An errand last month took me along Airport Road in Albany, where I was surprised to see a billboard that said the site of a long-planned housing development was for sale.
The first time I wrote about this 6.5-acre property was back in 2019. On a bike ride I was impressed by the large number of mature trees in a grove bounded by Airport Road on one side and single-family homes and a trailer park on the others. And beyond Airport Road there’s I-5.
Over the years since, city planners approved first a zone change to allow apartments and later a site plan for 11 houses and 44 apartments. In 2020, the owners got city permission to remove 251 of 309 Oregon white oaks, and eventually many of the trees were cut…