The hospital sits on 15 acres of land that the county wants to sell to Lowe's for $7 million. The land and the building are within the Hillsboro city limits -- on Southeast Tualatin Valley Highway between the Bonnie L. Hays Small Animal Shelter and Home Depot -- and both the city and the county are in favor of the project. The problem is that the hospital, which was placed on the city's cultural resource inventory in 1992, sits smack dab in the middle of the would-be Lowe's Home Improvement parking lot.

Hillsboro resident Kay Demlow, who is also said to be trying to have the structure listed on the National register of Historic Places, appealed to the land-use board after the Hillsboro City Council allowed the county to remove the historic designation without a public hearing. The land-use board ruled Jan. 12 that the county could remove a historic designation from the Branch Building only if it showed that Hillsboro "imposed" the designation on the county and that the county objected to it. County officials says they did not object, but only because, at the time, it would not have made a difference.

The county hopes to have a favorable ruling from the court -- a ruling that it did not have to object to the ruling to see it removed -- in three to four months, said Alan Rappleyea, senior assistant county counsel. Lowe's spokeswoman has said the hardware store company will join the county's appeal. "We believe it's the first time the question has ever been presented to the court," says Rappleyea. The move to demolish the structure comes after six years of trying to find a buyer for the property, says Rappleyea. The $2 million cost to bring the structure up to code is not financially justifiable, he says.

Meantime, City of Hillsboro planning supervisor Debbie Raber says approval of the Lowe's project is on hold while she gets an opinion from the city attorney on how the property's designation as a site for public facilities affects the proposed redevelopment plan. As well, the property is also listed on the regional government Metro's title 4 maps, which restricts big box retailing operations.