Have you ever dreamed of living in a tiny English-style village, not centrally located, squeezed along one of our busiest roads? If you have, then the newly constructed Buckland Cottages has a deal for you. How about a 572 sqft, one-bedroom cottage for $1,945 a month.
Utilities not included. Reserved parking for $45 a month. Pet fees may apply.
(Photo: www.bucklandcottages.com)
Ok, you see the photo above. Now let’s quote the website… “each unit is free-standing with no shared walls, giving you the quiet privacy of your own home within a gated community”
Privacy at its finest. Photo number two:
(Photo: www.bucklandcottages.com)
Buckland Cottages has just been constructed and is located at 3006 NW Ninth Street. They are scheduled to open in early October. City records call it the “9th Street Cottage Cluster,” which may be one of the more literally accurate project names to emerge from a planning office.
Buckland’s aerial photographs show just how enthusiastically the development embraces the word “cluster.” The cottages are arranged roof-to-roof in tight rows, limiting outdoor space and giving Buckland the best bang for the buck on land usage.
The least expensive one-bedroom cottage is listed at $1,945 per month for 572 square feet. This does not include utilities, pet charges, or reserved parking fees.
To be fair, they do not guarantee that residents will see bucks roaming the property’s vast open spaces. It is gated, after all. Buckland is just the name of the complex, although its price point is giving us a complex as well.
Their website promotes “modern comfort” and the atmosphere of a “timeless English village”… cottages without shared walls. Although you could share a handshake through open windows with your neighbor. From the comfort of your own privacy.
If your monthly rent payment does give you a heart attack, one of the selling features is the close proximity to Samaritan Health. So that is one of the bonuses at Buckland. Outside of the monthly bonus at work… which you are going to need in order to afford rent.
Buckland offers another bonus… “residents can claim a private raised garden bed to pursue their floral or vegetable dreams.” Don’t worry too much about sunlight or that whole photosynthesis thing. If roaming bucks don’t eat your vegetables first, the sun may reach the beds for a few glorious moments around the summer solstice, when it reaches its highest point in the sky.
Jokes aside, a recruitment advertisement for Buckland’s incoming on-site manager gives a revealing look at the effort to fill all those English countryside cottages.
Trinity Property Management’s job posting offers the manager a rent-free cottage, a $66,000 annual salary, and monthly occupancy bonuses. The manager can receive $250 for every cottage by which the month-end leased count exceeds a cumulative leasing baseline.
There is also a $6,000 completion bonus once 49 of the development’s 52 rentable cottages are leased, and the handoff requirements have been completed.
Nothing says “timeless English village” like an uncapped occupancy bonus and a financial sprint toward a 94 percent leased occupancy rate.
More housing… and affordable housing… are not interchangeable terms. Buckland demonstrates how developers can increase density, maximize land use, and maximize profits at the expense of renters. At the expense of people looking for a home. At the expense of the people who want to live in Corvallis.
Somewhere, a planning commission, appointed officials, and an investment group all agreed that this was a good endeavor to approve, execute, and impose on the people of Corvallis.
It is a nightmare on Ninth Street. It’s all there in the marketing lingo. They know it. We know it. You know it. Why try so hard to spin it?
It’s because they know where your buck will land if you choose to rent there.
This article was written by Brian Lindensmith, a contributor to The Corvallis Inquirer. Feel free to send us your stories or articles to publish at: editor@corvallisnow.com
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I think developers should not be allowed to build housing that they themselves would never even consider living in. Nobody wants this, its just gross.
Contrast this with Hub Village in Albany, tiny homes for $400-500 rent.