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TONKON TORP October 7, 2024 VIA E-MAIL- [EMAIL REDACTED] Woodburn Planning Commission City of Woodburn Attn: Planning Division 270 Montgomery Street Woodburn, OR 97071 Re: US Market gas station 2540-2600 Newberg Highway, Woodburn, OR City File No. CU 24-02 Dear Commissioners: David J. Petersen [EMAIL REDACTED] Admitted to Practice in Oregon and California [PHONE REDACTED] direct [PHONE REDACTED] main OCT O 7 2024 On behalf of our clients Woodburn Fast Serv Inc. and LB Group, LLC, we have reviewed the testimony submitted to the City through September 23, 2024 in the above-referenced land use matter and have the following comments on behalf of our clients in opposition to the proposal. 1. The fact remains that the applicant continues to propose basically the same project that was rejected in 2022, with worse traffic impacts on residential streets. As we discussed at length in our August 21, 2024 letter, this proposal was previously rejected by the City Council in 2022. Despite this rejection, the applicant submitted the exact same proposal, with the only difference being a new vehicle circulation plan that will exacerbate rather than mitigate impacts by sending even more traffic onto Oregon Way to the detriment of nearby residential areas. In response, no new evidence has been submitted during the post-hearing period. The submissions consist solely of for-or-against e-mails from citizens and a September 23, 2024 memorandum from the applicant's traffic engineer, Transight Consulting. In that memorandum, Transight attempts to refute our clients' concerns. However, with only one small exception, at no point does the applicant actually propose any changes to the project. The project is still the same project that the City Council rejected in 2022, except that now even more site traffic is directed onto Oregon Way to the detriment of nearby residential areas. Accordingly, the project continues to be fundamentally incompatible with the adjacent residential Tonkon Torp LLP I Advocates & Advisors I 888 SW Fifth Ave. I Suite 1600 I Portland OR 97204 I tonkon.com ---PAGE BREAK--- City of Woodburn Planning Commission October 7, 2024 Page 2 areas. It is this incompatibility that underpins the City Council's 2022 decision,1 and the applicant has changed nothing that should lead the City to conclude otherwise this time around. The one change that the applicant has proposed is to install speed humps and new striping on Oregon Way south of the site driveway. In this respect, the applicant tries to have its cake and eat it too. On one hand, Transight acknowledges that the street is a low volume, residential street because it proposes speed humps (in place of the median and truck channelization originally proposed) to avoid "potential residential driveway impacts" and "prevent[ing] right-turning movements [onto Oregon Way] for local residents."2 Transight also argues that restriping is needed to take away the current "rural design"3 of Oregon Way. These considerations underscore the City Council's previous findings that Oregon Way is a local street for the residents who live on it. On the other hand, Transight argues that Oregon Way is an access street intended to accommodate through traffic and greater traffic volumes. If that is so, then why are speed humps or any other methods needed to discourage site traffic from traveling south on Oregon Way? Clearly, the applicant understands that Oregon Way is a residential street and that a large volume of traffic from the site, particularly trucks, would be incompatible with residential uses. This is consistent with neighbor testimony and the City Council's 2022 decision which make clear that the street serves primarily residential uses. Unfortunately, this new application will only affect these residents in more negative and unacceptable ways. This project simply does not satisfy WDO 5.03.01.B.3 and should be denied. 2. The conditions at other nearby gas stations are irrelevant and the fact that other theoretical uses could generate more traffic on the site is similarly irrelevant. Transight's memorandum also discusses two nearby Arco and Chevron sites, arguing that the applicant's site plan improves on many circulation issues allegedly present at these sites. It almost goes without saying that alleged design issues at other, existing gas stations do not justify the approval of a new, flawed application. The Planning Commission and City Council are not bound to adhere to the lowest common denominator and are empowered to make the best choices for the community. 1 See the Council's findings quoted in our August 21 letter. 2 Transight Memorandum, p. 1. 