As I see it, there are three realms of activity that are more or less of a concern to the various stakeholders.

1) Influencing the current planning application to produce the best possible outcome for the neighborhood.

2) Addressing the detrimental impacts to the neighborhood of a drive-through fast food restaurant. These include security, litter, traffic, aesthetics, rights of quiet enjoyment, local business considerations, food quality.

3) Overarching political, zoning and planning agendas including North Bethany and City By Choice.

Let’s take them in order.

Influencing the current planning application review to produce the best possible outcome for the neighborhood.

After some amount of pondering I have come to believe that there are three main issues to push back on.

A) The County’s base planning code is modified by the Bethany Community Plan and the conditions of approval attached to various components and phases of the historic Bethany Village planning file. Here there are “reasonable person” tests that form fundamentally sound criteria. Only individuals with very limited powers of objectivity and substantial vested interest in the outcome can review the complete file for the Bethany Village approvals (read the visions cast by the developer and the responses of the neighborhood and planning staff) and state affirmatively that a drive-through fast food restaurant at it this location is appropriate. It is not in keeping with the spirit of that process and the decisions resulting therefrom. Nothing is changed. The conditions did not sunset. The neighborhood has a right to have those conditions of approval enforced.

B) Landscaping is a pretty big issue. It’s hard to decipher the details exactly as the plans in Taco Bell’s application are not very complete, but it looks like Taco Bell is planning on constructing a retaining wall at the property boundary in order to create a level pad for the drive-through. The existing mature trees along Laidlaw are vulnerable. Additional screening should be provided to ameliorate the negative impacts of the cars idling in the drive-through lane, including shielding the noise, headlights and overhead lighting. Again, it’s hard to tell because the plans are incomplete, but I believe that appropriately screening Taco Bell from Laidlaw and the adjacent residential neighborhood would push the building and the drive-through back another 10 to 15 feet.

C) The transportation issues are the motherload here.

a. First of all, new chain restaurant site Rule No. 1: Left turn in and left turn out of the property are both absolutely essential.

b. Left turns are not permitted from Chancileer onto Laidlaw. Up until just a while ago there was a “No Left Turn” sign that was recently removed. Existing traffic control barriers are inadequate. The triangle shape island needs to be enlarged and rebuilt to more affirmatively regulate traffic flow.

c. Left turns are not permitted from Laidlaw onto Chancileer. A raised island or curb should be constructed within Laidlaw to prevent this traffic flow. Click here to view images of this area.

d. Chewing up the parking now available to Chen’s Dynasty will push traffic into available stalls across the way near the Bank of America building. That intersection is already a problem for vehicles but it is a nightmare for pedestrians.

e.  The drive-thru lane designed by Taco Bell for this site provides queuing for up to eight cars. Current traffic engineering analysis recommends queuing for 12 cars, or an overall length of 240 feet. Insufficient capacity here will gridlock traffic in the immediate area. Click her to review the Traffic Study on Drive-through Queue Generation.

 In my experience Central Bethany Development gets itself into trouble because it chronically eschews unpleasant conversations, a.k.a. confrontation. This practice undermines transparency, negatively affects others’ perception, degrades trust and… drum roll please… invariably results in confrontation. It’s a bad system. But I’m guessing that CBD did not spend a lot of energy illustrating the no left turn problems of this site to Taco Bell. It could be a deal killer. It should be a deal killer. Let me explain why.

A vast amount of the traffic will come from the West. To the extent that Taco Bell is foresighted and locating here because of the future population growth in North Bethany, the problem only becomes worse. Virtually everybody who visits the Taco Bell from the West the will want to go back to where they came. How are they going to get home? Is the departing traffic going to wander through the Village south on Chancileer and take a right onto Central Drive? Are they going to turn right onto Laidlaw and go around the block on 153rd and come back down Central? Are they going to continue further south and try to get out onto Bethany Boulevard from South Parc? Or will they simply wander through the Center back up to 153rd and try from there to make a left onto Laidlaw? The answer is: All of the above. Click here to see a map of Bethany Village that illustrates these problem areas.

