The Canby City Council, in its role as the Urban Renewal Agency (or URA), will at its meeting next week consider two items that would help pave the way for the Otto Road extension, a new street connecting Highway 99E to Mulino Road.
The project would also extend South Walnut Road to connect with the new street, according to the city’s Transportation System Plan. The project would realize the long-desired goal of providing a new and alternate route for users of the Canby Pioneer Industrial Park to reach Highway 99E and regions beyond.
And, though some residents will no doubt point to the massive new Columbia Distributing beverage warehouse and distribution facility on the corner of Mulino and SE First, now under construction, as the impetus for this project, it has been in the works for many years. The Transportation System Plan, for example, was approved almost a decade ago.
Still, City Administrator Rick Robinson noted that new industrial development has made the need more pressing.
“With significant development occurring in the industrial park, and increasing concern for the impact of industrial traffic on city streets, the need to prioritize this project has become even more apparent,” he said in a memo to the URA.
Robinson said that discussions with impacted property owners are already underway, as are initial surveys to identify the “most appropriate placement of the roadway.”
To lay the groundwork for the extension, the URA will need to add approximately 3.7 acres to the existing urban renewal district, and this is one of the resolutions that will be considered at Wednesday’s meeting.
The URA will also consider purchasing its first property for the new connector street. Located at 2392 SE First Ave., the property would establish the southmost starting point for the new roadway.
The asking price from the seller, Par 3 Investments, is $595,000. If the city approves the resolution, it would also authorize Robinson to sign all documents necessary to complete the purchase from Par 3.
