Salem's Fairview Training Center site was intended as a green business, residential community. What happened?

Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the acreage of the Pringle Creek Community. It is 32 acres.

Seventeen years after the state of Oregon agreed to sell the former Fairview Training Center site in Salem to a group of investors hoping to develop a sustainable community, only about a third of the planned 1,600 green homes have been built or are expected to come under construction.

The 275-acre Fairview Training Center site, which housed the developmentally disabled for nearly a century and at one point had a population of 3,000, closed in 2000.

With an eye toward green living, investors with Sustainable Fairview Associates garnered the favor of then-Gov. John Kitzhaber, who in 2002 said their proposal had "the most thorough plan for sustainable development of the property."

They bested a more traditional developer, Chuck Sides, and agreed to buy the land from the state for $15 million.

Developers have laid plans for several hundred homes and apartments, but just more than 60 have actually been built or are in development.

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Most of the property remains undeveloped, ownership is fractured, and what has been built — or is slated for construction — offers differing views of what it means to live green. This story is based on public records, public testimony, interviews, Statesman Journal archives and visits to the Fairview site.

The Salem Planning Commission has approved a proposal for 180 apartments by Mountain West Investment Corp. that representatives of the Heritage School, also located on the Fairview site, don't believe lives up to the original sustainable ideals.

The first units are planned to be ready to rent in the summer of 2020 and have the rest completed by spring 2021.

Brian Moore, Mountain West's director of real estate development, outlined features of the development "that we believe advance sustainable purposes." Those include the installation of electric-vehicle charging stations and the preservation of 21 mature trees, with plans to plant more than 250 additional trees.

Housing, city park on the way

A 26-acre park is in the works for part of the site after city of Salem agreed to pay $2 million to Sustainable Fairview Associates. 

To the north, the Pringle Creek Community, described on paper as "a neighborhood designed around nature and community," sits on 32 acres with narrow streets and small, LEED-certified homes. One residence, the Net Zero home, purports to slash utility bills by as much as 40 percent and is priced at $499,900.

Near Leslie Middle School to the west, the Fairview Addition development is supposed to grow to about 51 acres. Monmouth-based Olsen Design and Development, Inc., advertises the neighborhood having tree-lined streets, community agriculture, garages in the back and porches in the front.

To the east, Mountain West developers are planning a more common setup: 180 apartments on 9 1/2 acres next to the Heritage School, a private nonprofit elementary and middle school on the Fairview site. The developers envision three-story buildings, private streets, an office and recreation building and on- and off-street parking.

But the site's master plan called for a mix of apartments, condos and townhouses, said Warren Binford, a lawyer for the school.

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As it stands, the proposal would bring a "homogeneous, industrial apartment complex, and so it departs from sustainable values in those ways," Binford said. There is no workforce housing or low-income housing, and no opportunities for ownership, she said.

Moore defended the Mountain West project, telling the Salem Planning Commission earlier this month that it complies with every applicable guideline and standard, and it will provide residents with a "positive" place to live.

"We are really pleased with the design of the community that has resulted from collaboration with and comments from Sustainable Fairview Associates, the city and our neighbors," Moore said.

Susan Leeson, the sole remaining member of Sustainable Fairview Associates, told the planning commissioners that the Mountain West proposal was "a model for multifamily" housing.

Sustainable Fairview Associates had wanted to ensure a mix of single and multifamily housing was available, Leeson said.

The Pringle Creek Community offers one view of single family housing, but "not everybody can afford it," she said. The Fairview Addition development is another example of a single-family living arrangement.

Leeson said the master plan for the site "anticipated all forms of housing."

Master plan outlines sustainable ideals

Salem adopted a Fairview Training Center Redevelopment Master Plan in 2005, outlining a set of principles that were supposed to transform the land into a model community for others in the nation.

The plan described Fairview as "like an upturned right hand, with the palm in the center and five fingers spreading up and out toward the edges of the site."

"The site contains more than 700,000 square feet of buildings that will be rehabilitated or removed responsibly; enough land for 2,000 residential units, several businesses, professional offices, schools and other public facilities; places of worship; and an extensive network of linked parks, open spaces, and protected natural resources," the plan said.

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A common principle was preserving greenery. Developments were to respect existing landscape, preserving spaces for recreation, storm-water flow and habitats, the plan said. Block of forests and wetlands would be saved and expanded.

