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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCorrespondence Miscellaneous 3/9/2006 (2) , . . 1536 Vera Drive Springfleld, OR 97477 October 12, 2005 RECF.nn:<:D MAR 0 9 Zo06 BY: Jim Donovan City of Springfield. Urban Planning Division 225 5th Street Springfield, OR 97477 ID-(2lo ~ Re: Legacy Estates Comments Case No. SUB2005-00047 AppUcant: David Corey--Corey Development, LLC Subdivision Tentative Plan Application Our File No. 13160-1 Dear Mr. Donovan: It was a pleasure to meet you today. Thank you for meeting today with Gordon Hafdahl, attorney Doug Wilkinson and me to review the city's plans for the prospective subdivision. Attached to this cover letter you wiUftnd a "Brief History of 1536 and 1528 Vera Drive". I hope this will be enlightening to you, your staff, the City Council and any others wishing to understand the complexity of the decisions being made about the new subdivision and its potential neighbors to the west. It is best to be well- informed of all the facts before making weighty decisions. / If your division or the City Council wish to receive more information feel free to inquire. 1 will include my info below. Greg and 1 are awaiting a response to the conclusions and petitions we have made in the history portion of this letter. Thank you for your hard work for the city. It is not an easy Job to be in your position. You were very co-operative in responding to our questions and eager to reassure us that the city is not accustomed to condemning property. Sincerely" Gail Zilkoski Combs TeL 747-7974 CelL 729-2474 Fax: 747-0096 /~~~ . . Brief History of 1536 and 1528 Vera Drive Springfield, Oregon Gail Zilkoski Combs October 11, 2005 In 1938. Bill and Leona Zilkosld purchased a seven acre parcel of land north of Hayden Bridge road on Rural Route 1. It had a simple bachelors shack on it consisting of a bedroom, indoor toilet and kitchen-living room. It had no running water. Bill had to punch down a couple holes on the property to find water for wells, . He put one near the Idtchen sink and another near a pasture area which he and Leona made by clearing their land of trees. The first few years were dedicated to clearing the seven acres of the old growth firs and maples. It took much sweaty hard labor to fell the trees, cut them up to use for firewood and to dispose of the debris. They used dynamite and their neighbor friend's Percheron horses to pull out the stumps and to break up the root-bound ground. Life was hard while they were trying to build afarm. The United States entered the Second World War, and because Bill had been seriously injured in a professional logging accident in his youth which caused him to limp, he was exempt and was registered as a farmer. The soil was rich and fertile. Listed by the US Department of Agriculture as A1 row crop land, most of the seven acres were sown in commercial green bean plantation, family orchard and vegetable gardens. The gardens had sustained them during the Great Depression of the 30's and fed them during the war. The gardens were a source not only to feed the immediate family but many members of the extended family, neighbors and the homeless vagrants of the Eugene Mission. The fruit trees generated income by sales to local customers. On June 27, 1944, near the end of the war, Gail Joy Zilkosld was born to Bill and Leona. 1 was that baby brought home to the seven acre farm from Sacred Heart HospitaL 1 grew up on the land and helped my parents till it, sow it, hoe it, IuUvest it and can the produce from it. The land was and is to this day a very important part of my life. It is still considered A1 row crop land and is maintained as such. My husband, Greg Combs, and 1 still have fruit, vegetables, and grapes growing on our property. My father started his auto electric shop on N. 39th Street in 1950 Page 1 . . with a partner. It was known as The Economy Garage. When he bought his partners half of the business in 1960, he sold two of the seven acres to pay for it. The new business became Bill Zilkosld's Auto Bl.ectrl.c, and Brsel Zimmerman Estates were formed to the south of our home. We still had the pasture for my horse, the orchard and family gardens. On August 21,1945, Marcell Bugenie Zilkoski was born to Bill and Leona. She came to love her home's land so much that her family and friends all knew she was like Scarlet O'Hara of "Gone With The Wind" who loved her land "Terra". Marcell became a master gardener and loved to harVest the fruit to bake her many prize- winning pies at the Lane County Fair. Arlen and Marcell Kopperud, raised their fani.ily in their home on N. 16th Street which was put through when the new sub-division was built. Mother and Dad didn't mind using a small portion of their land for that private drive because it gave them all year access to Hayden Bridge Road. Prwlous floods in the winter by the McKenzie River covered their north row crop field and made access to Hayden Bridge impossible. We were cut off except to walk out to the road. During the 1950's, my mother won a contest among our neighbors to select an appropriate name for Rural Route 1. It was to be called "Harvest Lane". One of the reasons the harvests on the lane have been richly abundant is because of the annual flooding of the land which left deep topsoil deposits of fertile silt. To this day, it is necessary for us to carry costly flood insurance because