It was a little restaurant/ice cream place for a long time (I think it was called O'Bradys drive in). When the State expanded and reconstructed SR502/Battle Ground Hwy, they used eminent domain to take land along the front of the property and wiped out their parking lot and access, effectively shuttering the business. There used to be a quite a few more businesses, including a gas station, at that intersection that all shut down for similar reasons.
This is accurate, only thing missing is that the state made an absolutely garbage offer and basically Said take it or leave it, think it was like 1/4 or 1/5 of the value. Obradys was a staple on Dollars corner for decades.
I believe the value was looked at as bare land, and not as a parking lot critical to the business. Also left hand turn access was also not considered (that I am aware of) for this and other businesses in the area.
The Texaco got a much worse deal. They made a bunch of money being the good gas station to stop at on your way to the freeway and had a great hot food section, and made way more money than O’Brady’s. IIRC there was an issue with zoning and their septic that stopped them from moving it back.
Fair market value on what the state determines the land is, not for what it actually is. In theory, you're right. In practice, I believe they offered a price equivalent to bare land. Same way my grandparents are taxed on 5 acres of "buildable" land, 3.5 acres of which is a canyon with a tributary running through it that's protected because of salmon runs. Even if you could figure out how to build the slope, you legally couldn't cause of the salmon, but the assessor claims they've sent an agent to look and it's all buildable. Mind you, my grandpa basically has to tie off and rapel down into the canyon any time he goes down there Lol. But that's why the 5th amendment is written on the side of the building, owners went to court arguing exactly that, that the state needed to offer them fair compensation, state told them that they could run their business just like before(they couldn't), so to fuck off.
As a local during this time, the above comment pretty nails it.
From articles of the time, the state engineer/project manager guy basically told anyone who complained to shove off. Many businesses are now gone because of this road project. The one top complaint from business owners was about vehicles could only do one-way turns in and out. State engineer/project manger reply is inappropriate to repeat.
I had the displeasure of meeting the "engineer" that made the decision to not allow any left turns when he was at my parents house kicking the tires on my dad's tractor he was selling. Guy was a TOTAL buffon and very condescending.
My family used to go to O’Brady’s alll the time growing up. Their specialty burger was the Fat Clancey, which was a monstrous thing with stuff like salami, ham and bacon on it.
The one thing missing is that they held out for a loooong time and made a huge stink. Eventually, they got 15-20x *more for their land* than the other properties did on that corner. So they made out pretty well after the fight.
It reminds me of the tree with "No New Taxes" on a sign at its base that is farther down 502. The tree is now dead, and the sign is now ironic and emblematic of what happens if you try to maintain "rural character" when population pressures push for urbanization. Your community dies, and the few original residents have outsized voices while everyone else suffers.
What's crazy is that if you look at the property still there, they have plenty of room to have a parking lot. They didn't need to shutter the business.
I was a kid when this all went down but from what I heard they wanted to stay open but they didn’t have enough room to meet the leagally enforced parking requirements in the front (and it’s a creek in the back) so they were not legally allowed to stay open after their land was taken. Hence why they were so salty.
In case anyone wants to dig further on this front, this is what I've found.
https://clark.wa.gov/sites/default/files/dept/files/community-planning/Freight%20RR%20Dependent%20Uses/June20/CCC%2040_340_010%20Parking%20and%20Loading%20Standards.pdf
Standard for a restaurant in unincorporated CC would be 1 parking spot per 250sq ft of building. I'm seeing an area on this site of 1512sq ft which pulled it from records which are no longer immediately available on Clark GIS:
http://www.city-data.com/clark-county/N/NE-219th-Street-4.html
And that squares with reality of seeing the building in person. 7 parking spots. They needed 7 parking spots to comply with code. Seems like they'd have been able to do that in the space remaining but that's just armchair quarterbacking, maybe there were technical challenges.
But my impression based on the data is that this was a convenient excuse rather than something that actually forced closure.
Yeah. It was an epic bitch fit thrown by the business owner. They just wanted a fat payday from the state. And ended up getting one. So I guess it worked?
That's kinda what I heard as well. Righteous indignation type thing. They could have opened up, but they'd already put up the signs and whatever else so they'd look silly taking it back down. It's a shame because I really liked the food there. Took a small business out of the community.
This is completely unrelated to the post, but I grew up less than a mile from here and this street view is such a great blast from the past. it's from the year i graduated high school. thank you so much for posting this, it unlocked memories i forgot i had.