3 Transight Memorandum, p. 4. ---PAGE BREAK--- City of Woodburn Planning Commission October 7, 2024 Page 3 That said, it is worth noting that neither the Arco nor the Chevron station suffer from the same primary flaw that underscores this proposal, namely the lack of reasonable egress from the site. The proposed project will require all trucks and most vehicles to turn left onto Oregon Way, next to and across from residential areas, and within about 150 feet of the Oregon Way/Hwy. 214 intersection. With any reasonable queue of cars northbound on Oregon Way, trucks will be unable to turn left out of the site or will start their turn and block southbound traffic while waiting for the queue to clear. And, if trucks are frustrated in their ability to turn left and travel south on Oregon Way is not blocked, those trucks will instead turn right on Oregon Way, through residential areas to W. Hayes and then to Evergreen, with corresponding negative impacts. None of the commercial businesses around the existing Arco and Chevron have this same problem. Lawson Way is right-turn-only onto Hwy. 214, so all trucks and most vehicles leaving any of Chevron, Arco, McDonalds, Burger King, Taco Bell or Subway instead travel south on Lawson, then east on either Stacy Allison or the alley north of Arco, and then north on Evergreen. None of this travel impacts residential areas. Please see the attached map showing the travel pattern for vehicles leaving these businesses in red, compared to the travel pattern for vehicles leaving the proposed project site if they do not go north on Oregon Way, in yellow.4 Transight also argues that there are theoretical uses within the applicable zone that could generate more intense usage than a gas station. This is irrelevant for two reasons. First, alternative uses like retail or office would have different hours of operation and internal circulation patterns, and would generate less traffic with different peak hours than a gas station. Consequently, any comparison of uses is apples-and-oranges. Second, and more importantly, the zoning code makes a gas station adjacent to residential areas a conditional use precisely because a gas station has unique characteristics that require additional consideration. As Transight acknowledges: "[t]he proposed fuel center is a conditional use within the commercial zoning because of the proximity to residential uses."5 It is precisely this proximity that the Planning Commission must consider above all, as it is the fundamental reason for the conditional use designation. 3. The staff report continues to propose legally inadequate findings that improperly defer determinations of compliance and fail to explain how compliance is feasible with the imposition of conditions. 4 Furthermore, in all likelihood many truck deliveries to the project will follow the yellow line in reverse, particularly if they are coming from a prior delivery to Walmart, Chevron, Arco or the other businesses closer to the freeway. 5 Transight Memorandum, p. 28. ---PAGE BREAK--- City of Woodburn Planning Commission October 7, 2024 Page 4 As discussed in our previous letter, the August 22, 2024 staff report sets forth staff's proposed findings of compliance with the applicable approval criteria. In the report, staff: 1. makes certain conclusory findings without the required analysis, or in some cases makes no finding at all; 2. in some instances, finds that a criterion is not met but provides no analysis whatsoever that it is feasible to meet the criterion, instead just stating that a condition will be imposed to insure compliance; 3. concedes in the findings that the applicant will later need to revise the site plan; 4. fails to analyze relevant Comprehensive Plan policies or cite to any facts in evidence as to how those policies are met; and 5. improperly employs conditions of approval that defer the determination of compliance to administrative staff. These shortcomings have not changed, and continue to require denial of the application. 3. Transight's attempts to dismiss the project's internal circulation issues are unpersuasive. As noted above, the internal site layout has not changed from the applicant's original proposal. As such, all the site circulation issues described in our August 21 letter remain unaddressed. Transight attempts to diminish some of our clients' concerns, but does not do so convincingly. Experienced gas station operators know that delivery trucks do not always come when scheduled, and that fuel deliveries can come more than once per day, and at any time. They also know that not every customer drives a small car and always gets into the shortest available line – it only takes one extra car (or one long truck or RV) queuing at the northernmost fuel position to block all entry into the site. And they know that short of physical barriers, no plan to prevent drivers from exiting onto Hwy. 214 will be successful. Last, they know that Transight's diagram showing traffic flow during fuel delivery (Fig. 14) is highly unrealistic, since: it is physically impossible for a large fuel delivery truck to park as close to the curb as indicated; the diagram does not account for the truck's hoses and coned-off area while filling the underground tanks; and it requires inbound traffic from Oregon Way to travel counter-clockwise around the fuel islands, opposite of the intended flow of traffic, or through the office parking lot. The fact remains that this project attempts to squeeze too much onto a site that cannot accommodate everything while maintaining safe and efficient traffic operations, both on site and on adjacent streets. ---PAGE BREAK--- City of Woodburn Planning Commission October 7, 2024 Page 5 Thank you for your consideration of these comments. Please enter this letter into the record of this matter. Best regards, David J. Petersen DJP/mrh Enclosure cc (via e-mail): Robert J. Barman Garry L. LaPoint Jason LaPoint Wayne K. Kittelson Julia Kuhn Mick Harris 042947\00002\17624881v1 ---PAGE BREAK--- red = truck travel from Chevron, Arco, McDonalds, Taco Bell, Burger King, Subway to Hwy 214 WB yellow = truck travel from proposed project to Hwy 214, if no left turn onto Oregon Way from site