WOE UNTO he who threatens a
neighborhood organic farming store in
Southeast Portland.
Naomi’s Organic Farm Supply has made Sellwood its home for only 18 months, but its customers are rabidly battling plans that would boot the little shop from its one-acre site on SE Tacoma to make way for a Les Schwab tire store parking lot.
Neighbors love their local farm store so much that they rallied more than 2,000 signatures on an online petition to save the place. The outcry was so strong, in fact, that the store was given a reprieve of a few more weeks.
Ex-farmers Naomi Montacre and her husband, Neil, knew their lease was temporary when they opened up their first-ever business in 2009 on the site of a former nursery. When they inked the lease, Les Schwab planned to open a big new tire shop next door—its 13th in Portland. While the entire store would fit on that adjacent property, Les Schwab’s plans also called for paving over the nursery property—turning it into a 30-space parking lot.
But in the months since then, the farm store became a beloved Sellwood spot, building up a business selling to small farmers and backyard gardeners alike. It’s the kind of cute place that boasts a friendly store chicken named Bumblefina.
“Farming is so isolated,” says Montacre. “We love the education and community part of the store.”
The farm store was supposed to be off the Les Schwab property by May 31. But as the reckoning day approached, customers at Naomi’s went into full-on revolt.
Russ Stoll has relied on Naomi’s for the fertilizer and chicken feed he uses on a small backyard farm and is now a leader of the Save Naomi’s Action Group.
As Stoll gripes: “There’s 10 Les Schwabs within six miles! We don’t need another. I go get tires maybe once a year. I go to my gardening supply store once a week. It’s such a part of the neighborhood, I don’t want to see it go.”
Les Schwab directed its comments to a form letter emailed in response to the deluge of letters from Naomi’s customers. It notes that Naomi’s knew all along that the store’s home was temporary. After a customer volunteered to negotiate with Les Schwab’s lawyers, the company extended Naomi’s lease through June.
But now it looks like this month will be its last in the neighborhood. While she’s actively looking for a new home, Montacre is uncertain whether to keep fighting for her current one.
“We have a lot of dreams for what we’d like to do here on this beautiful piece of land with trees that the sun shines on,” says Montacre. “We’re passionate about staying here.”
+ 1
Yes! Hot Ladies! Hot Rubber! There is a strip club, Blush to the north on 99E, the Acropolis just to the south, another proposed strip club Casa Diablo next to them, and Les Schwab Tires proposed right in the middle of three strip clubs and that’s all fine. We’d love to keep our garden and livestock supplies tucked behind the tires. There are no strippers in sight, but there are chicks!! And lots of plants, vegetables, fruit trees, flowers, ducks, chickens and goats.
All part of what makes the Portland metro area unique, right?
We are PRO Les Schwab Tire Center and Naomi’s Organic Farm Supply.
The lease to Naomi’s was short term initially, because Les Schwab has been trying to buy the neighboring acre property for their new tire center and said they did not know what the city would require for development. The plans on record at Portland’s BDS, publicly available, show that all of what Les Schwab would like to build and the parking spaces they are allotted fit on that neighboring acre on 99E / McLoughlin Blvd.
There are no plans for development on the land Naomi’s is on to the west facing residential houses, other than Les Schwab asking for 2 1/2 times the parking they are allowed, which, if approved by the city and neighborhood, still works.
The farm and garden shop could stay right where it is and accommodate those additional 30 parking spaces if needed, as the two properties total 2 acres.
It would be really cool to see both there and the neatest place to wait to have your tires fixed. As customers of both companies and neighbors, there aren’t many sites unpaved and zoned like this one which has been a garden nursery for many decades. While we know Naomi’s can move elsewhere, we hope Les Schwab will make a decision that reflects the outpouring from their customers and the group of neighborhoods they’re moving into, including Sellwood, East and West Moreland, Ardenwald-Johnson Creek, along with Oak Grove and the City of Milwaukie.
Les Schwab has written us that Naomi’s is great and exactly the tenant they’d want back, after they develop. As there are no plans to develop that land, we’re just asking Naomi’s be able to simply stay and keep growing.
Friends of Naomi’s Organic Farm Supply
http://friendsofnaomis.wordpress.com/
Not sure what the problem is they signed a contract that clearly stated the terms whats the argument for them staying again?
Jake, you nailed it.
Really sad to see Naomi’s go. We love that store and location.
Really sad to see Naomi’s go. We love that store and the location. What will become of all their awesome animals?
What jake said.
This is just one of those ridiculous Portlandia stories.