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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels September 8, 2004 City council approves Nevada LID formation By Steve Zimmerman Ashland Daily Tidings In the end, the public hearing was a mere formality. Or as one Nevada Street resident noted of the process in a written letter to the city council, a travesty. With two unanimous votes, and despite hearing resident after resident of the Nevada Street neighborhood speak against the proposed Local Improvement District, the Ashland City Council approved formation of the LID and acceptance, with a possible minor change involving bike lanes, of the design for the LID. The LID is legally necessary to allow the city to proceed with the approved redesign of Nevada Street. Much of the discussion centered on Billings Ranch developer Mike Peru and the number of remonstrance (protest) votes he had and how he might use them. But, in the end, City Attorney Mike Franell gave those in attendance a lesson in city politics and the politics of an LID. He dashed the hopes of those in attendance who thought they may be able to use protest votes to stop the LID by telling the council and those in attendance they had no recourse once the public hearing began. Peru, in previous communications, made it clear he would not use his votes in any way to affect the LID. The comments of Franell regarding the protest votes surprised Mayor Alan DeBoer, who noted it made no sense to not allow any protest if major changes had been made to the proposed LID. As adopted, the LID will allow for traffic calming on Nevada Street that will include bumpouts at two intersections, sidewalks and embedded crosswalks. Public Works Director Paula Brown opened the hearing by apologizing to the council for not telling them of an apparent conflict of interest involving her two residences on Cambridge Street, one of which was improved by Peru. After staff presented the final plan to council, residents of the neighborhood spoke both in favor and against the project, although those speaking against the LID outnumbered those in favor by approximately 2-1. Many of those speaking were concerned about the embedded crosswalks, calling them unnecessary given their reason for existence. "Why should we have that noisy crosswalk to alert traffic when the car is already on the crosswalk," he said. "It makes more sense to have something to warn drivers before they get to the crosswalk." That sentiment was echoed by many other speakers. Diane Brandenburg also addressed the issue of speed humps. "When I am driving down Helman Street, the speed humps do not slow down the fast drivers, they slow down the slow people," she said. "Why not just start with a painted crosswalk and sidewalks and then if you need to do more later, you can. Once it is done, you can't take it away." But Christina Lindquist noted that the changes will improve pedestrian safety, especially for the children in the neighborhood. Everyone was concerned about safety. But one of the overriding concerns of the evening was who would be involved in the LID. Most speakers objected to Peru holding 69 votes, many of which do not sit anywhere near Nevada Street while neighbors who use Nevada Street every day but live on the side streets are not in the LID. "Everyone who lives in Quiet Village should be involved in the LID," Jerry Malloy said. Paige Morris added that it made no sense that Peru and Billings Ranch had a majority of the protest votes and he didn't even live there. "Those non-bordering properties (not on Nevada Street) in Billings Ranch should not have a vote if the side street residents do not," Tia Hatch said. But after some more light questioning of staff, and after two lengthy comments by council member Don Laws, the vote was taken passing the LID. Other business In other business, the council agreed by a 6-0 vote to adopt a change in the way Community Development Block Grant Funds were distributed. City staff proposed changing the program year from the calendar year to the fiscal year. The change is designed to allow Ashland's program to match those of the regional, state and federal grant funding cycles. Three proposals were brought to council. Option three was adopted. That allows the city to approve the program year shift, yet immediately issue a Request for Proposals for the $274,000 fund amount through the existing process. That would allow Rogue Valley Community Development Corporation to proceed with purchase of two parcels of land, one on Siskiyou Boulevard and the other at Park Street. That land would be used to construct 15 affordable housing units, nine on the Siskiyou property and six on the Park Street property. 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