We’re definitely seeing the impact of a workforce shortage in a pretty significant way,” said Tom Gerding, owner of Gerding Builders LLC in Corvallis. “We began seeing it last summer, but now in the past several months it seems to be that much more pronounced.”

Subcontractors are charging more for labor, and fewer are submitting bids than in the past, he said.

“We have a need for 40 framers – that’s predicated on six crews,” he said. “Now, we only have 25 framers on three crews. The result is the ability to be working on a number of areas is diminished. That impacts the schedule as well.”

The industry saw a mass exodus of skilled laborers during the economic downturn and now is facing a wave of retirements, said Max Murphy, regional manager for the Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters – the industry’s largest union, with approximately 6,000 members in Oregon and Southwest Washington.

“Really, what we’re up against is that over the last three years a lot of folks found new careers outside of construction … and they’re not coming back,” he said. “Within the next five years, the baby boomers will have completely left the workforce. Those are the guys with all the experience running things.”

Contractors are frequently calling the union looking for skilled laborers, Murphy said.

“What I’m telling them is that we have to develop them from within,” he said. “They’re not on the streets.”

During the recession, construction lost a greater percentage of its labor force than any other industry in the state lost, according to a March report issued by the Oregon Employment Department. But it’s expecting construction to need 18,000 more workers by 2022.

“If you’re looking for fill-in workers this summer, you’re already behind the game,” said Stephen Simms, administrator for the Bureau of Labor and Industries‘ . “If you’re not already actively involved in an apprenticeship program, it’s time to get involved.”

The ages of apprentices are generally older now than before the recession because fewer young workers are moving into the trades, said Andrew Dykeman, project manager for Lease Crutcher Lewis. The firm is trying to grow its apprenticeship ranks, carrying two apprentices for every four journeyman carpenters. Previously, that ratio was one to three, he said.

“Everyone in the industry is driving to build higher apprenticeship rates because you want to build a long-lasting workforce,” he said.

Portland-based TCM Corp. is speaking with unions around the country to find workers for upcoming projects, said Gordon Harvey, a sheet metal labor superintendent. The issue is actually worse in other parts of the U.S., he said.

“Everyone’s aware based on what happens in the next couple of months that we could see a labor shortage,” he said. “We’re getting into the construction season, and some of the work we have talked about in the last couple of months is coming to fruition.”

Another subcontractor, Portland-based Electrical Construction Co., also is struggling to find qualified workers, said Todd Coffman, vice president of construction.

“We just don’t see a lot of young people gravitating toward the subcontractor field,” he said.

EC Co. this summer is adding four Oregon State University interns, Coffman said.

Salem-based Cascade Interiors this year is hiring union workers for the first time, in anticipation of a flood of projects.

“We were just waiting for the economy to turn around – we knew it would eventually,” owner Ken Koebel said. “So many people left. Now, we’re gearing back up.”

The company has 16 carpenters, drywall installers and finishers, but Koebel looking to double the size of that crew over the next month. He has contracts for roughly 4 million board feet of drywall to hang in the next 10 months, so he plans to have 50 employees by midsummer.

Safety for old and new

Companies need to step up their training to , said Steve Malany, president of P&C Construction and board chairman of Associated General Contractors’ Oregon-Columbia chapter.

Safety is a significant issue for newcomers, particularly those trying to impress their bosses via speed, Malany said. Extra training is critical, he said, so that those workers understand all jobsite requirements.

“We’re just that much more diligent,” he said. “We don’t need quick – we need safe.”

Older workers who return to the industry also need extra safety considerations, said Gordon Harvey, sheet metal labor superintendent for Portland-based TCM Corp. They may require tailored tasks or more realistic expectations over the first four or five weeks, he said.

“During orientation, we talk about atrophy and try and ease people back into the workplace,” he said. “They need time to try and get back in shape.” – Jeff McDonald

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Chris Saltveit feels like he’s being picked on.

Saltveit, arguably the largest developer of multifamily housing in Corvallis, said he and multifamily developments in general are unfairly targeted by irate neighbors and city officials they have in their hip pockets.

Anne Thomas, one of those neighbors, said she has every right to be irate.

“A lot of people move to Corvallis to enjoy quiet neighborhoods in a small town, not to listen to college kids scream and yell at all hours of the night,” she said. “It doesn’t help when you have half a dozen or more of these kids crammed into a big, ugly townhouse in a row of big, ugly townhouses that smother entire blocks.”

