Save La Pine
Don't let the big chains take over
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What's Happening
What's Happening
Chain stores are trying to take over La Pine, ruin local businesses, and make the town look like California-style strip malls. They want to tear down local businesses and replace them with Walgreens, Starbucks, and Autozone. Once chains start tearing down local businesses, the result is inevitable. La Pine will start looking like California-style strip malls, our local businesses will be pushed out of business, and the local economy will be ruined as our money is sent off to corporate HQ thousands of miles away.
The City Council has the legal authority to to update La Pine's development codes to put a stop to these chain stores and as a long-term solution to save and preserve La Pine's character, businesses, and history. Many cities throughout the US, including in Oregon and our neighboring states, have put a stop to chain stores ("formula businesses"). We can do it right here in La Pine too!
Growth may be inevitable, but our community can choose how we grow.
Personal letter taken down
Personal letter taken down
As of June 7th, 2023, we took down the personal letter that was here on the website. This letter was from an individual long-time community member, and provided a lot of information and history about what’s going on with these chain businesses. Unfortunately, the La Pine City Manager contacted this individual’s employer and asked that the letter be taken down. Although the Save La Pine effort has no relation to the individual or their employer, we have chosen to take the letter down so that we can stay focused on the issue at hand: Saving La Pine from being taken over by chain stores.
It is very illegal for the City Manager, as a government official, to ask that this letter be taken down. This is a first amendment violation, as upheld by many years’ worth of case law. However, at this time, we have no intention of pursuing legal action. We would rather the City Council and City Attorney spent their time drafting an ordinance to limit chain stores (“formula businesses”), not defending against the illegal actions of their city manager.
Save La Pine's Character
Save La Pine's Character
Our community doesn't want La Pine to look like a row of California-style strip malls, and that IS the inevitable progression once chain stores start taking over and outcompeting local businesses, and especially once they start tearing down local businesses.
La Pine has a "Cascadia" design standard, but it is clearly not enough. Just looking at some of the newer stores, such as Dollar General, we can see that La Pine's existing Cascadia design standard is better than nothing, but isn't going to keep us from looking like a row of California strip malls.
Save La Pine's Local Businesses and Economy
Save La Pine's Local Businesses and Economy
La Pine is a small town community, and we want to keep our businesses local. These 3 chain stores are going to tear down multiple local businesses, and directly compete against multiple existing local businesses. As more chain stores come in, more local businesses will be put out of business, and more of our money will be sent to corporate headquarters thousands of miles away.
Save La Pine's History
Save La Pine's History
One of the important local businesses that is going to be torn down is the quilt shop, located in the historic Hi-Way Center building. Even though this building is 100 and holds an important place in the hearts of long-time Lapanites, it has not been placed on the historic registry so it is not legally protected from demolition.
Real Solutions
Real Solutions
The City Council has the power to update its development codes (zoning codes) by passing an ordinance. State law allows this, and even encourages it. Oregon's land use goals say that city codes and plans should, "encourage the type of development a community or county would like to see."
Other cities throughout the US and in Oregon have zoning codes that limit formula businesses (chain stores). There are several solutions that different cities use, and the most are to not allow formula businesses in certain areas, and/or to require formula businesses to demonstrate community benefit. This type of solution would work very well for La Pine. For example, La Pine could:
Limit formula businesses by area. Disallow any new formula businesses in the downtown overlay.
New formula businesses must prove community benefit and maintain community character. New formula businesses outside of the downtown overlay must prove community benefit and that they will maintain the character of the community. The formula business would have to meet certain standards to demonstrate this, such as showing that the product or service they offer will benefit the community and is not already available in the community.
One of many examples of cities that limit formula businesses is Yachats, OR. Click here to see the Yachats ordinance which updated their municipal codes.
Questions? Email us at SaveLaPine@gmail.com
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