Arlie & Company

FLORENCE — Ending years of speculation on the coast, Eugene developer Arlie & Co. revealed its plans Thursday for a 17-acre parcel across Highway 101 from the Fred Meyer store.

To the relief of many local residents, those plans don’t involve a big-box store or a strip mall.

Instead, the company is proposing a mixed-use project that its representatives say will alleviate a critical housing shortage in Florence. The proposed development includes townhouses, apartments, assisted living units, restaurants, a bank, retail shops and office space. If approved by city officials, the “neighborhood center” will resemble northeast Eugene’s Crescent Village, while preserving the “character and charm” of the Oregon Coast, company planning manager Teresa Bishow said.

“We are trying to meld two lifestyle paradigms that most of us now straddle,” added Greg Brokow, an architect on the project. “The one revolves around the automobile, and the other is the walkable neighborhood most of us say we would prefer. What this project will do, just as Crescent Village does, is make sure that both these ways of living are possible.”

What the project also will do is go over a lot more comfortably with the members of the public who fought tooth-and-nail against the last proposal for the parcel: a 166,000-square-foot factory outlet mall. The project’s “terrible design” generated a huge outcry, Bishow said.

It would have been set back from Highway 101 with 830 parking spaces facing the highway. Residents at the adjacent Florentine Estates retirement community worried that their homes would be flooded with stormwater runoff and that noise and lights would disturb their serene setting.

“We learned quickly that doing a single large retailer was not what the people in Florence seemed to want,” Bishow said.

Arlie & Co., which bought the land in 2000, eventually pulled the factory outlet mall idea in favor of something more palatable for the site, which is designated for commercial use. For seven years, however, no one knew exactly what that something might be.

Now, the plans are on the table. The company wants to build 92 assisted living units; 137 one-level apartments in multistory buildings, some above retail outlets on the ground floor; and 27 townhouses. Bishow says there’ll be a planned unit development application at City Hall by the end of next month. Construction could begin by the end of the year.

“So far, we’re pleased with the concept,” said Nancy Walker, who lives in Florentine Estates with her husband, Dick. “We always felt the worst that could happen would be a big-box store over there. We’ve driven through Crescent Village in Eugene, and we always thought that was a wonderful idea. They’re making a great effort to do something that’s not only profitable but pleasing to the community.”

Jenny Velinty, another Florentine resident, likes the idea so far, though she’s glad neighbors voted against connecting streets to the development.

“People living adjacent to the 17 acres did want to maintain a definite wall between the two properties,” Velinty said.

She’s still nervous about lighting and noise, but “they’re now putting in what sounds like quite a nice thing for Florence,” Velinty said. “Who’s going to be able to afford to live there, I’m not sure.”

Press Releases

Arlie plans mixed-use project on coast