8A | SATURDAY, JUNE 23, 2018 | SIUSLAW NEWS
CANNERY from page 1A
“We want to make it its own little
community so that as many possi-
ble amenities could be co-located,”
McGlade said. “It’s more of a nodal
center than just senior living. The
hope is that it will be a vibrant, res-
idential area that will include older
people, younger people, little shops,
restaurants and some amenities
that will make it interesting to live
in.”
He also believed the north-of-
town location would make a great
visual and economical entrance to
the City of Florence.
But by 2009, the Great Recession
was in full swing. Multiple planned
projects throughout Florence were
ended, Cannery among them.
“Then the crash occurred, the
plans were dashed,” McGlade said.
“It was an unusual roller coaster, to
say the least.”
The project was extended for
two years with the hopes that the
losses would only be monetary. But
they weren’t, and by 2010 Arlie &
Company dipped into bankruptcy.
Around that time, Musumeci suc-
cumbed to cancer. A year later, Ar-
lie did as well.
“In the course of the year, the
principals who were guiding the
project were dead, and I was left
with the project,” McGlade said.
He had some development expe-
rience as well, so he stuck with the
project, working on the designs and
looking for investors.
“I needed to find people who be-
lieved in the vision, and this is quite
difficult to do because of the loca-
tion,” McGlade recalled. “People
who lend money usually want to be
in larger urban centers.”
He was able to find some over-
seas investors, mostly in China.
It should be noted that the proj-
ect is not officially funded right
now. To be able to have invest-
ments finalized, permits have to be
given to the project. But McGlade
has guarantees that the initial in-
vestment is secure. And if there’s
unseen financial problems in the
future?
“I can’t predict if another reces-
sion is going to happen,” he said.
“It’s already happened in our life-
time and a lot of people suffered as
a result. I hope it doesn’t happen,
but who am I to say? I can’t guar-
antee anything. But I’ve stuck with
this project for 10 years so I hope
that shows a good level of determi-
nation to see this through.”
With the promised money, Mc-
Glade able to partner with Amer-
ican United Development Group,
creating Cannery Station Devel-
opment, LLC. One of the project
managers is Bryan Cavaness, who
represented the company in the
Florence Planning Commission
meeting.
The Plan
City of Florence Planning Com-
mission Chairperson John Mur-
phey read aloud the official de-
scription of the project:
“Cannery Station, preliminary
plan unit development (PUD). An
application for a PUD … for an
eight-phase mixed-use develop-
ment with 31 proposed lots over a
10-year period. The 17-acre par-
cel is located east of Highway 101,
across from Fred Meyer, west of
Florentine Estates, north of the
Community Baptist Church and
south of Munsel Lake Rd.”
The audience was overflowing,
a rare site for a planning meeting,
and extra chairs had to be brought
in to the meeting at the Florence
Events Center.
“What are they proposing?”
City of Florence Planning Direc-
tor Wendy FarleyCampbell asked
while giving the staff report. “They
are proposing to build a mixed-use
PUD. It will have a mixture of com-
mercial, residential and different
densities of residentials.”
The first phase, which will be
located on the southwest corner of
the property, would have the bulk
of the commercial aspects of the
project, including an assisted liv-
ing facility. This section will be a
55-and-over community.
“In phase one, there will be a
70-bed assisted living facility, 20
of which will be specialized mem-
ory care,” Cavaness said. “We have
worked with this developer on a
project in Albany, and that is cur-
rently being filled up. But one of the
things that shocked and depressed
me is that the facility is 82 beds,
with 20 memory care units, and the
memory care unit was the first one
to fill up.”
In a separate interview to the
Siuslaw News, McGlade, who did
not attend the planning meeting,
expanded on the idea, stated there
would also be an apartment build-
ing.
“We’re looking at an age-restrict-
ed 55 and older. That would be
considered independent living,” he
said. “Those would be people who
don’t require much help with day to
day activities, but they can partici-
pate in amenities from assisted liv-
ing. And we’re also debating having
a home health component as well,
where people in the community
can come.”
There will also be 28 cottages
that will act as transitional housing.
“Those are for people who wish
to live in close proximity to an as-
sisted living, but have more inde-
pendence,” McGlade said. “They
may be someone who wants to be
linked in technologically with the
monitoring systems, they might
want to take meals from assisted
living and take part of social pro-
grams, but they still can live some-
what independently.”
Aside from housing, there will
also be extensive commercial prop-
erties available.
“Those could range from a doc-
tor office to an accounting office,”
Cavaness said. “Lower intensity
types of uses.”
He said that he already knew of
an urgent care facility that had ex-
pressed interest in the facility.
He added a description for possi-
ble retail shops.
“These are going to be small-
er, owner-operated shops,” he ex-
plained. “They are not going to be
something that’s going to be owned
by large national corporations. Our
hope would be that this would be
something that would foster and
increase economic development
from within the community itself.”
As Cannery Station’s first phase
is completed, more specific plan-
ning on the remaining phases will
begin, with eight in total. The exact
order of the phases is unknown, as
the organizers will be looking for
investors and ideas about the re-
maining pieces.
“In order to build phase one,
there has to be a component of
utilities and water that will be re-
quired for the whole development,”
McGlade explained. “If anything,
it prepares the rest of this to more
easily be developed, with less
chance of running into roadblocks.
