Protect Small Town Veneta
Donation protected
Project Protect Small Town Veneta
Veneta, Oregon is an idyllic small town just west of Eugene with only one stoplight where Highway 126 passes through on the way to the coast. It’s a place where every cashier at the local grocers knows your name, where your neighbors will tell you if you miss a visitor, where cougar and coyote sightings make the front page of our local newspaper, and where families and the safety of our children have always come first. Veneta’s approximately 5,000 residents live primarily in small neighborhood developments mixed in with larger rural residential lots where horses are common and backyard chickens are the norm.
Our small town way of life is under attack.
On June 24, 2019, the Veneta City Council, in spite of huge opposition from its citizens, approved a development plan that includes a variance to allow the building of a 3-story care facility that is 475’ long and 220’ deep (104,500 sq. ft. footprint) on a parcel of land in the middle of one of these family neighborhoods. This building is almost FOUR TIMES as long, TWO TIMES as deep, and SEVEN TIMES the square footage than is currently allowed by City Ordinance (120 feet; max 14,400 sq ft.), and will eliminate all backyard privacy from its neighbors.
Additional variances will allow greater density in other parts of the development than is allowed by code, which will increase traffic substantially along an already busy street without sidewalks or safe places for pedestrians to move away from traffic. The street they want to build on is the sole pathway to school for many local children and adolescents who walk or ride their bikes.
They say “you can’t fight City Hall,” but in Veneta, we stand up for the safety of our residents and for the City Ordinances put in place to protect us all. A small group of residents raised an initial $2,500 to retain a land use attorney to file an appeal with the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA), but the cost is likely to be closer to $10,000 to complete the process, especially given that the developer has joined the City in its response and has hired a lawyer known to defend large land developers. Please help the citizens of this small, family-friendly town in the beautiful Willamette Valley raise the additional funds to keep our way of life by winning the appeal and ensuring that our city government manages the development of this small community with care, and within the current ordinances established to protect our way of life.
Veneta, Oregon is an idyllic small town just west of Eugene with only one stoplight where Highway 126 passes through on the way to the coast. It’s a place where every cashier at the local grocers knows your name, where your neighbors will tell you if you miss a visitor, where cougar and coyote sightings make the front page of our local newspaper, and where families and the safety of our children have always come first. Veneta’s approximately 5,000 residents live primarily in small neighborhood developments mixed in with larger rural residential lots where horses are common and backyard chickens are the norm.
Our small town way of life is under attack.
On June 24, 2019, the Veneta City Council, in spite of huge opposition from its citizens, approved a development plan that includes a variance to allow the building of a 3-story care facility that is 475’ long and 220’ deep (104,500 sq. ft. footprint) on a parcel of land in the middle of one of these family neighborhoods. This building is almost FOUR TIMES as long, TWO TIMES as deep, and SEVEN TIMES the square footage than is currently allowed by City Ordinance (120 feet; max 14,400 sq ft.), and will eliminate all backyard privacy from its neighbors.
Additional variances will allow greater density in other parts of the development than is allowed by code, which will increase traffic substantially along an already busy street without sidewalks or safe places for pedestrians to move away from traffic. The street they want to build on is the sole pathway to school for many local children and adolescents who walk or ride their bikes.
They say “you can’t fight City Hall,” but in Veneta, we stand up for the safety of our residents and for the City Ordinances put in place to protect us all. A small group of residents raised an initial $2,500 to retain a land use attorney to file an appeal with the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA), but the cost is likely to be closer to $10,000 to complete the process, especially given that the developer has joined the City in its response and has hired a lawyer known to defend large land developers. Please help the citizens of this small, family-friendly town in the beautiful Willamette Valley raise the additional funds to keep our way of life by winning the appeal and ensuring that our city government manages the development of this small community with care, and within the current ordinances established to protect our way of life.
Organiser and beneficiary
Tiana Povenmire-Kirk
Organiser
Veneta, OR
Andrea Larson
Beneficiary