Good news. The headline of a Salem Reporter story says, "Neighborhood appeal puts Kuebler Gateway Shopping Center on Hold." Here's how the story starts out:
Costco’s road to a new location in south Salem is not over after neighbors appealed the city’s recent decision to allow the Kuebler Gateway Shopping Center. The appeals trigger what could be months of more deliberation.
The South Gateway Neighborhood Association, and three neighbors acting on their own through an attorney, cited a number of reasons why Salem planners should not have approved the nearly 200,000-square-foot project in late October.
They contend the shopping center project grew over the years into something incompatible with the area, that the city relied on a flawed traffic analysis, that it threatens to uproot protected trees and that it will pollute the nearby air and water.
Attorney Karl Anuta’s appeal on behalf of the three neighbors — Lora Meisner, William Dalton and John D. Miller — also claims the city didn’t disclose the pertinent documents before its decision and argues “the public was likely misled.”
I like to see people in Salem standing up against development that threatens their neighborhood's livability. Growth is going to happen. But it needs to be smart growth, not dumb growth.
Plunking a giant Costco Big Box store, complete with a high traffic fueling station, right next to a residential area is dumb. Hopefully the City Council will hear the neighbors' appeal of the City of Salem's approval of the Kuebler Gateway Shopping Center and make things right.
The appeals and City approval document can be read here.
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