On. Oct. 15, the former supermarket at 2000 Queen Ave. S.E. looked about the same as when it closed in 2017.
“Hometown values; big time savings.” Not any more, obviously, at least not at this address on Queen Avenue in Albany.
It’s been five years since the Mega Foods supermarket on Queen Avenue closed. I don’t know why the owners haven’t taken down the signs after all this time.
What is going in — or going on — at Mega Foods, somebody asked the other day. Nothing that I was aware of, I replied.
But something may be in the wind.
At City Hall, officials in community development have received a land-use application for the southern part of the Mega Foods property, not including the building itself.
According to Johnathan Balkema, the building official manager, the applicant asked for a zone change, an amendment to the comprehensive plan, a replat (presumably to split the property), and a site-plan review.
Planning manager David Martineau said the zone change being sought is from community commercial to “residential medium density attached” — apartments, in other words.
As for the 42,000-square-foot former store building itself, there’s been talk of turning it into an indoor self-storage business.
The city will publish the customary public notice of the land-use and site-plan application when it has been reviewed for completeness, and fees have been paid.
Tax records show the owners’ address to be the same as the Mega Foods store on Northeast Devonshire Avenue in Salem. Maybe that’s why they’ve not taken down the name at their closed Albany store. (hh)
The trunk and limbs of a downed tree were stored on the parking lot last week.
Why do we accept that city government should have the power to initiate force against a private property owner?
When coercively imposed city “rules” limit our freedom to decide how to use private property, freedom gets sacrificed in the name of an arbitrary “common good.”
When it comes to investing and spending, does the city central planner know something that the private property owner doesn’t? Of course not.
Voluntary, noncoercive solutions to government decrees and “approvals” exist.
Let the private parties and the other owners in a given neighborhood make usage decisions through a contractual agreement like restrictive covenants.
In a truly free society city bureaucrats and politicians shouldn’t have this power.
How does the process work in your community? Point me to a town our size that follows your ideals…
Houston comes close. It’s only about 40 times the size of Albany. They still have a development code that everyone hates. But their code doesn’t have land use restrictions.
And Albany can only do what the Salem puppet masters allow. So good luck getting them to listen to a plea for returning land use decisions to private owners.
Private power ceded to central authority is almost impossible to get back, unless you mobilize and exercise direct democracy on occasion, something I know you hate (ex: City Charter, Chapt. IX, 43.1).
“Houston comes close. It’s only about 40 times the size of Albany. They still have a development code that everyone hates. But their code doesn’t have land use restrictions.”
And “that” answers my direct question? It reinforces my premise – you can’t find a city our size that follows your ideas…
Yes, going forward, a URD will be decided by a direct vote…vs. the representative form of government we already have. That simply means that if/when a URD is needed, we’ll have an election and will have to articulate the reasons for it. I have no problem with that.
As I understand it the source of our lack of free existence is squarely anchored in Oregon’s constitution. No matter how hard it is, we must revise it to make fundamental changes. A good place to start would be a prohibition of unfunded mandates. Perhaps, cities subject to the whims of the state government should get together and disobey some times just to see what happens.
Thank you for this update. Driving by there last week there were men coming in and out of the building. They were using the side door. They had their trucks pulled around to the queen side. Sure would make a great building for some kind of family fun zone.
With all the apartments that are going to be built just South of it, maybe it’ll become a grocery store again? The old one was my preferred and closest grocery store.
How do I get in touch with the guy posting train watching, I did not get his contact info?
You just did. (hh)
How safe is this for apartments considering g there was a bad flood before?
We live right next to/behind the building and lot. For avwhile there over the last year or so a group of gentlemen were playing volleyball occasionally inside the building. Occasional rental I suppose?
Over the later part of summer there was a, I’ll call him “troubled”, man attempting to do landscape type work around the store & property. He did not know what he was doing, and ended up cutting down healthy trees, limbs, and other needed habitat along the path. Those arevthe debris piles you see in the lot and at the street entrance.
Something must be gearing up… brand new fencing is now installed on the Queen street side. Interesting to see how they’d split things up. I can remember wayy back when it was “Fore’s Shop-n-Kart” .