In an ideal scenario, the plan said, heat waste from commercial buildings would warm residences either on the same block or in the same building.

"Wide green corridors with direct connection to hundreds of front doors and porches are a signature feature," the plan said. "Broad green swaths include a complex layering of habitat, drainage ways, community garden sites, play areas, walking and bike trails and narrow, low-speed vehicle ways."

At least 1,600 families would be able to live at the site, with housing varied enough to suit residents from all walks of life and income classes, according to the plan.

The redevelopment would also generate jobs, with existing buildings from the Fairview Training Center able to be re-purposed for industrial and business uses.

"Ultimately the objective is to provide one job per household," the plan said. "This does not imply that all residents will work at (Fairview), but many may."

Leeson explained the backstory behind the group's formation to Salem planning commissioners, stressing investors who came together in the early 2000s weren't developers.

After the state of Oregon announced it would close Fairview Training Center, she said, there was a choice: let it turn into a traditional development by flattening terrain and demolishing existing buildings.

On the other hand, she said, there was the option "to do something that respected the topography, that respected the groves of heritage trees that are onsite, that maximizes walkability, protects connectivity, (and) really tried to do something special for the citizens of Salem."

"Most of us have put our entire retirement savings into this effort," Leeson told commissioners.

Old buildings 'fell into disrepair' 

A so-called Village Center on the east side, near Heritage School, was supposed to have the highest concentration of preserved buildings from the Fairview Training Center days, as well as new construction.

It would have formed the residential and commercial core of the redevelopment.

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Offices and, perhaps, manufacturing facilities would be part of the Village Center, City Planner Bryce Bishop said. "It's kind of like work, play and live all in one community."

But construction hasn't gone according to plan.

Old buildings weren't redeveloped because they "fell into disrepair," Bishop said. "They couldn't find anybody to utilize them."

With the state of the economy, development has focused more on housing up to now, he said.

"Once you get more houses and rooftops out there hopefully it will be more attractive to attract commercial uses to the Village Center and other areas of the site to fulfill that vision," Bishop said. "But right now it's pretty isolated."

But Binford contends the structures should be torn down "as quickly as possible,"  fearing they present a hazard for children.

Bishop speculated that the apartment complex, along with other activity, may spur additional development, which "we haven't really seen a lot of since 2002."

"I think what is going out there is good, and it's a good sign that there is interest and things are proceeding because it doesn't do anybody good to have just that 275 acres not meeting the multifamily housing demand that it's intended to provide," Bishop said.

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Bankruptcy derails development

Bishop, who has followed progress at the Fairview site since the early 2000s, said one challenge with developing the site is that different groups are subject to different standards regulating the 275 acres.

Meanwhile, ownership of the land has split among several entities after a 2007 bankruptcy derailed earlier development plans.

Sustainable Fairview Associates looked for an investor who would buy all of the land under the provisions of the master plan and zoning requirements, Leeson told city planning commissioners this month.

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PJM Fairview bought the land for approximately $21 million, becoming the site's master developer in 2006. On the north end, the Pringle Creek Community took root.

In 2007, PJM Fairview filed for bankruptcy. "Our choice at that point was to let go of the vision or to try to recoup what we could," said Leeson. Sustainable Fairview Associates and another group, OFO Partners, bought about 240 acres at auction.

In 2014, Sustainable Fairview Associates spun off into two companies, Leeson said. The other company is called SFA 2.

Olsen Design and Development, Inc., owned by Eric Olsen, is under contract with SFA 2 to purchase land on the west side. Olsen said the project — which started in late 2015 — has about 45 houses built or under construction, with about 175 still on the way, for a total of 220 homes. 

At Pringle Creek, developers have either built or are in the process of building 21 houses, with 35 lots pending, said Pringle Creek Director of Development Jonathan Schachter.

"In all we have 145 home lots that are being developed," Schachter said. "In addition, we are developing a number of commercial buildings to house local services, hospitality and small business. Some of these are being converted from their historic uses."

Jonathan Bach is the Statesman Journal’s City Hall and business reporter. As part of the business beat, Jonathan occasionally covers marijuana issues in Oregon. A University of Oregon graduate, he joined the Statesman Journal in 2016. Jonathan can be reached at jbach@statesmanjournal.com, call (503) 399-6714 or follow on Twitter @jonathanmbach.