SINCE 1979 • VOLUME 38, NO. 41
SECTION A
SEPTEMBER 23, 2016
$1.00
‘I can’t find fault’
Council gives thumbs up to
apartments at cow pasture
By ERIC A. HOWALD
Of the Keizertimes
Members of the Keizer City
Council paid a lot of lip ser-
vice to the hours of testimony
and reams of paper submitted
to city offi cials opposing a re-
zone of the area known as “the
cow pasture” but, in the end,
councilors granted the owners’
petition.
While the council will still
have to approve an ordinance
completing the process, the
decision Monday, Sept. 19,
paves the way for the con-
struction of up to 112 apart-
ments. The council’s decision
was unanimous.
“It’s very different sitting on
the council and being part of
the audience. I found many of
the letters we received com-
pelling if not persuading,” said
Councilor Mark Caillier. “The
emotional side of me says one
thing, and the quasi-judicial
nature of this says another.”
Councilors were acting as
a quasi-judicial body in mak-
ing the determination, which
meant meeting criteria nec-
essary for rezoning was the
standard by which the appli-
cation had to be judged.
In explaining the city
staff ’s recommendation to
accept the rezoning, Nate
Brown, Keizer’s community
development director, said
that he and others in the
planning department had to
rely on adopted standards in
regard to traffi c and school
impacts even when “common
sense” would suggest drawing
another conclusion.
Councilor Roland Her-
rera said he often thought of
Please see PASTURE, Page A7
File
The long-standing farmhouse on Verda will either be moved through local efforts or razed to
make room for apartments.
Conditions
allow for
move of
farmhouse
By ERIC A. HOWALD
Of the Keizertimes
The Keizer City Coun-
cil approved a request to re-
zone the property known as
“the cow pasture” and paved
the way for a new apartment
complex, but the approval is
not without its conditions.
The most eye-catching is
that
developers
will need to allow
up to a year-and-
a-half for someone
to step forward and
complete a project
moving the “his-
torically
signifi -
cant” farmhouse
on the site.
The clock starts
ticking when the
council approves
an
ordinance
granting the zone
change at an up-
coming meeting.
Anyone with a
plan to move the
house will have
six months to ap-
proach the city
with their proposal
to preserve and
Oral history
project
needs new
host
PAGE A2
Fire
damages
garage
PAGE A3
Please see CONDITIONS, Page A7
HOA lawsuit rachets up
File
Khrizma Kuhn, 34, is at the center of a lawsuit against the
McNary Estates Homeowners Association.
By ERIC A. HOWALD
Of the Keizertimes
A lawsuit fi led against the
McNary Estates Homeowners
Association (HOA) citing vio-
lation of state and federal fair
housing laws has escalated to a
new level.
The HOA refused to pro-
vide accommodations for a
family with a disabled daugh-
ter in 2015 and it eventually
ended with the family selling
their home and moving away
after almost a decade of own-
ership.
The woman, Khrizma
Kuhn, and her parents, Renee
and Gary, fi led a lawsuit against
several parties in relation to
disagreements in January 2015.
Now lawyers for the Kuhn
family are asking for a partial
summary judgement on the
facts of the case.
“We feel the law is crystal
clear in this case and we’re ask-
ing a judge to make a determi-
nation that the law was violat-
ed,” said Kuhn attorney Dennis
Steinman.
In April 2015, the Kuhn
family requested a waiver from
the HOA to park an RV in their
driveway. Doing so without a
waiver violated McNary Es-
tates HOA rules. Khrizma, 34,
suffers from Down syndrome,
autism and other maladies that
require access to a bathroom
and a shower even on short
trips. The Kuhns presented the
HOA board with letters from
two doctors citing the medical
necessity, but the request was
denied and the family later met
“ We feel the
law is crystal
clear in this
case and we’re
asking a judge
to make a
determination
that the law
was violated.”
— Dennis Steinman,
Attorney for Kuhn Family
with hostility from neighbors.
When
one
neighbor
claimed her view of the street
was obstructed as she tried to
pull out of her driveway, Re-
nee purchased a parabolic mir-
ror for her to install at the edge
of her property. The neighbor
declined to use it.
Another neighbor shoved
Gary twice outside his home as
the situation unraveled. Yet an-
other began sitting outside her
home monitoring the family’s
activity.
“She had a chair and a note-
pad and did it for days,” Gary
said in an interview earlier this
year. “She was trying to log our
behavior.”
The HOA did suggest alter-
natives such as parking the RV
offsite or a van with a chemi-
cal toilet, but neither fully ad-
dressed the situation. The van
would have lacked a shower.
Parking it offsite would have
left Renee without transporta-
tion as the Kuhns had to sell
one of their vehicles to pay for
the RV. Gary used the family’s
other car for commuting to
and from work.
The summary judgement
request was fi led in district
court in Eugene. Teresa Girod,
the president of the HOA, is
also listed as an individual de-
fendant.
Should a judge rule in fa-
vor of the Kuhn family, a jury
could be assembled to deter-
mine damages, but Steinman
said most cases are settled after
summary judgements are is-
sued.
MHS drama
line -up
PAGE A5
Please see LAWSUIT, Page A7
Keizer Chamber
seeking to reignite
holiday parade
By ERIC A. HOWALD
Of the Keizertimes
The Keizer Chamber of
Commerce is picking up the
torch of the holiday lights
parade.
“The chamber has gotten
a lot of calls since it was
announced that the holiday
parade was ending and we sat
down with the board a couple
of weeks ago and had a long
discussion about whether or
not we wanted to take it on.
In the end, we decided to do
it,” said Scott White, president
of the Keizer Chamber of
Commerce board of directors.
The Keizer Holiday Lights
Parade sponsored by the Keizer
Chamber of Commerce and
the City of Keizer already has
a date – Saturday, Dec. 10 – but
organizers are now scrambling
to bring everything else into
alignment.
At the top of the list for the
event is engaging businesses
along River Road North.
White said several local
business owners are already
planning to use their parking
lots to reach out to customers,
but more are welcome.
“We are assembling a team to
blanket River Road businesses
to try and get them engaged
File
Please see PARADE, Page A7
The Keizer Chamber of Commerce is planning to resurrect a holiday light parade on River Road.
One giant
of a Celt
PAGE A8