Salem City Council on Monday approved the first major step toward new housing on nearly 19 acres along Walker Road NE, voting 7-1 to annex the land and allow denser multifamily development on six acres despite objections from nearby residents and the North Lancaster Neighborhood Association over traffic safety near Chavez Elementary School.
The vote does not approve a final apartment project yet. But it does move the property into city limits and opens the door to substantially more housing on the site at 2170 Walker Road NE and 4893 Sunnyview Road NE.
City staff said the six-acre multifamily portion on the south end of the property could support roughly 90 to 186 units under the new zoning. The rest of the site would remain lower density for now and is expected to move first through a subdivision process that could include single-family homes and middle housing.
That made Monday’s hearing less about whether the land would be developed at all and more about what kind of housing should go there and whether Walker Road can safely handle it.
Neighbors argued that the city is putting denser housing next to a corridor that already has speeding, cut-through traffic and crash concerns near an elementary school. Several speakers urged council to favor lower-intensity housing such as single-family homes, duplexes, triplexes or fourplexes instead of a larger multifamily project. They said that would better match the surrounding neighborhood while still adding homes.
City staff and the applicant pushed back, arguing the location fits Salem’s housing policies because it sits near transit, major streets, a school and future park space. Staff said the applicant’s traffic study did not identify significant impacts to the city’s transportation system within the review period. Staff also told council that future development would trigger frontage improvements, including sidewalks and related street work, and a city traffic engineer said Walker Road is expected to move to a 20 mph speed limit as part of local street safety work.
The debate exposed a broader tension that has run through Salem housing discussions for years: the need to add more homes without intensifying frustrations in neighborhoods that already feel strained.
Councilor Shane Matthews raised that concern directly, questioning whether Salem is becoming too dependent on apartment construction compared with housing types that offer a path to ownership. But he also said council’s role in a land use hearing is narrower than a broad policy debate if an application meets the city’s standards.
Councilor Irvin M. Brown cast the lone no vote after pressing for clarification during the hearing on crash history and safety conditions along Walker Road.
For residents, the immediate impact is not construction but entitlement. Monday’s vote makes more housing possible on the site, but the specific layout, access points, building types and timing will come later through future land use applications. The northern portion appears most likely to move first. The southern tract now has zoning that allows denser multifamily development, but no final site plan has been approved.
That means the neighborhood fight is not really over. The next rounds are likely to focus on design, traffic circulation, sidewalks, and how much of the city’s housing shortage should be addressed in places where residents say the basic street network still feels unfinished.