This addition of a triplex being built at 1329 Queen Ave. S.W. caught my eye on Jan. 19, 2025.
On a bike ride last week, I passed a building under construction on Southwest Queen Avenue that struck me as being in line with Albany’s continued effort to increase housing density in residential districts.
The building, three attached units on a narrow lot that already has a house in the back, is under construction at 1329 Queen Ave. S.W., across Queen from the National Energy Technology Laboratory.
The new construction is taking place where a detached garage was demolished.
For two or three years now, the city administration and council have been following state directives to change plans and policies in order to encourage more housing production in Oregon.
One current effort is a rewrite of the Albany Development Code and Comprehensive Plan.
The city says these changes will encourage more accessory dwelling units or ADUs as well as smaller houses and clusters of tiny homes. They will also “support higher density housing,” make housing easier to afford, and require residential subdivisions to provide green space such as pocket parks.
The majority of the city council was ready to adopt these code and plan changes on Jan. 22, but this required a unanimous vote for a second reading of an ordinance. Councilman Michael Thomson objected, so the final vote will take place at a council meeting in February.
Thomson was concerned about how greater population density would affect neighborhoods, traffic, sewer and water systems, and schools.
As I watched the discussion on YouTube, I wondered about the requirement for pocket parks, which in turn would require homeowners’ associations or HOAs to maintain them. HOAs charge monthly fees, which does not exactly further the goal of making houses less expensive.
Like the majority of the last few Oregon legislatures, though, Albany officials are determined to add more housing, which has to lead to more congestion. Think of that the next time it takes you half an hour to drive across town. (hh)
Albany is CRUSHING the residents of this town. This insanity should STOP and allow those already here to breathe ! The east end of town looks like a jungle of homes creating traffic and school congestion already. This reminds me of the projects of New York from decades ago. They were terrible and became “nests” of problems that continue until today. There is so much open land in Oregon that we should not have to be crammed into a teeny, tiny square to provide “affordable” homes for everyone. People don’t want to live with everyone sitting on their shoulders…
“Think of that the next time it takes you half an hour to drive across town.”
What route are you taking? In almost 30 years living here (down by LBCC), it has *never* taken me 30 minutes to cross town to Kohl’s, Coastal Farms, or Walmart, etc…
It takes 30 min. You’re not counting stop lights.
Stop the madness! I moved to Albany to get away from population density and traffic . Don’t make me move.away.
Well Lewis, some of the people needing housing moved here just as you did. So, if they are part of the problem, then so are you.
How many vehicles will the residents of a triplex need to park on the street? The new triplex being built at 6055 Looney Lane SW appears to have little or no space for off street parking. It looks as if at least some of the residents will be parking in front of neighbors houses. As the progress of replacing single family homes with multiple units continues where will the the cars be parked?
Sixteen years ago I moved from Madras Oregon to Albany Oregon. It was nice and quiet and no congestion of traffic. Now you have drivers speeding, cutting you off, no respect at all. I now see where roadrage comes from
After looking at the news coming out of Pacific Palisades one has to wonder why the push for high-density housing
I love to see more high density housing like this which will hopefully make owning a bit more affordable or at least add additional rental units which are very needed. I think people here aren’t used to any traffic because I have lived all over and the traffic here is nothing at all really.
I moved here from Portland, I know about traffic and it’s getting ridiculous here. Try driving from North Albany Middle School to Knox Butte Rd at 4:30 pm – it’s crazy, and to my knowledge there hasn’t been any follow through with the idea to build another bridge off of Hwy 20, yet more homes continue to be built in North Albany!
Parking is definitely an issue and will be even more so with high density building. Traffic and more wear and tear on the infrastructure namely water treatment and wastewater management. However what is even more burdensome and is going to be worse are water bills, property taxes rising and increase in homelessness. Why? Where is the affordable housing being built!? Where are the section 8 housing, habitat for humanity houses, etc??? Where!? There is none!!! Everything being built is raising prices and taxes…. And we wonder why there is so many homeless…. Albany Mayor and City Council why are you allowing this!? Moving to South or across the country is looking good for many that can… Lower taxes, more affordable housing…. Hmmmm Oregon isn’t Oregon anymore… It’s something else, so is Albany…. It’s sad…
Cynthia Wheeler,
Habitat for Humanity built a couple of houses from the ground up on Marion St NE in 2024. They also were one of the partners in the Hub City tiny village project which is now full. So they are here, working hard, apparently unnoticed by some.
The legislature and the Governor while motivated to solve housing challenges did not think about the many variables that had already been accounted for by Oregon cities and community planners. Those plans have been neutralized and the legislature is now proposing an expansion of “build middle housing anywhere” policy with a new bill, HB 2138.
