“Sellwood Harbor” residents face another year of limbo

By David F. Ashton

The Bee, Nov 25, 2009

Sellwood Harbor homeowner Jim Larpenteur says he, and the other co-located condo owners, won’t be able to buy or sell their homes for a year, due to factors involving the pending Sellwood Bridge restoration project.

David F. Ashton / THE BEE

Another full cycle of the four seasons will pass before Sellwood Harbor condominium residents begin to have any resolution of the questions and issues about their homes. The structure is immediately adjacent to today’s Sellwood Bridge, on the south side — the side to which the bridge will be expanding in its reconstruction.

“I'm still adjusting to the fact that I will be leaving my home,” commented Jim Larpenteur, owner of the northernmost unit on the townhouse level — the waterfront level in the Sellwood Harbor project.

“And, I’m trying to get a handle on when that’s going to occur,” Larpenteur said at the late September Sellwood Bridge open house held at Oaks Amusement Park. “I think that Multnomah County is looking at September 1, 2010, as the date they’ll begin the process by which they will approach me, and the other unit owners similarly situated, regarding the condemnation process.”

The September 1st date next year, he observed, is when the county is hoping to receive a Record of Decision by the federal government to approve the project.

“Yes it's true; I’ll get to watch another four seasons on the Willamette River,” Larpenteur mused. “It really is a beautiful view from the property there. I’m looking at the possibility of staying in the Sellwood Harbor by acquiring a different unit. There are a number of units available.”

That brought up what he called “A sad aspect of this whole process. There are several owners who are, for health reasons, in need of moving to assisted living facilities. Some of them can’t do anything about it until they can sell their units. Nobody can sell their unit right now in Sellwood Harbor, until the bridge project is resolved.”

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