Saltveit said he finds neighbors’ attitudes perplexing.

“It’s an interesting dynamic,” he said. “It’s your typical college town where people want to retire and live. They want all the amenities of a college town, but they don’t want to live with college students.”

Saltveit’s typical student housing projects are three-story townhouses that line streets near the Oregon State University campus. Each unit has four or five bedrooms.

Students often pack themselves into houses and apartments, Saltveit said. At least his units are clean, properly maintained and relatively new, he added.

“They seem to be popular with the kids,” he said. “Students do like living there. They can have friends next door.”

Saltveit squeezes in as many students as he can in light of a city law that states dwellings can have no more than five unrelated adults living together. He has been building his townhouses since 2005.

“I had been building custom homes in Beaverton and buying homes for investment rentals, renting them to regular folks,” he explained. “Then I just came down here and saw some older homes where the rents were pretty high. I was shocked to see how much rent they were getting.

“It seemed like a lot of money, so I bought a couple of older homes. It was hard to find anything for sale down here because the houses were just plain horrible. I don’t want to say landlords were exploitative, but they were pulling money out of these things like there was no tomorrow.”

Saltveit gutted and remodeled homes for about a year and a half.

“Then a large piece of property zoned R-20 opened,” he said.

Corvallis’ R-20 zone lets developers build up to six stories.

“A lot of developers were looking at that,” he added. “The neighbors had a meltdown.”

He opted against building any six-story apartment complexes, choosing instead to go with townhouses around the campus perimeter. He started with 36 units.

“They were brand new and really nice,” he said.

Thomas said it depends on the eye of the beholder.

“I would say they were the first of the flurry of homogenous, boring student housing,” she said.

They were also expensive, Saltveit admitted.

“However, they had gas heat,” he said. “At the end of the day, you’re going to pay less because you’re only paying $60 a month for heat.”

Saltveit also tore down old fraternity and sorority houses zoned for high density.

“He has done a lot to destroy the character of the campus community,” Thomas said. “Parking has become an absolute nightmare.”

Saltveit said he sympathizes with that assessment. Many of the houses in the neighborhood were built in the 1920s with no garages.

“Residents would go to the store in the afternoon and come home to find out they couldn’t park in front of their own house,” he said.

Saltveit said he wishes neighbors were equally sympathetic to the challenges he faces.

“By code, you have a minimum density to meet,” he said. “You’re not going to build a single-family home. You just don’t have the density. So, people are freaking out.”

Thomas said Saltveit has building codes on his side. Saltveit said it is the reverse: Corvallis citizens are clever adversaries.

“They are very smart, very educated,” he said. “They can’t come out and say, ‘Don’t build it.’ They have these unbelievable design requirements you have to meet.”

There are specific ratios for the size of a house in relationship to its garage. There are specific numbers of windows required, depending on a house’s size.

“There are a million architectural details,” Saltveit said. “It’s really overwhelming. I was able to work through that and get a product design.”

Then neighbors come up with the idea of requiring one parking space per bedroom.

“The city council didn’t give anyone any window to respond,” Saltveit said. “The council will stand up and go on and on and on about affordable housing, but they’ve effectively eliminated multifamily housing.”

Corvallis Planning Division Manager Kevin Young said that is overstating the matter. The parking requirement the city council approved in November was an honest attempt to control parking congestion near the OSU campus, he said.

Young admitted that the parking rule will make multifamily housing development more difficult.

“I think this rule change will make it more difficult to do that sort of development, but I would not go so far as to say it would be impossible,” he said.

Mike Moore, a general contractor in Corvallis, said there seems to be a war in the community between practical, no-nonsense construction professionals and people who may live in local neighborhoods but spend most of their time in ivory towers.

“This is a huge change in law that is largely driven by aesthetic preferences and emotional arguments,” Moore said.

Thomas said neighbors had to do something.

“The situation was getting completely out of hand,” she said.

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Mike Moore, a general contractor in Corvallis, said he shook his head when he heard a frank comment made by a neighborhood activist.

Before a developer builds anything, the person said, he or she should get a consensus from the neighboring residents about what they want to see built.

That philosophy, Moore said, is at the heart of a conflict over parking near Oregon State University. But it actually is a much larger disagreement, he added, between practical, no-nonsense construction professionals and neighborhood residents who spend most of their time in ivory towers.

