SCAN v. City of Salem

Under Salem Revised Code 133, minimum and maximum parking requirements are to be calculated based on the needs of the development and buildings to be served by the parking spaces; an entire campus under common ownership does not constitute a “single development” for purposes of this calculation.

In May 2014, Salem Hospital applied for site plan review to construct new buildings on the site of the former Oregon School for the Blind, as well as parking to serve the new and existing buildings. They also applied for a variance to remove nine significant trees. The city planning administrator approved and a hearings officer affirmed in August 2014 and issued the city’s final approval decision. South Central Association of Neighbors, et al. (SCAN), appealed to LUBA. SCAN first argued that the city approved too many off-street parking spaces when the hearings officer found that the calculation of maximum spaces could be based on the entire Salem Hospital campus. LUBA held that despite the entire campus being under common ownership, it did not constitute a “single development” and thus the calculation should have been based on the buildings to be served by the new parking spaces. SCAN attempted to argue that Salem Revised Code (SRC) required the hospital to build bike lanes on the southern boundary street. However, LUBA found that they had raised these arguments below based on the Transportation System Plan, which was insufficient to raise the issue under the SRC on appeal. SCAN last argued, and LUBA agreed, that since the variance to remove the trees was requested at least in part to accommodate the additional parking, the approval of that variance should also be remanded to determine the scope of the variance needed after the recalculation of the number of parking spaces. REMANDED.