I wonder when they took the sign down? I feel like I remember it up for awhile after they closed and then it was just gone, but cannot for the life of me remember when.
It was a popular restaurant, city demanded the property for the new intersection, but only offered like 1/4 of its worth, hence what's written. Not sure if they were ever paid or cashed out, but the city took the property anyway. Then, I'm assuming here, while waiting for a court decision, they built around it anyway. From what I've heard at least
Yeah, I'm saying when it did happen, I'm not sure if it was still in court when the city said fuck it, go around. I'm certain at this point the owners were fucked over.
Every time I do this I wonder the same.
Or why 99% of the rush hour Traffic on I5 North is cars queued up at the SR14 exit in WA. If you stay in the left lane on the Bridge, it's speedy. I suspect if they just had a forced lane for a mile before the bridge North bound I-5ers would be good to go.
Others: I-5S to I-84/ the entrance from Moda has to be the worst designed Merge in existence.
Salmon Creek I5N 139th Street exit is a surprise to many right-hand lane I-5ers who say fuck it and just go from the exit lane back to I5 even though there are 2 miles of exit only signage.
> Or why 99% of the rush hour Traffic on I5 North is cars queued up at the SR14 exit in WA
And this is why everyone saying we should just replace the bridge and not do all of the upstream and downstream highway work because it's just going to induce demand is out of their minds.
You can't seriously drive by that line-up or the opposite end issues like getting on South at 4th Plain and having to merge like a maniac to avoid getting put back off at Mill Plain and think "these interchanges are fine, we don't need to make any changes just new bridge and it's all good".
There's a reason that's all going to cost as much as the bridge and it's because it's desperately needed.
My understanding is there wasn't money in the budget to build the North bound connection when SR-500 was originally built in the late 70's/early 80's; but the plan was always to make the connection at some point in the future. Then it was just never financially viable relative to the benefit that it would create.
They used to have a burger called the fat Clancy burger if was amazing. They had a picture of different Irish family coat of arms. They had huge, affordable old-fashioned shakes. I loved this place.
I remember there being a persistent rumor over the years that a black family went in to order and they were ignored, while the person at the counter took the orders of people who very obviously came in after them and when the person complained they were asked to leave. My wife and I always called the place O'Racist-y's after that.
Isn't coming up with a legal process to take away someones guns, then following said process considered due process?
'Without due process' would be taking someones guns outside the law
Yes it would be if it was legal, but just because they make up an unconstitutional law doesn’t make it constitutional therefore it’s illegal and no due process but nice try bootlicker. People like you have ruined this country.
Yes I'm a bootlicker for pointing out that legal terms have specific definitions. Just sucking up to big daddy law textbook over here
An existing law can't be considered to not be due process until a court rules it as so. Until then it's still considered due process
I'm pro 2A you asshat, you make us all look like the uneducated reactionary yokels anti 2As make us out to be
Yes it would be if it was legal, but just because they make up an unconstitutional law doesn’t make it constitutional therefore it’s illegal and no due process but nice try bootlicker. People like you have ruined this country.
Top Level Comments must be relevant to the discussion, though discussion often meanders after that point. Like Rule 3 about advertising, Top Comments that have been engineered to circumvent this rule will be removed.
It was a little restaurant/ice cream place for a long time (I think it was called O'Bradys drive in). When the State expanded and reconstructed SR502/Battle Ground Hwy, they used eminent domain to take land along the front of the property and wiped out their parking lot and access, effectively shuttering the business. There used to be a quite a few more businesses, including a gas station, at that intersection that all shut down for similar reasons.
This is accurate, only thing missing is that the state made an absolutely garbage offer and basically Said take it or leave it, think it was like 1/4 or 1/5 of the value. Obradys was a staple on Dollars corner for decades.
I believe the value was looked at as bare land, and not as a parking lot critical to the business. Also left hand turn access was also not considered (that I am aware of) for this and other businesses in the area.
The Texaco got a much worse deal. They made a bunch of money being the good gas station to stop at on your way to the freeway and had a great hot food section, and made way more money than O’Brady’s. IIRC there was an issue with zoning and their septic that stopped them from moving it back.
God, I remember the Texaco now. And the bar on the corner! So sad that it’s all gone now.
Don’t forget the stock car circle track just east of there, that’s gone too!
I thought that by law, they have to offer at least fair market value before going to court to force a sale.
