300,000-SF Retail Development Up for Vote

OREGON CITY, OR-Clackamas County commissioners will take a final vote today regarding developer Terry Emmert’s plans to build a 300,000-sf shopping center on 20 acres of industrial-zoned land along State Route 212 at Southeast 142nd Avenue.

The commissioners gave tentative approval to the project in early January, then last week delayed a scheduled final vote on the issue and raised new concerns, leaving today’s vote an unknown. At issue is the current shortage of industrial land in the region, the right of way for a major thoroughfare, and wetlands.

While some opponents of the project have argued that using industrial land for a retail development is a bad idea when there is a shortage of industrial land, proponents have argued that the cost to fully utilize the property in question is too expensive to recoup via industrial development, as wetlands cover 15 of the 20 acres and will have to be filled and recreated somewhere else.