“This is a huge change in law that is largely driven by aesthetic preferences and emotional arguments,” he said.

Corvallis Planning Division Manager Kevin Young said that is overstating the matter. The recommendation that went before Corvallis City Council on Monday was an honest attempt to control parking congestion near the OSU campus, he said.

Councilors gave preliminary approval to increase the on-site parking requirements for four- and five-bedroom multifamily housing developments. A formal decision on the parking issue is not expected until Dec. 3.

A group called Collaboration Corvallis – including neighborhood leaders and university administrators as well as city officials and staffers – recommended the changes.

The requirement would go from five on-site parking spaces to nine.

“It’s physically impossible to provide that many spaces on the majority of land that’s available around the university,” Moore said. “There is no solution.

“It was almost impossible (to provide five spaces). It gives you little room for design variations. There are a lot of things that go into the end design here in Corvallis. It’s not a simple process. I don’t think it is this difficult in other communities. It is onerous in Corvallis.”

Young said he is not unsympathetic.

“I think this rule change will make it more difficult to do that sort of development, but I would not go so far as to say it would be impossible,” he said.

‘ recommendation addressed a very real problem, Young said.

“Currently, there is no increase in parking, even though we’re experiencing some pretty significant growth at Oregon State,” he said.

Moore suspects the group set out to stop some of that growth in its tracks.

“The bottom line is that the intent is not to have any more four- or five-bedroom units,” he said. “Unfortunately, in the process of considering potential solutions, the steering committee and various associations did not actively seek participation from developers, investors and contractors.”

Young said that’s not true.

“I don’t think that the work group was trying to stop all large-scale development,” he added.

Eric Adams, the project manager for Corvallis Collaboration, said in a public hearing that the rules are taking a shot at developers.

“Developers were getting free density,” he said. “Those units without parking were exceeding the compatibility envelope. They were degrading the livability of the neighborhoods. That tool was put in there intentionally.”

Moore said he is not out to blast anyone.

“I don’t want to make this a public battle,” he stressed, adding that he understands concerns about parking. “OSU is growing significantly, so there has been a lot of student rental development. Neighbors surrounding campus feel the character of their neighborhoods is being altered, so they’re upset.

“There are also student behavioral issues that the surrounding neighborhoods are dealing with such as parties and various shenanigans. There is not enough on-campus parking, so many students, given the low vacancy, park near campus.”

However, Moore said, group members acted in haste without considering the consequences of their actions.

“They were anxious to have traction, to grab some low-hanging fruit, some quick wins,” he said. “However, this is a categorical code change that applies to the whole code. It’s a parking code change, not a zoning change.”

The net effect, Moore said, is that large multifamily developments won’t be built in the campus area. Students will be forced to drive to campus and thus contribute to the very parking problem the rule change sought to correct.

“I understand that logic,” Young said. “If you have fewer bedrooms near campus, more students are going to be driving to campus. I understand that. However, I think the overall effect of that is hard to quantify. It really is too early to tell.”

Moore said what really bothers him is that building professionals were never really brought into the process other than being told that meetings are open to the public.

“From my perspective, passive inclusion isn’t adequate,” he said.

Young said everyone was invited to the process.

“We have representatives from the development community involved in every step of the process,” he said. “We really tried to get a diversity of perspectives.”

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Little information is available about the 26,300-square-foot recreation center Jeff Megy of Corvallis is building north of the city at 5520 Highway 99W.

Megy refused to answer questions about the recreation center. Construction is already under way on the project, and Megy said he does not want to reveal anything more about it for the next six to eight weeks.

Linda McDermott of the Corvallis Building Department said the building permit for the structure was issued July 17, and building officials estimated the cost of the project at $3.5 million. Although there are no specifics listed on the permit, McDermott said she has heard the building will include a juice bar, basketball court and other recreational facilities.

“Beyond that, we really don’t know what the building is going to include,” she said.

Megy, 44, is a principal with Blossom Capital. According to the investment firm’s website, Megy has more than 20 years of experience in real estate, including multi-family and single-family homes, commercial buildings, RV parks and storage units.

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For 40 years, Al Sather has tried to develop his 33-acre property on the outskirts of Corvallis.

