Salem City Council delayed a decision Monday on a disputed rezoning at 1505 Front Street NE, giving the property owner and city planners one more chance to find a compromise before the case returns Oct. 12.
The 1.43-acre property is already a working business site. A nearly 36,000-square-foot warehouse is occupied by Murphy’s Fireplace & Stove, Mongoose Metals and The Desk Dealer. Owner Loren W. Boeckman, trustee of the Eleanore M. Boeckman Trust, wants the property changed from Mixed-Use Riverfront zoning to Industrial Commercial, opening the property to a broader range of business and industrial uses.
The request puts one Salem property in the middle of a much larger transition along the north riverfront. Salem created its Mixed-Use Riverfront zone through the Our Salem planning process to encourage a pedestrian-oriented district with housing, commercial activity and better connections to the Willamette River. The zone was also designed to let existing industrial buildings remain while preserving the possibility of different development later…