ALBANY - The Albany City Council has backed away from initiating condemnation proceedings against the property owner who refuses to share a driveway easement with a proposed Walgreens Drug Store.

Last month, the council voted unanimously to start condemnation proceedings against Kin Foo Chan, owner of the driveway and a Pacific Boulevard building containing the Chinese Kitchen restaurant, a barbershop and a liquor store. The property is next door to where Walgreens wants to build.

Developer Peter Powell of Kirkland, Wash., has said Walgreens needed access to the driveway so customers can get to the store, proposed for Ninth Avenue and Geary Street.

Chan and Powell have negotiated privately, and the case has been in court, since 2000. On Jan. 22, councilors tried to get the impasse settled by threatening condemnation.

Then at Wednesday's public hearing on the condemnation, Councilor Sharon Konopa proposed, and the rest of the council agreed, that eminent domain proceedings be put on hold so representatives from the parties involved could meet in one more settlement attempt.

That session will be Feb. 25 in Albany. Along with attorneys representing Chan and Powell, city officials and a representative from the Oregon Department of Transportation will attend.

Konopa suggested the problem might be solved if part of the driveway easement was extended on to the Walgreens site.

Powell's attorney, Terry Hauck of West Linn, told the council that at least 43 site plans had been submitted to Chan for consideration, including the sharing of a driveway easement. All were rejected, Hauck said.

Toward the end of Wednesday's two-hour hearing, Councilor Ralph Reid Jr. chastised ODOT and the attorneys who testified. He berated the lawyers for "bending the language to suit their own ends" at the expense of clearly discussing the issue. Obfuscating the facts only made the council's job more difficult, he said.

In the future, Reid urged ODOT to be more mindful about creating landlocked properties such as the Walgreens site and the former Mike's Day & Nite Market across Pacific Boulevard.

By eliminating driveways, the agency has restricted development and created hassles among property owners such as this one, he said.

In case Chan and Powell cannot reach an agreement over the easement by Feb. 25, Councilor Dick Olsen requested that the condemnation resolution be ready for possible adoption Feb. 26, the council's next meeting date.