West Linn Planning Commission Denies Tannler Drive/Blankenship Road Mixed-Use Application on August 26, 2026

The West Linn Planning Commission held a special hybrid meeting on Wednesday, August 26, 2026, scheduled for 6:00 p.m. and called to order at 6:02 p.m.; it adjourned at 8:27 p.m. Five commissioners attended—Commissioners Dietz, Kachiriski, Walvot, Salte, and Chair Schulte Hillen—constituting a quorum. Meeting minutes were not available. The only substantive agenda item was deliberation and final decision on DR-25-04/LLA-25-02, a Class II Design Review and Property Line Adjustment application for a mixed-use development at 2410, 2422, and 2444 Tannler Drive and 1800 Blankenship Road. The commission denied the application by a 5-0 vote.

Public Comments & Testimony

• Dean Sir, president of the Friends of Oppenlander Foundation and vice president of the Rosemont Summit Neighborhood Association, said the association had recently adopted a formal position on the proposed Oppenlander middle housing development. He urged meaningful city engagement before the development application is filed, while the design can still change, and said residents had been communicating with the developer but struggling to communicate with the city. Commissioner Walvot called the reported city fee charged to the neighborhood association for consultation appalling. (The transcript also spells the speaker’s name as Sewer and the neighborhood as Robert Wood; the agenda context indicates Robinwood.)
• Mike Capigan, a West Linn resident and Robinwood Neighborhood Association Community Development Committee chair, said Robinwood and Bolton, the two most affected neighborhood associations, had repeatedly requested that the Highway 43 Vision code language go before the Planning Commission and a physical public open house. He said the detailed code language had been released only in the previous 7-10 days and asked for neighborhood input before the legislative process begins. He credited Commissioner Dietz with writing a letter requesting an open house.
• Carrie Oaks, a West Linn resident, read an August 13, 2026 letter to the Planning Commission concerning the August 10 hearing on the commercial portion of the application. She objected that the city attorney and staff disallowed a question from resident Janet Michaels during testimony, and she cited CDC 99.170 hearing procedures as allowing questions through the chair. She said she had received no response to her letter and was concerned that this discourages public participation.

Deliberation and Decision: DR-25-04 / LLA-25-02

• Staff planner Darren Wise said House Bill 4037 prohibited a public hearing on the residential component, so the commercial component had a public hearing on August 10, 2026, while the residential component accepted only written comments. No further testimony or evidence was accepted on August 26. The record included staff reports, addenda, a supplemental findings memo, and a proposed final order containing 13 conditions of approval.
• The city attorney noted the decision was quasi-judicial, with no conflicts, ex parte contacts, or audience challenges.
• Commissioner Salte said the site is in the Office Business Center (OBC) zone, where the code allows multifamily housing as mixed use with commercial development on the entire first floor, and that Section 38 of Senate Bill 1537 may allow some first-floor residential when at least 75% of the developed floor area is residential. He argued the applicant had not completed the street/block analysis required by CDC 48.025C; buildings 1-6 were treated as an “access loop” project rather than a block pattern; and the unresolved classification of internal routes prevented consistent application of the 20-foot street setback and commercial frontage rules. He concluded the street/block requirement was not met.
• Commissioner Walvot contended House Bill 4037 should not govern because the application was deemed complete on March 19, 2026, and HB 4037 became effective July 1, 2026, citing the “goalpost rule” in ORS 227.178(3)(a). He also noted that ORS 197A.395 does not require allowing multifamily housing in a commercial zone such as OBC.
• Commissioner Kachariski said 400 parking spaces for 320 residences was “ridiculous,” predicted many two-car households, and said 80 spaces for commercial customers was inadequate. He also questioned using an adjacent west-side office parking lot for overflow while claiming the grade prevents egress through that same lot. He raised emergency-egress concerns for the hilltop and argued the site should have a larger commercial component. Commissioner Dietz later referred to “390 some apartments” in the same parking discussion; the transcript does not reconcile that number with 320 units.
• Commissioner Walvot provided the parking maximum context: under CDC 46.090, multifamily non-studio uses may have up to 2.0 spaces per unit, yielding a 640-space maximum for the 320 residential units; the proposal’s fewer than 400 spaces was within that maximum. He raised concerns about diagonal parking near the realigned Tannler/Blankenship intersection and the absence of dedicated commercial parking.
• Commissioner Dietz said the applicant had not met its burden under CDC 55.130(C) and (E)(2)(4) because the grading and drainage plan lacked substantial evidence that a stormwater detention pond was impracticable or that reasonable alternatives were evaluated. Commissioner Walvot cited West Linn Stormwater Management Manual Sections 1.1 and 3.1.1.1, which prioritize green development practices and allow structural detention only when a pond is impracticable.
• Commissioner Walvot also raised a procedural concern: the applicant requested a 30-day extension less than two weeks after the March 19 deemed-complete date, moving the project’s 120-day deadline from July 17 to August 16. He said he had never seen that in more than 11 years on the commission, and revised architectural plans were submitted on May 21, May 26, and July 16.

Key Outcomes

• Commissioner Dietz made a motion to deny the application, finding that the applicant failed to demonstrate compliance with CDC 21.050(2), CDC 55.130, and the West Linn Stormwater Management Manual sections on green development and detention ponds. Commissioner Salte successfully amended the motion to add CDC 48.025C and Finding 74, because the record did not establish the required blocks or an exception based on extreme topography or a compelling functional limitation. The amendment passed 5-0.
• The commission then voted 5-0 to deny DR-25-04/LLA-25-02. The motion directed staff to prepare written denial findings consistent with the denial and return them to the Planning Commission on September 2, 2026.
• No consent calendar was presented. The meeting adjourned at 8:27 p.m.