News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Construction crews can get back to work on the building going up on the corner of Larch Street and Cascade Avenue.
The building had been stalled after the city suspended the developer's building permit because it was issued without an approved site plan.
In a 4-0 decision, the Sisters Urban Area Planning Commission approved an amended site plan that will allow the building to go forward. Commissioner Dorro Sokol abstained from the vote.
Developer Dan Berrey purchased the property with an approved site plan for a 3,825-square-foot building. The building under construction will be 5,452 square feet. The building is also different architecturally from the one that was originally approved.
Leslee Bangs, a local land use planner and a former co-owner of the property with her husband James Massey, argued against the approval.
Bangs told the commissioners that she was opposed to the approval as "purely the matter of principle," because of what she perceives as the city's violations of its own codes and "uneven dealing with matters before the city."
According to Bangs, the changes in the building required a new site plan approval, not an amendment. That would mean that the plan would have to meet all current city requirements.
Treating the site plan for the new bigger building as a amendment allows Berrey to keep on street parking that was approved with the original plan - before the city's parking requirements were changed.
Berrey submitted "letters of support" for his project from seven of the 10 surrounding property owners and from 25 Sisters businesses.
Berrey's attorney Gordon Hanna argued that nothing in the city code forbids the city from "relating back" to the original criteria in approving the amended site plan.
The city's legal counsel Steve Bryant agreed and so did the commissioners.
Nikki Heiden, a local business owner, also testified against the approval.
Heiden argued that the building does not conform to Sisters' 1880s Western theme requirements.
Heiden believes the theme is important to the town's attraction to tourists and the health of its economy.
"This ordinance has been ignored in recent years and I think it should stop before the character of this town fades away or is carelessly erased," Heiden said.
Berrey presents the building as 1880s western/Victorian and said he searched historical archives to determine the style of building he wished to build.
Forest Service landscape architect Rick Dustin, who worked with a similar western theme in Durango, Colorado, testified that "western" is hard to define, but that the building design is certainly appropriate to the period.
The commissioners engaged in little discussion about the architecture of the building.
(Dan Berrey has offices in Salem and has recently moved to a home in Tollgate. An earlier statement in The Nugget that Berrey was from Portland - based on information from the city - was incorrect).
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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