Salem City Council delayed a decision Monday on a disputed rezoning at 1505 Front Street NE, giving the property owner and city planners one more chance to find a compromise before the case returns Oct. 12.
The 1.43-acre property is already a working business site. A nearly 36,000-square-foot warehouse is occupied by Murphy’s Fireplace & Stove, Mongoose Metals and The Desk Dealer. Owner Loren W. Boeckman, trustee of the Eleanore M. Boeckman Trust, wants the property changed from Mixed-Use Riverfront zoning to Industrial Commercial, opening the property to a broader range of business and industrial uses.
The request puts one Salem property in the middle of a much larger transition along the north riverfront. Salem created its Mixed-Use Riverfront zone through the Our Salem planning process to encourage a pedestrian-oriented district with housing, commercial activity and better connections to the Willamette River. The zone was also designed to let existing industrial buildings remain while preserving the possibility of different development later.
For the property owner, the problem is happening now.
Margaret Y. Gander-Vo, a real estate and land use attorney with Saalfeld Griggs representing the applicant at Monday’s hearing, told the council that the current zoning has made it difficult to fill vacant space. She said the property received one prospective tenant offer during the roughly three years since the zoning changed, but that offer was later withdrawn amid questions about whether the proposed use could continue under the city’s rules.
The physical property still looks much more like an industrial site than the future riverfront district envisioned in city plans. It sits next to a railroad line owned by BNSF Railway and operated by Portland & Western Railroad, with industrial properties nearby and a rail spur serving the area. Before the 2022 zoning change, the property had been zoned for industrial use.
City planners see the other side of that equation. Returning the site to Industrial Commercial zoning would not simply protect the businesses already there. It could also allow a wider range of industrial and commercial uses to remain on the property well into the future, making it harder for that piece of the riverfront to transition with the surrounding area.
That transition is already visible immediately to the south. The former Truitt Brothers cannery property has land-use approval for a much larger mixed-use redevelopment with three six-story buildings, 382 housing units, ground-floor commercial space and additional food, market and winery uses.
Salem is also working toward a new North Waterfront Urban Renewal Area covering roughly 421 acres. The proposal is intended to help pay for infrastructure, redevelopment assistance and property improvements as private investment moves farther north from downtown. Preliminary city estimates put the district’s potential maximum indebtedness at about $199 million over roughly 33 years.
That leaves 1505 Front Street at a difficult point in the transition. The city is planning for a different kind of riverfront over the coming decades, while businesses are using the property today and the owner wants greater flexibility to keep the building economically productive.
City staff recommended denying the zoning change, and the Salem Planning Commission agreed earlier this year. Staff concluded that Industrial Commercial zoning was not equally or better suited to the property because it did not match the long-term mixed-use vision established for the area.
Councilor Paul Tigan initially moved Monday to uphold that denial.
“We also know as a city that we have a different vision for this part of the city,” Tigan said during deliberations, while acknowledging that the owner can continue existing uses as long as they meet the city’s continued-use requirements.
But the council stopped short of making that decision final.
After hours of testimony and discussion, council members backed a substitute motion directing city staff and the applicant to try once more to find a middle ground before a final decision.
The council later reopened the public hearing and formally continued it to Oct. 12.
The next round of discussions will determine whether conditions can give the Front Street property more room for industrial and commercial activity without abandoning the redevelopment framework Salem has spent years putting in place along its north riverfront.
The hearing is scheduled to resume Oct. 12.