Black Butte Ranch project draws opposition

A key portion of the $12-million improvement project proposed for Black Butte Ranch is drawing opposition from some Ranch property owners. Led by Portland interior designer Patty White and several other residents of the Country House Condominiums at the Ranch, the opponents hope to defeat a mailed-ballot referendum on the issue.

The critics focus on the projected redesign of the Ranch entry area, through which all visitors and residents pass when coming off Highway 20.

In an August 9 letter mailed to Ranch homeowners, white and 10 co-signers said: “The existing entrance…provides a carefully orchestrated entry sequence from the highway to the lodge that is recognized by Oregon’s premier architects and landscape architects as a masterpiece. The proposed Entry redesign will transform that experience, replacing it with an office park and parking lots in the foreground of the view.”

The letter says the original Ranch landscape architect, Robert Perron, spoke against the redesign at a July 23 BBR town hall meeting. He said, in part, “The whole intent of the design of the entrance road was that as you moved from the state highway onto Ranch property, proceeding to the right toward the Lodge in that gentle curve into the meadow, and then back out of the meadow and into the forest, there would be absolutely nothing in the foreground, no structures on either side, that could cause your eye and your experience to be distracted from the impact of the awesome beauty of that natural, very special place.”

According to an elaborate brochure published by the BBR Association board of directors, the entry redesign is one of three major parts of a 2005 Long Range Plan Update (see The Nugget, July 27, page one.) The other two involve a remodel and expansion of the Glaze Meadow recreation area and a consolidation of maintenance facilities in the property’s northwest corner, known as Section Five.

The new entryway will include a Welcome Center, a new Post Office next to the current general store, and a large building housing ranch administration offices and police services as well as conference and meeting facilities. The Welcome Center will contain 4,670 square feet and the police and administrative structure 14,550.

In an August 5 letter, White and four other Country House Condo owners asked the BBR board “to defer submitting the Entry Area Design Proposal to a vote of the members. This can be done without any delay to the Glaze Meadow Recreation Complex and the Section Five Facility, projects which we support.”

In response to that and several other questions raised at a series of town hall meetings on the update, the board sent out a letter saying, “With some adjustment to the entry road and the position of the Welcome Center, we believe we can preserve the view from the entry to the Ranch.” The letter referred to a revised site plan that shifts the Welcome Center 30 feet to the west.

In their own subsequent letter, the redesign critics dismissed this revision as useless: “The board and its architect don’t get it. This adjustment does nothing to preserve the ‘uncluttered vista to all Ranch arrivals.’ A suburban office park does not belong at the entrance to the Ranch, dedicated to and acclaimed for the preservation of the beauty of its natural setting since its inception. Other locations for the proposed offices are available, such as the site of the trash and recycling center that is being closed or Section Five.”

Ranch President and General Manager Loy Helmly attributed the opposition to “a small group of property owners with very strong opinions.” He said Monday that the dispute amounts to a difference of perception. “Their feeling is that the view is going to be altered in such a way as to be terribly unattractive. But the view will be maintained…

“I guess if the view was lost forever by some construction I could understand (the opposition). But all it is is postponed in your driving experience for a few seconds as you pass by the Welcome Center and come to an intersection, and there you see this beautiful meadow, the mountains in the background, usually the horses running through the meadow…The view is not lost forever. The view is just postponed for a few more seconds.”

Ballots for the election on the update proposal were mailed out August 10 and are supposed to be marked and returned by September 9. White and her allies say they plan to continue their campaign during the voting period. They say they do not oppose other features of the update, including the Glaze Meadow remodel, but have no choice but to oppose the package since it is being presented as a a single, “all or nothing” question.

In a conference call with The Nugget last weekend, White and Marlene Salon, another Portland resident and a past condominium board member, emphasized two other points. They feel that homeowners had inadequate opportunity to react to the entry area redesign once it was presented. And they feel that landscape architects should have been involved in the design.

On the main issue, Salon said, “Our concern is for the masterpiece that we have enjoyed for so many years. It would be a shame to lose this treasured visual and emotional experience by clumsy placement of buildings, roads and parking lots in the entry area.”

If the ballot measure is approved by a majority of the 1,251 property owners with voting rights at the Ranch, White and Salon said they will continue to pressure the board to consider a different design for the entryway and to bring landscape architects into the planning. They said they are not trying to be obstructionists but to work in a positive way to accomplish their ends.