Save Stroh's for the Neighborhood
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Help Save Strohecker's for the Neighborhood
Hello everyone. We are a group of neighbors from Portland, Oregon, who have been working hard for over four years so that all of us in the Portland Heights area and nearby can have a voice in what happens to the historic Stroheckers Grocery property at 2855 SW Patton Road.
Mark and I have been involved with our neighbor, Blythe Olson, along with many other volunteers, to help with this cause.
The grocery store, which was founded in 1902, also served the neighborhood with a post office, pharmacy and liquor store. Sadly, it has been closed down since January 2016 because it could not survive with the high rent demanded. The California investor who bought the property for $5.4 million in January 2012 continued to receive lease payments for the empty store through July 2017. He and his attorneys are now trying to remove all existing zoning restrictions in order to sell the property at a profit to a developer who will then not be hampered by the historic zoning and could just fill the space with whatever produces the greatest profit. The neighbors will have lost their legal leverage and effective voice if his application to do this is approved.
So we are fighting it.
Over 1000 of you so far have endorsed our Statement to City Council asking that we be given the opportunity to review an actual development plan before zoning restrictions are removed or modified.
Having a neighborhood grocery with ancillary services helped to bring us together as neighbors and we miss all that it provided, including a community gathering place next to the park. During snow and ice storms, it was a haven for us when the streets were not drivable. Milk? Bread? Wine? Fruit? Deli? We could go to Stroh’s.
We need a land use attorney to help us in this fight.
We, the neighbors, are using an excellent land use legal firm, Bateman and Seidel, to assist us in this fight. Our attorney, Carrie Richter, represented South Burlingame Neighborhood Association when they won their appeal to the City Council on the Macadam Ridge development recently. The owner/applicant hired one of the top law firms in Portland to represent him in trying to push his application through and so we also need the benefit of experienced legal counsel.
With this representation, we have succeeded in presenting effective testimony at city hearings on May 2nd and May 30th, and at the August 8th City Council hearing.
Our legal expenses so far are $26,941 and we have received a total of $19,835 (as of August 27) through this site, and $2050 in donations from other neighbors. Anticipated additional legal fees are expected to raise the total to around $30,000.
Donations to this fundraising campaign will be used only to pay billed attorney fees. We will post updates on this site regularly. Your contributions are deeply appreciated. Working together, we can continue to make a difference for our much-loved neighborhood that will last for generations to come.
So please pitch in as you can, and help us.
All funds will be used to pay current and future legal fees, and secondly to reimburse Blythe for fees already paid by her. Funds will go into an Umpqua Bank account that was set up specifically for this purpose. Payments from this account will be made directly to Bateman and Seidel, as well as to Blythe Olson for reimbursement of past fees.
Thank you!
Adam LaMotte
Mark von Bergen
Hello everyone. We are a group of neighbors from Portland, Oregon, who have been working hard for over four years so that all of us in the Portland Heights area and nearby can have a voice in what happens to the historic Stroheckers Grocery property at 2855 SW Patton Road.
Mark and I have been involved with our neighbor, Blythe Olson, along with many other volunteers, to help with this cause.
The grocery store, which was founded in 1902, also served the neighborhood with a post office, pharmacy and liquor store. Sadly, it has been closed down since January 2016 because it could not survive with the high rent demanded. The California investor who bought the property for $5.4 million in January 2012 continued to receive lease payments for the empty store through July 2017. He and his attorneys are now trying to remove all existing zoning restrictions in order to sell the property at a profit to a developer who will then not be hampered by the historic zoning and could just fill the space with whatever produces the greatest profit. The neighbors will have lost their legal leverage and effective voice if his application to do this is approved.
So we are fighting it.
Over 1000 of you so far have endorsed our Statement to City Council asking that we be given the opportunity to review an actual development plan before zoning restrictions are removed or modified.
Having a neighborhood grocery with ancillary services helped to bring us together as neighbors and we miss all that it provided, including a community gathering place next to the park. During snow and ice storms, it was a haven for us when the streets were not drivable. Milk? Bread? Wine? Fruit? Deli? We could go to Stroh’s.
We need a land use attorney to help us in this fight.
We, the neighbors, are using an excellent land use legal firm, Bateman and Seidel, to assist us in this fight. Our attorney, Carrie Richter, represented South Burlingame Neighborhood Association when they won their appeal to the City Council on the Macadam Ridge development recently. The owner/applicant hired one of the top law firms in Portland to represent him in trying to push his application through and so we also need the benefit of experienced legal counsel.
With this representation, we have succeeded in presenting effective testimony at city hearings on May 2nd and May 30th, and at the August 8th City Council hearing.
Our legal expenses so far are $26,941 and we have received a total of $19,835 (as of August 27) through this site, and $2050 in donations from other neighbors. Anticipated additional legal fees are expected to raise the total to around $30,000.
Donations to this fundraising campaign will be used only to pay billed attorney fees. We will post updates on this site regularly. Your contributions are deeply appreciated. Working together, we can continue to make a difference for our much-loved neighborhood that will last for generations to come.
So please pitch in as you can, and help us.
All funds will be used to pay current and future legal fees, and secondly to reimburse Blythe for fees already paid by her. Funds will go into an Umpqua Bank account that was set up specifically for this purpose. Payments from this account will be made directly to Bateman and Seidel, as well as to Blythe Olson for reimbursement of past fees.
Thank you!
Adam LaMotte
Mark von Bergen
Organizer
Adam LaMotte
Organizer
Portland, OR