The intersection to Chancileer and Central Drive is a serious problem now and will become much worse if Taco Bell moves in. The location of storm water catch basins and the design of the curbs and gutters make it infeasible to install North-South pedestrian crosswalks. The intersection currently is only a two-way stop with Central Drive having the right-of-way. The County is already aware of the problem with this intersection, the frequency of near-accidents and the threat to pedestrian safety. How much worse will it be if a large percentage of the Taco Bell customers coming from the West try to navigate this intersection to get home? Rebuilding the intersection is a major undertaking.  Click here to view images of this intersection.

If all of the westbound traffic is routed out onto 153rd in order to make a left onto Laidlaw, there will be substantial negative impacts. Is a signal required? How do the traffic controls and the roadway construction within the parking lot approaching 153rd need to be modified?

With Bethany Boulevard being such a hot-button issue, resolving the impacts directing more to the southern boundary of the Village to South Parc for the purpose of making a left onto Bethany Boulevard is quite problematic.

Assertive pedestrian pathways and crosswalks need to be installed not only at Central Drive but also at the intersection in front of the Taco Bell site and Walgreens to access the parking near Bank of America. (I will provide the deal link here in the near future showing what the peak hour traffic flow is like at this location).

These are real issues with significant impacts. The practical impacts on customer access is going to be a very serious concern to Taco Bell. The financial impacts of the remedies, if properly assessed to the project, probably makes putting a Taco Bell at this location financially infeasible.

Architectural: I think that there are real problems with the Taco Bell building style and the architectural sensibilities inherent to the Bethany Community Plan. However, ugly is as ugly does and, in all honesty, that design battle has already been lost. Is there any building uglier than the face (or ass) of Bank of America as it presents itself prominently on the corner of Laidlaw and Bethany Boulevard. And, really, many of the buildings located within the Village, in and of themselves, are pretty weak architecturally. To be fair, some are quite nice. By the way, in the original master plan for the project a restaurant was to be located were Bank of America is and a bank many branch where they now want to put the Taco Bell. That was indeed a better solution. Regardless, not much energy should be diverted from the other issues to press the objection of unsuitable architecture.

Addressing the detrimental impacts to the neighborhood of a drive-through fast food restaurant. These include security, litter, traffic, aesthetics, rights of quiet enjoyment, local business considerations, food quality.

Here, as far as the neighborhood is concerned, there is not much that can be done other than help County staff articulate conditions of approval. Traffic has of course been thoroughly discussed. Security and litter will just be incidentally mentioned in the approvals and monitoring is tough. This is a much bigger issue for the merchants who each pay a proportionate share of the expense to maintain the Village based on the size of their leased space. The security costs and the cleanup costs are going to grow disproportionately to Taco Bell’s typical percentage share.

With regard to “quiet enjoyment”, I don’t know what you do about the noise generated by our bar patron neighbors in their diesel pickups, idling in the drive-through on their food runs after the bars close. I think that you could ask that the drive-through be closed after 10 o’clock in the evening.

Overarching political, zoning and planning agendas including North Bethany and City By Choice.

First I need to say that good people often disagree. Wonderful things are seldom created by filling a room with people who agree with each other. That being said, I am no fan of the “City By Choice” initiative. I believe that the initiative attempts to address many important issues and deficiencies in the way the County can address urban issues. I just don’t agree that creating a new city is the way to solve this. But that is a debate for another day. Even though I may not agree with the solution, I certainly agree with the problems these involved citizens have tried to address.

This is a great case study in how we can use our differences to find the opportunities inherent in a problem. The time is ripe to carefully examine the limitations and difficulties associated with holding development and commercial interests accountable for the promises and requirements included in planning and zoning approvals for new neighborhoods. It is not not simply that the neighborhood needs more of a voice in the design and approvals process, the County has actually done a pretty good job of creating forums for citizen input for North Bethany. It even did a decent job on the Bethany Community Plan and the approvals for Bethany Village. How could the conditions of approval been articulated to ensure that something like this Taco Bell, which would have never been blessed back when the project was approved, can’t crop up later and sneer at the powerlessness of the neighborhood.

There has been some good conversation about this and I will post a separate article. Janice Epstein’s has prepared an article on Conditional Zoning that I hope to include.

With regard to the issue of fast food restaurants and food quality, I think that the issue is divisive and unproductive with regard to productively influencing the outcomes of this process. Injuries will occur whenever the stakeholders decide to wander down this rabbit trail in the matter brings nothing to bear on the legalities of the issue at hand. When these food quality objections are raised together with the arguments pertaining to safety, security and quiet enjoyment the more legitimate latter arguments are diminished by their association with the former.

