The medical office building going up at 2119 Pacific Blvd. S.W. as seen on Sunday evening, Aug. 4, 2024.
“Hey Hasso,” the email sender wanted to know, “what is going in behind the Subway on SW Pacific Blvd. (old Izzy’s site)?”
I had no idea, so I got on the bike to take a look first chance I got, which was Sunday night.
Then I consulted the online register of building permits made available by the City of Albany’s Community Development Department. That system is a little clunky at times, but this time it worked just fine.
To get to the point: The building going up at 2119 Pacific Boulevard, which looks like the exterior is mostly plywood, is being built for a limited liability company based in Salem. The company, organized by Steven P. Freeburg of Salem, calls itself Eyecare Associates Albany Building LLC.
The city’s Planning Division approved a site plan for the project in 2023. Permits on file with the city say the building has 10,492 square feet of floor space and will house offices for two practices. Judging by the name, at least one or maybe both will deal in eye care.
Northwest Custom Construction Inc., of Albany, is the contractor. Albany architect Christina Larson applied for the permit.
The city building permit values the structure at about $2.1 million.
Total permit fees added up to a whopping $222,290. The total included street system development charges of $136,420. Sounds like the city expects the tenants in the building to generate a lot of traffic. (hh)
Zoning laws, building codes, and permit fees are costly freedom killers.
When you allow local government to dictate what can and can’t be built on private property, you willingly give up your freedom and unnecessarily add to the cost of property.
And every cost dictated by government gets passed on to property owners and consumers. That’s you.
Could these costly freedom killers also be connected to the local homeless crisis? The answer is obvious – yes.
Local government should get out of the way. Local government stop adding to the burdens of everyday people.
Justice Gorsuch’s newest book, Over Ruled: The Human Toll of Too Much Law, considers a similar line of thought with the insight that (over) regulations benefit the rich who can hire expert navigators while the rest of us founder.
I’m having a hard time, however, envisioning no zoning laws or building codes. Probably why I don’t live in Idaho, or even Clark County, Washington. We band together in civil society for very good reasons, but not always to very good effect.
How about starting with a City of Albany taxpayer advocate as a first step? State of Oregon has had since early 2022.
https://www.oregon.gov/dor/Pages/Taxpayer-Advocate.aspx
Gee Gordon, if they’re such “freedom killers”, how come you’re not locked up after all your many decades?
Obviously you have never lived in Houston Texas. The land of no zoning/building codes. My family lived on a street with houses, a car dealership, a power substation (next to my house), very good neighbors btw, an apartment building behind the house (not good neighbors), a bunch of warehouses, a grain elevator, a mosque ( where on fridays you couldn’t find a place to park), and a Progressive Insurance claim office. What a mess.
A little bit of zoning could have helped the situation and traffic congestion. Sometimes,
the laws and regs are there for the greater good of the public.
Sounds like the only issue was having houses in that area….and yet people still bought them anyway.
Right you are, Gordon. I’d love to put a pig farm right next to your house, but big government won’t let me.
Laughed when I read your last sentence. Going to one of their offices, except the one on Walnut in Corvallis, is sardines in a can. They do cataract procedures. My doctor worked for Corvallis Clinic before Eyecare and did a great job for me.
Albany already has Eyecare Associates at 2715 Willetta St SW. They are my optomistrist. Maybe they will move into a larger building.
Dennis, you are correct!!!
The current Albany main location of Eyecare Associates is moving to this new location! The second provider, who gets a small chunck of the 10,000+sf is primary care, I believe.
Glad we will get more business to Albany!
Not liking the name. I once had a company with a competitor using my company’s name with a slight alteration. Very confusing for customers.
No worries, Mike! Eyecare Associates has been in Albany since 1969