Zoning

On the other side of the metro area in Cedar Mill, people are protesting a proposed WalMart store. Those people are going to lose. There is no other possible outcome. They may get to argue about things like the placement of trees, sidewalks, and other minutia for years, but the store is going to be built.

Is this an example of big business excercising some monetary advantage? Nope. It's a matter of neighbors who missed their chance ten years ago, and people who moved in the area in the past ten years without doing their due dillegence. The zoning that allows WalMart -- or any other big box -- to build there was put in place over ten years ago without any significant oposition.

Some new neighbors complain that they didn't know the zoning was put in place ten years ago because they moved in since then. And they cry that it's unreasonable to expect that they would have researched the zoning of that parcel before moving into the neighborhood. Who the heck are they kidding?

Cedar Mill is near the interchange of two urban expressways: Oregon 217 and US 26. There is plenty of fully developed urban areas for miles and miles beyond where it lies. The land was vacant. (Well, it still is vacant.) It shouldn't take a degree in urban planning to figure out that someday something would be built there. And if what would be built there would make a difference to you, then yes, you are expected to do your due dillegence and "research" the zoning, and what that zoning means. (And by "research", I mean taking a glance at an easily obtained zoning map, and comparing the number/letter on that site to the list of what those number/letters mean. If this is too much, then maybe you shouldn't be a homeowner.)

Some of the long-time residents might be forgiven for not having the vision to realize that the urban area would reach that far, and that some day there would be no vacant land. But anyone who's lived there less than about 80 years can't really hang their hat on this argument. And most of the people who lived there for 80 years probably also owns enough land that they're going to make a small fortune by selling it in the urbanization rush.

I bought my house about 5 years ago. We only looked at houses in Oregon City, so even though we looked at about a dozen houses, and seriously considered three of them, our land use research consisted of double-checking some maps that we looked at before we moved into our Oregon City apartment. There's plenty of undeveloped and under-developed land in Oregon City, and we decided against one of the houses we were seriously considering specifically because it bordered undeveloped land. The house we did buy was also next to a vacant lot, but we knew how it was zoned, and what would likely be built.

So when I read about the people in Cedar Mill who are protesting the WalMart, all I can think of is here is a bunch of people who have a difficult time dealing with reality. Major intersection. Huge parcel that's not developed. Middle of an urban area. Even without checking the zoning maps, anyone who can fog a mirror placed under their nose should be able to figure out that something big is going to be built there.

Of course it's possible that these people just don't like WalMart. Maybe they wouldn't mind if Target or Kohls moved in. But if that's the case, then they must know that they can't win. That's like saying it's fine if new people move in the house next door as long as they're not . You can't discriminate against a particular company.

The bottom line is a WalMart will be built there. And it will be hugely successful because there are plenty of people who will want to shop there. The use of the land like this is nothing that should have come as a surprise to anyone in the neighborhood, and the protesters are simply letting us know what morons they are.

Strong words? Yes. But that's how I see things.