When you have something operat-
ing and you have part of it built, it
tends to accelerate the other pieces.
They do act in a synergistic fashion
where the first one is the hardest to
get built. Once that is put in place,
it’s much easier.”
Cavaness explained how it is a
benefit to have leeway with the time
frame.
“What I ask for is flexibility, so
that if there’s a particular tenant
who comes in with a need for par-
ticular square footage, we can pro-
vide them with an 8,000-square-
foot building. If somebody says, ‘I
just want to come in here with a
25-square-foot area,’ I can provide
that as well. All we’re asking for is
flexibility,” he said.
Beyond commerce, the finished
project also plans to be environ-
mentally pleasing.
“From a landscaping standpoint,
30 percent of the developable area
is going to be landscaped,” Cava-
ness told the commission. “Approx-
imately 45,000 square feet of that
area will be dedicated to a combi-
nation of passive and active recre-
ational uses, which is 39 percent of
the open space. Code requires 25.
We are almost twice as much as
what the code requires.”
He also stated that there would
be a heavy use of native plants in
the area.
“We don’t want to bring out other
items that we have to be constantly
replacing that have increased water
needs. We will be making every
effort the use native landscaping
materials to the greatest extent
practical,” he said. “This will be a
very beautiful place that will only
enhance the area.”
Q&A
The Planning Commission
asked Cavanass many clarifying
questions, including when the
project could break ground.
“I would like to start site im-
provements as quickly as possible,”
Cavaness answered. “If I can start
before Thanksgiving, I will be very
happy. I would like to start vertical
construction in February.”
The commission also compared
Cannery Station to existing de-
velopments and their homeowner
association (HOA) requirements
for storage, as well as questions on
clearcutting.
“We have obtained a clearing
permit for a portion of the prop-
erty (phase one),” Cavaness said.
“Anything up to the north will re-
45%
people in transitional homes that
do prefer a second story.
One member of the public,
who stated he had heard the same
presentation in 2008, had choice
words for the project.
“We know that the world is
changing, that Florence is chang-
ing, and that this property will be
developed,” he said. “The mission
of the commission is that it’s done
in a reasonable way. Yeah, we
need housing, but we don’t need
it all on this one piece of property.
“When we heard this presen-
tation before, we were told there
would be one-story houses. Now
there will be two-story. … It’s go-
ing to affect a lot of people.”
There could have been more
comments, but the June 12 meet-
ing had run long. Public com-
ments began almost three hours
into the night, and most of the
audience had left by then.
Nothing was decided by the
commission that night, as mem-
bers held off a final vote until
the next public meeting on Tues-
day, June 26, also at the Florence
Events Center.
This will allow the public to
continue to voice their views on
the project.
For those who did stay around,
they would have noticed a pattern
of intense questions about three
major topics: A wall, flooding and
traffic.
And all of these were major
concerns for Florentine Estates,
the 55+ community that rests just
east of the proposed Cannery Sta-
tion.
The Wall
Florentine Estates General
Manager Jason Nelson has been
working closely with Cannery
Station and Florentine residents,
including an estate committee that
works to preserve the estate’s in-
terests in the matter, to present the
community’s concerns about the
development.
“Florentine’s stance isn’t against
the project,” Nelson said.
The people he has worked with
are generally supportive of the
development; there are just a few
concerns that have come up that
residents would like addressed.
The first regards the proper-
ty line between Florentine Estates
and Cannery, and the barrier that
should be used to help separate it.
Much of the conversation revolves
around 35 feet.
Taken from the property line,
Florentine Estates has a 40-foot set-
back from the estate’s property line
to a home’s property line. On the
Cannery Station side, there is sup-
posed to be a 35-foot setback.
Adding in the distance from the
home line and the side of a house,
there’s around 80 feet separating
two homes, wall to wall.
However, Cannery is asking for
an exception to its 35 feet to put in
an eight-foot deck. This would en-
croach six feet into setback, cutting
the length to 29 feet, according to
Nelson.
Florentine fears that even just
a few feet could make any noisy
neighbors that much more notice-
able.
See CANNERY page 9A
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main in its current vegetative con-
dition until a development plan is
proposed. With that said, an ac-
cess road will be constructed off of
Munsel Lake.”
According to the current plan,
the transitional housing portion
said that two-story residential
housing would be part of the de-
sign.
The commission suggested that
most transitional residents would
be adverse to stairs.
“In all of the best worlds, those
would be single-story homes,” Ca-
vaness said. “However, given the
available depth that we have, and
the intent to have a one-car ga-
rage, it’s going to be difficult to get
footage on the main floor on those
buildings. It will be easier across
the street, but on those structures,
it will probably be two stories. I’m
guessing one bedroom with one
window.”
Cavaness later told the Siuslaw
News was that this was due to
some uneven elevation in certain
areas. While he will build single
stories when he can, some homes
will not be able to fit on a slope
without two stories.
“I’m very concerned when they
come in and build small town-
houses,” one audience member
said. “We don’t have two stories
[in Florentine Estates] because our
residents can’t climb stairs very
well. So if this is supposed to be
transitional, no transitional homes
can be two stories. It’s just a bad
idea.”
Cavaness told the news that
while it is a financial risk, there are
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