He bought the property in 1972 with plans to build a house next door to his parents’ home. Eventually, when Sather’s parents died, he and his brothers, Ronald and Larry, began to pursue development of student housing for neighboring Oregon State University. But first, the city needs to annex the land – and that hasn’t happened yet.

In 2001, an annexation proposal was placed on a city ballot, but voters rejected it. In 2007, the brothers tried again, but the project’s developer dropped out at the last minute because of the poor economy.

But Sather, who owns a sports retail store, is trying again. He and his brothers have teamed with , a Georgia-based student housing company, to propose a 650-unit project. If the city were to approve the development, named the Retreat at Oak Creek, the November ballot would include an annexation measure. Voters would be more likely to pass this one, Sather said, because it calls for lighter density and the city is facing a greater need for student housing.

“When (the development) was originally denied, nobody believed that the university would get as big as it has,” he said. “Right now, students rent every house they can close to campus and stuff as many in there as they can. This would alleviate a lot of the pressure.”

The number of students enrolled at OSU has doubled previous projections, Sather said. And over the years, Corvallis has built significantly fewer high-density residential buildings than Eugene, where the University of Oregon is located. The proposed development, which would be next to OSU‘s foundation offices, would be within a short walk of campus.

“The demand is obviously there for our kind of product and so we wanted to step in and fill that need,” said Blair Sweeney, development manager for Landmark Properties. “There are some students living as far away as Albany, which really points to the need for housing to us and hopefully for others in the community.”

The development would occupy almost all of the property and include apartment buildings, townhomes and a large number of multi-bedroom cottages.

A wetland area on the corner of the property would be preserved and open areas would accommodate gardens and green spaces. A number of bike-friendly features, such as on-site bike pumps and a bike rental facility, also would be included. None of these features was part of the development proposed in 2001.

“Last time, it seemed like we had to change priorities every month,” Sather said. “This time, we made sure to put those priorities up front and work with the community to understand those priorities.”

However, both Sather and Sweeney know that annexing property in Corvallis is not simple. Almost all proposed annexations, regardless of their size, face heavy opposition, according to Sarah Johnson, associate planner with the city. Voters are reluctant to pass measures that seek to expand the city’s limits, she said. In recent years, only a few properties have been annexed – none intended for student housing.

The neighborhood associations surrounding the property were not prepared to comment on the project, nor were the city’s land-use organizations, including the League of Women Voters and the Corvallis Sustainability Coalition. Most officials said they would wait to issue a statement until today, when Landmark Properties will host a public meeting.

After living in Corvallis for 64 years, Sather said he still does not understand why its citizens usually vote against property annexations.

“Corvallis citizens want to have a lazy little college town, but they don’t want to have the students,” he said. “As long as we have a football team and a basketball team, (they say) let’s not deal with student housing. I’m hoping the community sees the obvious need we have.”

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Four landscape improvements on Northwest Beca Avenue in Corvallis may not appear lush, but they seem to be doing their job.

The city of Corvallis completed work on its first four rain garden projects in December. They are designed to filter pollutants out of rainwater, and also slow its entry into storm drains, which empty into local streams. After watching how the new gardens performed throughout January, city staffers are confident that more will soon pop up throughout the city.

The $60,000 pilot project was funded via fees that local residents pay on their utility bills; it’s expected to help the Public Works Department evaluate designs and implementation opportunities for future projects.

“Even with the short amount of time we’ve had to gather information so far, we’re pretty positive about the outcome,” said Josh Tacchini, project manager for the engineering division of the city’s Public Works Department. “I’m fairly confident we’ll be using these elsewhere shortly.”

Rain gardens are relatively common in Portland, which has been recognized as a leader in stormwater management programming. The city has come up with many programs over the years, including a reward system established by City Council in 2000, which provides up to a 30 percent discount to utility ratepayers who keep stormwater from leaving their property by installing rain gardens or other management systems.

The city of Corvallis will be required to create a retrofit program at some point in the next five years in order to comply with Department Environmental Quality standards, according to stormwater program specialist Iris Benson. Plans will be tailored for the environment.

“The soils are very different between Portland and Corvallis,” Tacchini said.

Portland has more gravelly silts, which are more accepting to infiltration; Corvallis, meanwhile, has more heavy clay content, according to Tacchini.

“The rain gardens on Beca Avenue are pilot so we can watch and see how they perform here in our locale,” he said.

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