our home lies in what is deemed by FEMA as a 500 Year National Flood Plain. Our row crop land is slightly flooded every year by the McKenzie joined by the Mohawk River just a mile above us at Hayden Bridge. In February of 1996, we had a huge flood. The police came to our door at 10:00 p.m. to warn us to pack anything of importance because within the hour it would be necessary to evacuate if the rising flood had not stopped. It did stop just 4 ft. short of the crest of the bank where our home is sitting, and 2 Ft. short of where the Kopperud's home is sitting. It was a roaring and raging river that flowed by almost a mile wide and 12 feet deep in our fl.eld, deeper still at the rivers bed site. Only God spared our homes and those all along the bench crest during that night. The Willamette Valley had converted into one great pond that took weeks to dry up. Even with the dams on the McKenzie there is an ever present danger of a flood because of the confluence of the unbridled Mohawk River just one mile above our Page 2 . . home site. The row crop fields are in what is indicated by FEMA as a 100 Year National Flood Plain. I have witnessed floods here all my life. Flood waters came right up to our porch steps on the north more. than once before the dams were built on the McKenzie. They also came through a trench on Prodan's property that is the 'proposed site for the new Corey housiRII development. The flooded row crop field and the flooded trench to the south running east and west caused us to be marooned more than once. The Prodan'sfilled in that wide deep trench to level the ground to plant filberts. They also leveled the ground where the present housing development known as Grand View Estates now stands. Raising the level of the land where theflood waters once ranfreely could cause problems for other subdivisions at lower levels along the McKenzie because there is less space for the waters to go into horizontally. Manytfmes there have been whole trees and chicken houses have floated by our north bank. When peop~ built new homes here, I always wondered whether they knew the great risk they were taking in building upon a recognized 500 Year National Flood Plain near a 100 Year National Flood Plain thatflooded, not just once, but many times in a century. Without a dam on the Mohawk River there is no assurance that one day an even bigger flood than 1996 won't come to destroy us alL I believe this is a necessary consideration of the Sprl.nlltield PlanniRII Board and the Sprl.RIltield City CounciL They should be insisting upon the construction of a dam on the Mohawk or another one on the McKenzie to protect all of us on the banks near the McKenzie River. The river is threatening. It is better to be prepared and protected--something the City of New Orleans didn't deem important enough to take action on. In 1990, my widowed mother, Leona Zilkoskf, passed away leaving the old farm in a life estate to my sister and me. We lot line divided with the help of Springfield Planning in 1992. Marceil received the private access road from N. 16th with its accompanying acreage, rental and half the northern row crop field. Her house became 3238 N. 16th and her rental 3228 N. 16th. Her rental at 3228 was given access to Vera Drive on the south side by the City at the time of the lot line division. She put up a chain link and a cedar fence to divide our two properties. I received the Page 3 . . lot that goes as far south as the middle of Vera Drive and included our home, our rental and half the northern row crop field. Our home's address was changed from 3235 N. 1 (jtIl to 1536 Vera Drive. Our rental's address was changed from 3228 N. 16th to 1528 Vera Drive. Marceil and Arlen had to go into court with Joe and Pat Prodan because a local engineering company did a poor Job of surveying the property for us before the lot line divlsion. They missed .finding the poage pin in center of Harvest Lane that identified the dividing line between the Prodan's property and our property. That poage pin showed that the power pole line was the dividing line. The engineering.firm skewed the property line all into our row crop field saying that a small pie-shaped wedge belonged to Prodans. It's worth was valued at $2400. It cost $34,000 in courtfor Kopperuds to prove that their traditional property line was the correct one. Joe should not have coveted the small wedge of land that was to the west of our mutual power pole line and had always been farmed by our family since 1938. We had an entry driveway along the west side of that power pole line that included the wedge that was our only entrance from 1938 till approximately 1970. Mr. John Prodan, Joe's father, and our father, Bill, were very good friends. They helped each other with clearing and harvesting the lands. They used to stand at their a4joining fence and taUc for hours, John in Ukrainian and Dad in Polish. We helped them pound bean poles, string their bean poles and hoe their crops. We helped them rake up tons of .filberts and put them in gunny sacks for market. Joe helped us put a roof on our dinette and build a shed. There was no need for Joe Prodan to be desirous of the Kopperud's land or of ours. 1/ he or the city wishes to condemn our property for an entrance to his new housing development at 3285 N. 16th, I think his past history of coveting Kopperud's land should be taken into consideration. In 1965, there was a need for a caretaker's