County sees steady building permit activity

ALBANY — Linn County Planning & Building is seeing solid building permit applications, Director Steve Wills told the Board of Commissioners Tuesday morning.

Many of those permits are for additions and alterations of standing homes, not new home applications, he noted.

There were 57 land use permits and 287 total permits issued in May, Wills said.

Of 27 permits for dwellings, two were for new structures, four for manufactured homes and 14 for additions and alterations. There were seven permits issued for accessory buildings.

There were 31 permits issued for contract cities and of eight building permits, four were for new homes.

There were eight new code enforcement cases opened in May and 10 were closed.

In other business, the commissioners:

• Signed off on previously approved land use actions for Linn-Benton Community College, Willamette Valley Excavating LLC and Riverland LLC.
• Approved contracts between Linn County Parks and S.H. Ore Kayaks to place a kayak rental kiosk at Lewis Creek Park and with Cool N Sweet, to sell ice cream and cold drinks using bicycles at Waterloo County Park and possibly other locations. The annual fee for each is $250.
• Approved reopening a public hearing concerning property line setbacks for Confined Animal Feeding Operations. The commissioners had previously approved a 1-mile setback, but will now accept written comments about that issue until 5 p.m., Tuesday, June 17. The commissioners will review new written comments and then decide at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, June 18. Comments can be hand-delivered to the Planning & Building Department; by mail, Linn County Planning & Building, Box 100, Albany, OR 97321 postmarked no later than 5 p.m., June 17; or by email: aboles@co.linn.or.us or planoffice@co.linn.or.us.
• Approved a renewal of a contract with Garten Services and a new contract with Willamette Valley Rehabilitation Services for janitorial services. The total for both contracts is $163,724.76.
• Reappointed Joseph Rodondi and William Summers to the Linn County Compensation Board.

Media contact: Alex Paul, Linn County Communications Officer, 541-967-3825 or email apaul@co.linn.or.us.