move2westlinn

The Path of Progress Leaves a Wake

Ron Ares April 27th, 2007

Willamette Cove In at least a couple areas of the Willamette neighborhood, you’d think they had been left in the wake of a Katrina-like storm or perhaps were targets of shock-and-awe bombing runs.

Take a spin past the former sites of the Willamette Cove manufactured home park (Willamette Falls Dr.) and the Willamette Marketplace shopping center (off 10th Street). Both sites have been demolished in preparation for new development. In the case of the Marketplace, new Legacy Health System physician offices and retail space are in the offing.

In a less-than-popular move, the Willamette Cove site was shut down in 2006, displacing dozens of senior citizen manufactured home residents. The battle over the development of the site pitted residents and sympathetic neighbors against the home park owner and those that saw a higher economic use for the land.

In the end, the owner paid each resident $8,500 for relocation costs. At last check, plans for a 71 single-family home development had been approved.

Despite the approvals by the city planners, some residents are concerned about the lack of long-term planning and the increased traffic flow around 10th Street and Willamette Falls Drive.

The tenants are gone. The buildings are gone. New life will soon spring from these sites. For now, you can watch the process of concrete being reborn as gravel.

Willamette Marketplace