cottage to be built on our property. The caretaker helped my parents with gardening and property maintenance. It has been used by my husband and me since 1990 as a rentaL We lived in it for a year and then began to rent it out. A few years ago we invested $10,000.00 and. 4 months of personal hard labor into it to remodel and rewire and plumb it. We put new floors in the living room, bath and laundry room and added an enclosure for the laundry room. Wall board was added and taped and plastered. Ceilings were redone. We put new Page 4 . . wallpaper in all the rooms and new floor covering with mop boards ut the house. We added curtains, shades, new light fixtures, an air conditioner, security lighting, new landscaping, and new flower boxes at all the windows. A new septic tank and drain field were added adjacent to the present driveway in the Spring of 2003. We did this with a "lan to use the house for our retirement income which will be very much needed. We are planning for a new roof covering, fireproof siding and skirting for the rentaL The skirting goes on this fall and the roofing in the spring. We are hopefully having the driveway entrance concreted before the New Year and have a bid for a contract with Magee and Sons Concrete. A new irrigation-sprinkling system is planned for April and new sod in May. We Just worked all summer to redo our rental's back yard along our entry driveway. We put in a 16 ft. diameter concrete round slab for our lawn furniture and a perennial garden with dogwood tree. Our land is looking more beautiful than ever. Wejust invested $17,000. into new insulated and security windows for our home and will be doing that for our rental within the next three years. If the rental were condemned to put Vera Drive through for a new housing development, it could mean the loss of our much needed retirement income to pay taxes and maintain our home. My husband is oniy a few years from retirement age and in a few months I will receive Social Security. I worked as an elementary teacher for Springfield School Dfstrfct at Goshen Blementary under Florence Terwilliger, principaL My husband chose to take a late retirement rather than early in order to try to give us a good financial base later on. We spent our youth as pastors here stateside and for more than 11 years we served as missionaries in Costa Rica. This rental income is much needed to keep us from being dependant upon the state for our future. This past June, the City of Springfield, considered my husband's and my petition to legalize the entry of our property at the end of Vera Drive. They wrote us a letter o.fftclally verlJyi.ng our property indeed has its entrance onto Vera Drive. The rental's garage entrance is immediately of/the end of Vera Drive and has its own carport attached to the house. We also use the north side of the Vera Drive street to drive up into our driveway. We have no garage in which to park our car or store our motorhome, hence they are parked in that driveway. We need Page 5 . . that driveway to park our car and motorhome because there is no other "lace on our lot available to us. If our land were condemned and taken at the south end of our property to put Vera Drive . through, there would not be enough land leftfor us to build a garage and driveway. A garage would look very ugly indeed being separate from the house and out in our front yard right on the street's sidewalk. It would wipe out our rental, patio, fruit tree, and two storage units. There is a vacant lot ac(jacent to our property but it has no driveway or parking space for us to use. That lot is ours and is being held as a possible future income for us. If our property at the end of Vera Drive is condemned to be used for a northern entrance for the new housing development, it would cut off any future rental income and any place to park our car or motorhome. To us, that would be a personal tragedy and totally inconvenient to have to park our car and motorhome on the street. I think it is illegal to do so. If I correctly read the letter from Mr. ..R.m Donavan at Springfield Urban Planning Division, Sept. 28, 2005, the owner, Joe Prodan, and David Corey of CoreY Development LLC, plan to leave the Kopperud's private driveway in tact. That is proper. I trust that the Springfield Planning will not add to the developer's ambitions by wanting to condemn our property and that of Kopperud's by putting an extension of Vera Drive through. It would be entirely unnecessary as there would already be three main entrances to a 20 house development. -'11 husband and 1 resoectfullJ/ reQuest the City's intentions concerning the condemnation of our property in writing now. I don't believe that taking the Kopperud's land of concreted private driveway entrance at the end of 16th street is morally right before God or man. They have invested $30,000 in the concrete alone and many years of hard work to pay for it. They have carefully invested in landscaping and development of their land. Like my mother, Marcell is a master gardener andftnds her greatest Joy in attending and developing her beautiful gardens. When our parents decided to sell land to Ersel Zimmerman for development, the city of Springfield verbally assured them that they would always be given a private access right at the end of N. 16th. In those days, a man's or a city's word was their bond. It wasn't necessary to have it all in writing because people feared God enough to not think of Page 6 . . stealing another man's hard earned property. Today, condemning property has become all too easy without consideration of the lives and hearts and security it robs from the owners. To build LEGACY ESTATES 1 would believe it unnecessary to take MY SISTER'S AND MY LEGACY to do it. 1 trust that we still have men and women in leadership in our City of Springfield that have moral uprightness regarding these matters and who walk in integrity andjustice before all the people. 