Business View Magazine | December 2018

370 371 Renewal District funds was initially invested in the industrial parks with roads, power,water, and sewer, and over the last 15 years that has increased the tax value of the land.The City used the funds to borrow against that value,which enabled parking and street structures to be redone on First Ave., the addition of a community parking lot that brought new life to the downtown, and construction of a new Police Station and a new Library and Civic building that freed up four build- ings for development.At the outset, controversy whirled around the urban renewal plans,which in- volved redeveloping a huge chunk of the core area utilized by city government offices. Mayor Brian Hodson reflected on the controversy, “Initially the thought was to develop our City-owned downtown properties solely to address space needs for City government functions. I was on Council at the time and I felt the block should be retail, commercial, and residential.It was a keyarea in our downtown core and making it a civicblockwas not what I envisioned.The initial planwas to build a newlibrary that would have taken up half the block,so when I ran for Mayor it was with a different vision–to develop this blockwith commercial and residential spaces and allow it to return to the tax rolls.” Through the process, the City worked with the CANBY, OREGON RICK ROBINSON CANBY CITY ADMINISTRATOR BRIAN HODSON MAYOR Cutsforth family, a local family with strong ties to the community. The Cutsforths owned strategically located property in the City’s downtown core, and made available to the City a portion of that prop- erty.When the decision was made to move the library and all the combined city offices into one building on the property offered by the Cutsforths, the city block was freed up for redevelopment. Rick Robinson, Canby CityAdministrator, explains, “In order to proceed with the revitalization of the City’s downtown properties,we constructed a new 35,000-square-foot building.This new building houses our library, City Council Chambers, Commu- nity and Economic Development programs, Finance Department, and CityAdministrative functions.Our new Library and Civic offices opened in October 2016 in the downtown core, one block east of the Dahlia mixed-use building.The City successfully had our former City Hall designated as a historic build- ing prior to transferring it to the developer.With the historic designation, the building can be repurposed for other uses but will always maintain its ap- pearance.With the recent ribbon cutting of Dahlia, Canby’s first mixed-use building downtown, some wonderful activity is occurring.” For the development project, the city contributed the land, the Urban Renewal Agency contributed cash, and the developer funded the balance (ap- proximately $12 million).The outcome is 69 res- idential units in the three upper floors, and com- mercial/retail/restaurant space on the main level. Each floor is about 8,000 square feet.Attracting Millennials was a key element in the thought pro- cess.And seniors are also finding it ideal.According