Bald Hill Farm store in Corvallis ordered to close
Based on different interpretations of a land development code, the city of Corvallis has ordered the Bald Hill Farm store to close.
The farm recently sent out this e-mail, which Amanda gave me permission to post:
Dear Friends,
We have some unfortunate news about the future of our little farm store. The City of Corvallis received a complaint on the road construction; as a result, they came to our site and decided that our farm store is an illegal land use and want us to shut it down.
City staff classifies the sale of our farm products from our farm as “Food and Beverage Retail Sales”- like a grocery store. We believe that our farm store is rightfully classed as an “Accessory Use” allowed under LDC Chapter 4.3.50 for Agriculture which allows “Retail outlets, cafeterias, and offices accessory to the Primary Use.”
As you all know, Bald Hill Farm LLC, has for many years been devoted to providing our customers with healthy and sustainably-raised meats. We are valuable to this community. We believe that raising food locally makes Corvallis a stronger and more united community. It is our passion to have this farm store available for our friends and neighbors to provide safe, reliable, and healthy products you can trust.
Maybe if the city could see how beneficial we are to the community, they might rethink their decision to take all the good we do away from all of you. We are appealing the staff’s citations against us thru standard channels to the City Council. We would greatly appreciate your taking just a moment to submit written testimony to the City Council to assist us in our appeal.
Please mail, email or hand deliver it to:
The City Council
c/o Kevin Young, Senior Planner
501 SW Madison Ave.
P.O. Box 1083
Corvallis, OR 97339-1083
kevin.young@ci.corvallis.or.us
For more details on these zoning issues, please see* the attached appeal letter submitted by Andrew Martin, our Managing LLC Member, to the City Council for the appeal. We will send you more information on when the hearing will be held, as soon as we know.
Hopefully together our voices will be heard.
Sincerely,
Amanda Heeter, Member, Bald Hill Farm LLC.
*If you want to see the appeal letter written by Mr. Martin, send an e-mail to Info@4baldhillfarm.com.
The public hearing will be held on Monday, December 7th at 7:30PM in the city fire station meeting room at 400 NW Harrison Blvd.
Let the city hear from you. Bald Hill Farm is an asset to the community and the store is GOOD for the city!
Update: Mayor Tomlinson of Corvallis answered a question I asked on Twitter… even if you are not a resident of Corvallis, your support can have an impact. But, he cautioned, “…no one will have any impact if they do not stick to the applicable criteria of the case.” Here is a link to the CC Staff Report on the farm’s appeal of the violation. Be advised, this is a 299 page document.
2nd Update: For more discussion about this, and whether the code meets the community’s values, check out this post on the We Love Corvallis blog.