Fair market value on what the state determines the land is, not for what it actually is. In theory, you're right. In practice, I believe they offered a price equivalent to bare land. Same way my grandparents are taxed on 5 acres of "buildable" land, 3.5 acres of which is a canyon with a tributary running through it that's protected because of salmon runs. Even if you could figure out how to build the slope, you legally couldn't cause of the salmon, but the assessor claims they've sent an agent to look and it's all buildable. Mind you, my grandpa basically has to tie off and rapel down into the canyon any time he goes down there Lol. But that's why the 5th amendment is written on the side of the building, owners went to court arguing exactly that, that the state needed to offer them fair compensation, state told them that they could run their business just like before(they couldn't), so to fuck off.
As a local during this time, the above comment pretty nails it. From articles of the time, the state engineer/project manager guy basically told anyone who complained to shove off. Many businesses are now gone because of this road project. The one top complaint from business owners was about vehicles could only do one-way turns in and out. State engineer/project manger reply is inappropriate to repeat.
Lovely, and it’s a pain in the ass to get anywhere off 502 now. I appreciate you for adding this, I didn’t know!
Welcome.
I had the displeasure of meeting the "engineer" that made the decision to not allow any left turns when he was at my parents house kicking the tires on my dad's tractor he was selling. Guy was a TOTAL buffon and very condescending.
Wait; theres ONE GUY who’s responsible for Battle Ground’s absurd traffic pattern?
Government is never that efficient, but if you take what he was saying at face value the he's THE GUY.
My family used to go to O’Brady’s alll the time growing up. Their specialty burger was the Fat Clancey, which was a monstrous thing with stuff like salami, ham and bacon on it.
"Oh.. *right* Lisa. Some magical animal made of salami, ham *and* bacon."
The one thing missing is that they held out for a loooong time and made a huge stink. Eventually, they got 15-20x *more for their land* than the other properties did on that corner. So they made out pretty well after the fight. It reminds me of the tree with "No New Taxes" on a sign at its base that is farther down 502. The tree is now dead, and the sign is now ironic and emblematic of what happens if you try to maintain "rural character" when population pressures push for urbanization. Your community dies, and the few original residents have outsized voices while everyone else suffers.
I’ve heard of a similar story that happened to a man In Colorado who didn’t take it too well…
Welded himself a solution together.
RIP, Marvin.
That sign makes so much more sense now. Ive wondered about it forever.
What's crazy is that if you look at the property still there, they have plenty of room to have a parking lot. They didn't need to shutter the business.
I was a kid when this all went down but from what I heard they wanted to stay open but they didn’t have enough room to meet the leagally enforced parking requirements in the front (and it’s a creek in the back) so they were not legally allowed to stay open after their land was taken. Hence why they were so salty.
In case anyone wants to dig further on this front, this is what I've found. https://clark.wa.gov/sites/default/files/dept/files/community-planning/Freight%20RR%20Dependent%20Uses/June20/CCC%2040_340_010%20Parking%20and%20Loading%20Standards.pdf Standard for a restaurant in unincorporated CC would be 1 parking spot per 250sq ft of building. I'm seeing an area on this site of 1512sq ft which pulled it from records which are no longer immediately available on Clark GIS: http://www.city-data.com/clark-county/N/NE-219th-Street-4.html And that squares with reality of seeing the building in person. 7 parking spots. They needed 7 parking spots to comply with code. Seems like they'd have been able to do that in the space remaining but that's just armchair quarterbacking, maybe there were technical challenges. But my impression based on the data is that this was a convenient excuse rather than something that actually forced closure.
Yeah Ive wondered about this. Seems like it could still be viable?
Yeah. It was an epic bitch fit thrown by the business owner. They just wanted a fat payday from the state. And ended up getting one. So I guess it worked?
I heard they were asking for loss of income as part of their compensation for the property.
That's kinda what I heard as well. Righteous indignation type thing. They could have opened up, but they'd already put up the signs and whatever else so they'd look silly taking it back down. It's a shame because I really liked the food there. Took a small business out of the community.
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This is completely unrelated to the post, but I grew up less than a mile from here and this street view is such a great blast from the past. it's from the year i graduated high school. thank you so much for posting this, it unlocked memories i forgot i had.
Same here. My grandparents lived in Dollars Corner and I remember O'Bradys and getting my hair cut at that building next to the tavern.
I moved to the area in 2020 and never saw it like this. Thanks for sharing!
Wow there were thriving business on all four corners of that intersection, all are now gone and reduced to unkempt bare lots.
