Last week, City Commissioners Dan Saltzman and Randy Leonard decided that a sale of the Mt. Tabor parks maintenance yard to the neighboring Christian college Warner Pacific was—like turkey at a vegan Thanksgiving—off the table. In response, Warner’s president, Jay Barber, has written a letter in an attempt to set the record straight—and to hint that if they don’t get their way, they may just up and leave the city.

The Parks and Recreation Bureau entered into a memorandum of understanding with the college in August, giving Warner first dibs on the land if the bureau opted to sell it. That enraged Mt. Tabor neighbors and others who claimed that the deal happened without enough “process”—under duress from the public, Saltzman pulled the plug on the plan.

But Barber says he didn’t find out about it from the city—instead, he found out indirectly, when a neighbor forwarded a letter from Saltzman saying the deal was dead. The point of Barber’s letter, ostensibly, was to argue that Warner has been open and forthcoming about the whole process, even including neighborhood input in the plan.

Beyond that, Barber hints that if the city doesn’t go with a possible Plan B—a long-term lease of the land to the college—Warner Pacific may be going away.

It is Warner Pacific’s preference to remain at its current location. However, it is imperative that we expand to accommodate the facilities and amenities that will make the college competitive. In order to maintain viability in today’s competitive private higher education market, WP must grow to a level of 1200 traditional 4-year undergraduate students. Current enrollment is around 350 students. WPC would like to build multi-purpose athletics and recreation fields and facilities. These new facilities would be available for community use as is the current policy with all our facilities. (Our facilities are already utilized by the public up to 30 hours a week).

If Warner Pacific is not able to expand its current campus, the college will have to take a hard look at other options, one of which may include relocating the campus outside of Portland.

It’s difficult to imagine most Portlanders losing any sleep over the loss of a small Christian college, but here’s the word from Saltzman’s office: The land is zoned for high-density residential use. If the college goes, there are few options for filling its space—assuming the land isn’t rezoned. Think condos and apartments. Music to the ears of people who value density, maybe not so much to the neighbors.

Update: It looks like some of the neighbors already see the writing on the wall, and aren’t shedding a tear over Warner’s potential exit. In fact, they’re making plans for what will go into the space. From the South Tabor Neighborhood Association email list: “WPC said that if they cannot grow in their existing Mt Tabor campus that they will move. If and when they do relocate, then we will have a new issue to deal with—the new owners and their development plans. It is not too soon to consider to what comes next at the WPC site.”

In other words, don’t let the door hit you on the way out.