In Corvallis, a building permit application has been submitted to build a four plex on a quarter acre lot. The empty lot is located within a single-family home neighborhood. According to the on-line permitting system, the building will have 18 bedrooms and 21 bathrooms. The proposed building appears to be a boarding house. These types of buildings have shared community kitchens, living areas and bathrooms which tenants are responsible for maintaining. There will be no on-site parking which means all tenant cars will be on the street and there are no sidewalks in the subdivision. The street is only 18 ft wide. Given this, I’m not sure how EMT/Fire or the disposal company will be able to access the area with cars parked on the street.
The availability of housing is a very complex issue and trashing decades of community-based planning will not significantly increase housing availability or lower costs. It will however create other problems related to congestion, infrastructure (water, sewer, electrical, natural gas and roads), schooling and services.
Note. House Bill HB 2138 encourages the development of boarding house type housing. Passage of this bill may mean that this type of housing could appear next to any home in Oregon unless that home is within a subdivision protected by CC&Rs prohibiting this type of housing. If you have any thoughts related to middle housing, contact your Oregon House Representative or Oregon State Senator.
Look to your current council, no- growth ers. I challenged Mike Thomson at recent swearing in , if you want to stop growth, stop waging a war on it, because you can’t stop growth. Remember your campaign promises. you could be instrumental in a battle and aim it towards north Albany, the place where you campaigned impressively by going door to door,and the same 2 issues came up, storm water, and congestion. You’re a councilman now, time to “ promises made, promises kept, I actually think you could do it .
It is hard to believe the city thinks this is what would improve our lives. The new stoplight cameras were red flags to what the city’s expectations were for us in the future. The people pushing for these goals will ruin Albany for everyone living here. We deserve better. Those of you that think this is a solution are a part of the problem. The people that live here and moved here don’t want to live in an overcrowded city. These are not changes to meet the needs of the residents of Albany. There are more homes and apartments than we need already. They are just not affordable and/or made available for those in need. This is all about people making money by using and abusing the good deeds that these directives and policies were created to do.
The mayor, city council and city planners couldn’t care less about addition traffic or reducing parking because of this insane growth. Cars don’t pay taxes.
HOA’s have no purpose other than to keep bored retirees busy being ever vigilant of their neighbors business… I have two rentals under HOA’s, one in North Albany that supposedly put out a “vote” to raise their yearly fee from $125.00 to over $400.00 for maintenance issues… I am betting every homeowner voted NO to the increase within that district, but they raised their fees regardless.
The other is off 53rd (Zoo streets) their fees are reasonable, but they harass my renters constantly over ridiculous issues because they don’t want renters in their district, but can’t do anything about it because they were ok’d in the original builder’s agreement over 20 years ago…
Our streets are over crowded all over town, causing zigzags to navigate parked cars on side streets that don’t allow parking for homes (Waverly, and Marion are the worst) 38th, and many near South Albany HS are dangerous to navigate. Add the deep pot holes that are ignored as well.
City “Planning” has much to be desired.
The people here are living in a fantasy world. Physics rules this issues. People are solid objects. Solid objects take up physical space. That means people can not stop existing because it takes you longer to get somewhere from nowhere. These homes are needed.
What kills me is we put up fences around our property for numerous reasons, one is for PRIVACY, well that’s out the window with 2-3 story apartments are built right in your back yard. I see it everywhere. Makes NO Sense to me.
I think what has always bothered me about growth is that we seem to always wait until there is a problem and then we try to fix it which costs much more money. Example I believe the plan is to widen Knox Butte but we don’t do before we allow all the building there.
I guess my problem with growth is we don’t take care of what we already have before we allow more growth. We can’t take care of our local streets that are terrible. Try driving down 3rd st. from traffic circle to Madison. If you break something on your car just because the city says they don’t have the money to fix pothole etc doesn’t make them less libel. If we can’t fix local streets now look at all the new ones we are building that when they need repair we probably won’t have the money to fix them either.
I wish we had more local builders instead of all the out of towners who come in build sometimes crap and them leave.
All this new construction push to build affordable housing is not going to cure homelessness. Working people end up homeless for many reasons other than they cannot afford housing (transportation etc.). Even if they get a home they can afford they cannot find a job good enough to cover everything they need or lose a job they had that pays well but do not have the skills to find an equal paying job. Every homeless person that came to us looking for a job did not have the skills to do the work. The root of the homeless problem is the old saying “Give a man a fish you feed him for a day, teach him to fish and you feed him for a life time”. Addressing poverty is the only way to positively keep working people from becoming homeless. Good jobs, insurance and a quality life is the cure. The only people that should need help with affordable housing is the elderly and the disabled. If you want to make a real difference get funding for job training instead of getting funding to support cheap housing and shelters. We can keep paying nonprofits and housing that do not pay taxes or we can pay to teach people to get jobs that will pay taxes and contribute proudly to a community that gave them a hand up, not a hand out. .