In my previous post about the Bald Hill store closure, I mentioned that there is a 299-page staff report on the violation and the farm’s appeal. The site that hosted that document was not easy to navigate, so I turned the entire document into a PDF. It can be accessed here on my site until the public hearing on the 7th.
There’s a good discussion about this taking place over at the We Love Corvallis blog, and there are comments on the Gazette Times story as well.
This issue has potential ramifications beyond the farm store itself, I would think. Yes, it would be supremely disappointing to lose the store — which consists of a couple of freezers, by the way, it is certainly not anything close to a grocery store — but Bald Hill Farm is steward to hundreds of acres of land in Corvallis. There’s the realignment of Reservoir Ave. that, to the best of my understanding, has been halted until it can be determined that this isn’t actually (now) a losing proposition for the farm. There are the trails, open to the public. There are the efforts of the farm to rejuvenate the land from its former use as a mill.
What could it mean to the community if the Land Development Hearings Board’s decision is upheld? Could we lose the trails? The road realignment? The ability to purchase meat from this local producer? What else? If the city proves to be unwilling to work with the farm for the good of the farm and community, and the farm owners say “to hell with Corvallis”… then what? I think this is news, and I think the community should know all the potential ramifications. A 299-page document is daunting, to say the least. I see people on the GT opinion pages throwing around words like “illegal”, which are just inflammatory, not helpful, and not true. The code is obviously not clear and open to interpretation, and may contain some errors.
I’d also like to know why this never came up during what I am sure were many talks and visits by the city and county with regards to the road realignment. It’s not exactly a secret that the store is there and has been operating for quite some time. Why did this not come up until after the generous donations were made by Mr. Martin and the farm, and work began on the road?
So many questions… and such a restrictive process.