1 am not in favor of having a housing development put in if the plan would callfor condemnation of any part of the Kopperud property or the Combs' property. 1 do think that Joe Prodan and developer Corey Development LLC and the City of Springfield should be made legally responsible for building and selling homes in a FEMA indicated 500 Year National Flood Plain. If they are willing to take financial responsibility for each family then 1 think it is fine to let them build there. Otherwise it could be devastating to the 20 new families who could one day find their homes in Legacy Estates under water. That is the risk we all take in living here on the bank. It brings with it high flood insurance rates and anxieties when flood waters creep ever upward to the bank's crest. In truth, it is one thing to be born and raised on this bank crest property, having seen the devastation of the muddy floods (such as ravished orchards, destroyed trees and roads), and it is another to buy a new home in Legacy Estates not knowing that you are buying right next to a river that potentially could sweep your house, life and belongings away in the night. All potential buyers should be notiJied verbally and in writing that they would be purchasing near flood plain land. During the.flood of 1996 it took only 14 hours to fill the field and come almost to the bank's crest. In the morning at 8:00 a.m. it was only a rivulet 2 jt. deep at the foot of the bank and at 10:00 p.m. we were within an hour of evacuation. The Kopperuds, our neighbors and we worked feverishly for hours to load precious belongings into boxes, bins, cars and moving vans. At the end of the rain and the rising there was a great sigh of relief, but only at the end. One more day or even one more hour of hard rain would have put the flooding river over the bank's crest! 1 have another important observation. Ten years ago this coming Page 7 . . February was the Mg flood. The filbert trees that our neighboring farmers had planted in the 100 Year National Flood Plain were short and smalL The flood did not hurt them much and they proved to be almost no resistance. Today however, their quadrupled width, height, thickness of limbs, would be a veritable wall of resistance to a flood. Physics tells us that those trees occupy more ground space and vertical space which means that the same amount of flood water from 1996 would produce an even higher flood level and risk today to houses on the bank's crest. In a conversation with our neighbor to the east, Gordon Hafdahl, I learned that he is not interested in seeing Vera Drive be a through street. He, like us, enjoys the peacefulness of a dead end street without the traffic noise and dangers that trofftc presents. He gave me permission to quote him. From September 25, 2005 to approximately Jem. 25, 2006, Greg is assigned to the SS Chesapeake in the Indian Ocean on Diego Ga.rcfa.. He was awarded a United States medal for his participation in the Iraqi war in 2003. Please be aware that I am writing this history withfull support, approval and agreement by my husband of everything written here. He has personally read and put in his own comments to this history. He is a true patriot of the USA and a present senlant to our community and to the church of God throughout the world as am I. Our conclusions are noted all through this document. We desire that wisdom and prudence and moral conscience be applied to the final judgment on these matters. Sincerely and respectfully submitted, Gail Zilkoskf Combs and Gregory Robert Combs P.s. Oct. 12,2005 I talked this morning with Mr. Jim Donavan in the presence of our neighbor Gordon Hafdahl and our lawyer, Doug Wilkinson, about the City's plans to condemn our property. Mr. Donovan assured us that in all his tenure with the city the City's position concerning condemnation of private property was to not condemn it. I understood him to say that neither the Kopperud's nor the Combs' Page 8 . . property were going to be condemned. He said we would have the personal choice of retaining the properties and selling them if we chose to do so. That was a huge relief to us because the fact is that we do not want to consider the sale of our property. At this point in time, we would still like the City's intentions in writing to condemn or not condemn our property in order to put Vera Drive through to the proposed new housing development. Thank you very much. Mr. Donovan, please communicate with the City of Springfield that giving us only two weeks to respond to such an important issue was an entirely insufficlent amount of time. We were out of state and came back about a week before this was due. We are both international travelers on a consistent basis, in fact, next week 1 fly to 3 Central American countries and my husband flew yesterday from Singapore to Diego Garcia. Please review your policy and change it for future good relations with your public. Thank you. Page 9