Shell development approved, appeal planned

The Washington County Current Planning Services division of the Land Use & Transportation Department approved Jackson Oil/PacWest Energy LLC's application to expand their facility on Cornell on February 27, 2012. Despite receiving 19 letters of comment from concerned locals, the staff apparently feels that requiring Jackson Oil/PacWest Energy to meet Town Center requirements regarding sidewalk width, road circulation, driveway distances and other aspects would put too much of a financial burden on them and would not be proportional to the proposed expansion.

Ever since Cedar Mill was designated as a Town Center in 1995, it has been considered critical to improve "the grid." Well-functioning town centers have an alternate system of roads that take some of the pressure off arterials and provide access for cars and pedestrians to get around and reach businesses in the area. Cornell is an arterial, but there are few north-south streets or parallel streets to create such a grid.

When Cornell was widened, the 12-foot sidewalk was shrunk to five feet in front of the Shell station, anticipating development that would bring the site into compliance at a later date.

Extending Barnes Road to the north to connect with Dogwood would provide an important element of that grid. Allowing Jackson to expand their convenience store in its present location would make it highly unlikely that Barnes would be extended for many decades. The county is afraid that requiring the redevelopment of the property to conform with Town Center needs would constitute a "taking" of the station's economic viability.

CPO 1 voted at its March 6 meeting to file an appeal to the decision. The deadline for the appeal is March 12. Each CPO gets one free land-use decision appeal. Local businesses will help pay for the services of expert consultants, including a land-use lawyer and a traffic engineer, to work up an effective appeal.

Details of the appeal and more information will be available in the April issue of the News.

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