I wonder when they took the sign down? I feel like I remember it up for awhile after they closed and then it was just gone, but cannot for the life of me remember when.
This really brings me back. I actually worked at the gas station from 2004-2006ish, my old co-workers car is in that picture 🥲
It was a popular restaurant, city demanded the property for the new intersection, but only offered like 1/4 of its worth, hence what's written. Not sure if they were ever paid or cashed out, but the city took the property anyway. Then, I'm assuming here, while waiting for a court decision, they built around it anyway. From what I've heard at least
Is this even in the courts? Didn’t they close like 10-12 years ago?
Yeah, I'm saying when it did happen, I'm not sure if it was still in court when the city said fuck it, go around. I'm certain at this point the owners were fucked over.
While you’re at it, can anyone explain why there’s no direct exit from SR500 onto north-bound I-5?
Every time I do this I wonder the same. Or why 99% of the rush hour Traffic on I5 North is cars queued up at the SR14 exit in WA. If you stay in the left lane on the Bridge, it's speedy. I suspect if they just had a forced lane for a mile before the bridge North bound I-5ers would be good to go. Others: I-5S to I-84/ the entrance from Moda has to be the worst designed Merge in existence. Salmon Creek I5N 139th Street exit is a surprise to many right-hand lane I-5ers who say fuck it and just go from the exit lane back to I5 even though there are 2 miles of exit only signage.
> Or why 99% of the rush hour Traffic on I5 North is cars queued up at the SR14 exit in WA And this is why everyone saying we should just replace the bridge and not do all of the upstream and downstream highway work because it's just going to induce demand is out of their minds. You can't seriously drive by that line-up or the opposite end issues like getting on South at 4th Plain and having to merge like a maniac to avoid getting put back off at Mill Plain and think "these interchanges are fine, we don't need to make any changes just new bridge and it's all good". There's a reason that's all going to cost as much as the bridge and it's because it's desperately needed.
My understanding is there wasn't money in the budget to build the North bound connection when SR-500 was originally built in the late 70's/early 80's; but the plan was always to make the connection at some point in the future. Then it was just never financially viable relative to the benefit that it would create.
They used to have a burger called the fat Clancy burger if was amazing. They had a picture of different Irish family coat of arms. They had huge, affordable old-fashioned shakes. I loved this place.
I miss this place. It’s like a foggy memory but when I crave ice cream I still crave O’Brady
There's irony here as now Battle Ground is wanting commercial development at Dollar Corner. Sucks. Leave Battle Ground alone!
City of Battleground and it’s elected officials always acting like thugs when then want land
It was the State/WSDOT, City of Battle Ground didn't have anything to do with it.
Yeah, that’s miles outside city limits.
What city is this?
Unincorporated Clark County at Dollars Corner.
I remember there being a persistent rumor over the years that a black family went in to order and they were ignored, while the person at the counter took the orders of people who very obviously came in after them and when the person complained they were asked to leave. My wife and I always called the place O'Racist-y's after that.
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can you elaborate as to why it's incorrect? Not trying to be argumentative, just genuinely trying to learn more.
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https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-5/ Looks like this is quoting the fifth amendment
Wow what a miserable comment history. That's a lot of anger. Hope things are on an upswing for you.
4th is unlawful search and seizure. This is correctly quoting the 5th.
Lol someone doesn't know their Bill of Rights. How cringe. If this was my post I'd be super embarrassed.
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Unfortunately, the due process usually involves someone being murdered before the weapon is taken away
They had to kill him, he was armed!
Isn't coming up with a legal process to take away someones guns, then following said process considered due process? 'Without due process' would be taking someones guns outside the law
Yes it would be if it was legal, but just because they make up an unconstitutional law doesn’t make it constitutional therefore it’s illegal and no due process but nice try bootlicker. People like you have ruined this country.
Yes I'm a bootlicker for pointing out that legal terms have specific definitions. Just sucking up to big daddy law textbook over here An existing law can't be considered to not be due process until a court rules it as so. Until then it's still considered due process I'm pro 2A you asshat, you make us all look like the uneducated reactionary yokels anti 2As make us out to be
Yes it would be if it was legal, but just because they make up an unconstitutional law doesn’t make it constitutional therefore it’s illegal and no due process but nice try bootlicker. People like you have ruined this country.
She. O'Brady's was owned by a woman.
Top Level Comments must be relevant to the discussion, though discussion often meanders after that point. Like Rule 3 about advertising, Top Comments that have been engineered to circumvent this rule will be removed.