Conclusion: Focus first on traffic and pedestrian safety, second landscaping and buffering. Meanwhile, push on the historic Bethany Community Plan argument. Ignore the “fast food” label and – did I say? – focus on traffic.

Meet Our New Core Customer

People are asking how it could be that Central Bethany Development could decide to build a Taco Bell in the Center and the community has nothing to say about it. Word is, it’s a done deal. Is it?

The County argues “a restaurant is a restaurant”. It makes no differentiation between an actual eating establishment and a fast food restaurant, and it has no additional provisions or restrictions for the restaurant that is really just a drive-thru. Reasonable people would argue that this is a flaw in the code and other reasonable people would disagree. However, the Bethany Planned Community is only governed by the code to the extent that the code does not conflict with the “Bethany Community Plan”. In a Rebuttal Memorandum submitted by the developer prior to final approval by the County, Central Bethany Development argued:

“The Bethany Community Plan (‘BCP’) establishes the primary approval standards and policies for the application. The BCP notes at the community development code ‘contains specific procedures and development standards necessary to assist in the implementation of the community plans.’ To the extent there is any conflict between or ambiguity resulting from provisions in the BCP and the Code, the BCP would be the controlling document.”

This is the core argument against approval of the project. By the Developers own argument, the County is not bound primarily by the code but, rather, it is bound by the BCP. Later in his Rebuttal Memorandum, the developer cites additional provisions from the BCP that should be damning to the notion that a fast food restaurant with a drive-thru could be built in the Center. Click here to view what appear to be the developer’s own arguments against locating a Taco Bell in the Center.

Fill up a room with reasonable people and bring them fully up to speed on the original application and approval documents. Give them a glimpse into the meetings and conversations between the developer and the community, where the developer described the outcomes that would be produced if the County approved his application. Read the glowing language about architectural controls and the spirit of community that was used to obtain permission to build, at extraordinary levels of density, out here in the middle of these crimson clover fields. And then show this room full of people a picture of the Taco Bell with its drive-through lane butted up against the residential neighborhood at a primary entrance to the project. It is as clear as day that this application for a Taco Bell is not in compliance with the terms or the spirit of the approvals that allowed Central Bethany Development to convert this farmland into high density residential and commercial zoning.

I first became acquainted with Bethany Village when I arrived at the Dinners Ready store that my sister had purchased only to learn that the franchisor had doctored their financial statements and failed to disclose the spectacular failure rate of other outlets. She had come to me for help and after a few months it became clear to her that the meal assembly business was not going to be her path to well-being. She sold the assets to Janet and me, which we eventually used to create the restaurant. We never once before imagined owning a restaurant in the burbs. There is no other suburban location that we would have considered. For years now I have been proudly describing the characteristics that make Bethany Village special. Locating a Taco Bell in the center defeats my logic.

Taco Bell states in its project description, “Taco Bell has worked with Washington County Planning as well as the Landlord to design the Taco Bell store to complement the architecture of the shopping center… These design features include adjustment of the prototypical exterior color palette and replacing the stone veneer wainscot with brick veneer to match the shopping center.”

Click here to view the Taco bell site plan. You can see how the project footprint chews into the parking in front of Chen’s Dynasty in order to create the space for the entrance to the drive-thru lane. The lane wraps around the building so that cars queue up along Laidlaw Rd. It looks like any substantive landscape buffering is being eliminated, at least none is shown.

Here is an image of the master site plan and landscaping plan approved by the County for the site. This site plan updated the counties file and was dated December 18, 1996.

In the County’s approval documents under the section governing “Architectural Urban Design Guidelines” it states, “Landmark buildings will be designed such that roof features and building massing reinforced their special place in the community fabric (for example, sloped roofs with strong eave lines, punctuated by vertical elements such as clock towers, cupolas, skylight or clerestory structures, etc.)” and in a later paragraph of that same approval section it states, “There will be a continuous commitment to maintaining the character and quality of the Bethany Planned Community.”

The Developer’s Own Words

Take a visit to the Bethany Village website and read the developer’s description of the neighborhood.

A lush oasis of tranquility amid one of Oregon’s fastest growing regions, Bethany Village is an innovative community built around the idea of a small town, blending residential, retail and professional spaces within a well-planned neighborhood where everything is a short pleasant walk away.

Then go to the page titled “Central Bethany Development” where, under Roy Kim’s signature he describes the company and its mission:

At Central Bethany Development we are creating a community that builds on the best tradition of neighborhood design and integrates residential, retail and professional spaces within a healthy natural environment.

Central Bethany Development seeks to bring people together by offering our residents, storeowners and professionals a unique lifestyle built around a well-planned, walkable neighborhood of human scale.

We are very proud of our development and invite you to enjoy the many amenities it offers.

Hmmm. Who are these people who use words like this to build Taco Bells? I was a developer for almost 30 years. I understand the business. Over the years I had the opportunity to become acquainted with the likes of John Gray who built Sun River and Salishan, and George Marshall who built Charbonneau, King City, Claremont and much of Forest Heights. These are men of great character who left a trail of fulfilled promises and lasting relationships. These guys did not build Taco Bells.

I have always been a fan of Roy Kim’s and I have received a lot of support from him as we struggled to survive the recession and create a successful business. While I have not been a big fan of his architectural sensibilities, I have admired his accomplishments. I have heard stories from customers and neighbors who feel differently. Perhaps Roy has financial partners or extraordinary financial considerations that drive his decision-making in permitting Taco Bell into the center. This is the only rationale that I can find to reconcile these recent actions with my view of the man.

How sad to work so long and come so far to create something unique and worthwhile and to have it be Taco Bell that represents your final creative act. This is the last piece to the puzzle that is Bethany Village. And it’s a turd.

Janet and I went to watch the movie “Food Inc” at Cinema 21. I went along to be a good sport. I am generally disinclined to attend revivals… preaching to the saved and all that. I got most of the way through the book “Omnivore’s Dilemma”, we are buying from local farms, etc. So I went along, braced for bombardment but not expecting to learn much new. In a way this is what occurred. But there was more. The producers of Food Inc did a masterful job of assembling bits and pieces into a compelling story. The evil machine of factory farming was a key player in this story. So were the farmers, the seed cleaner who was put out of business by the predatory practices of Monsanto, the workers – managed out of the same values as those that prescribe how the animals are treated, families like yours and mine… and, of course, the cows, pigs and chickens.

The movie is a scathing review of an industry that is allowed to exist because of huge subsidies by taxpayers. It is an industry fueled by corn. This is a story of incredible human ingenuity gone awry. But the movie is also a message of hope. That message is simple: Do what you can. It’s true: You are either a part of the solution or you’re a part of the problem. Being in the business of buying several hundred pounds of groceries each week, Janet and I decided we want to be a bigger part of the solution.

Big Bad Baloney

Just because it is corporate, just because it is huge or successful, just because it is Walmart – doesn’t make it bad. The movie really drives this point home by featuring Gary Hirshberg, Founder of Stonyfield, the third largest producer of yogurt in the U.S. Stonyfield sells to Walmart big time and Hirshberg tells about the derision that is heaped on him for doing business with the devil, that being Walmart. He has at his disposal an array of facts and figures as to how many tons and tons of chemicals and fertilizers that were not dumped into animals and onto the earth because they have been able to achieve economies of scale necessary to distribute goods through the largest company in the world at competitive prices.

The movie manages to include ruddy, round-cheeked, doofus-looking suits from Walmart in the picture in a way that makes it very clear that, to the extent that evil has become institutionalized into the food chain, it has only been able to exist because we the consumers ask for it, pay for it and pretend that we are powerless. Walmart’s job is to give us what we want. It is difficult to fault the company because its customers are indifferent, lazy and self-disempowered.

Fictitious Labeling

Out of laziness we too readily form judgments without actually knowing the truth or directly observing the complete facts. It is one of the great sins of our time and it is the reason the world is chock-full of meaningless words and phrases. The very language we use is dying beneath us as we enable those who use facts to tell us lies. All-natural meat processors soak and pump their goods with brine that is “seasoned” with celery root and sea salt, knowing full well that these two ingredients combine to “naturally” produce nitrates. They call them “natural nitrates”. How nice. Let them toast their creativity with a cup of the natural carcinogenic nitrites that cannot be calculated or measured due to the “natural” process by which they are produced. I’m thinking that good old saltpeter might not be so bad after all. Actually, I’m thinking that maybe my meat doesn’t need to be kept artificially pink, so we corn our own beef… but we turn a blind eye to the ham. ;-)