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Developers cast eyes east First step planned in 1,000-acre expansion By CHRIS BRISTOL The great American migration of the mid-1800s could be summed up in the phrase, "Go west." For Medford developers, the opposite is true. Thanks to a one-time expansion of the Urban Growth Boundary in 1990, developers have had 1,000 acres of prime real estate on the city's sprawling eastern frontier to build on. Up to 5,000 homes and apartments could dot the hillsides some day, forever changing the Medford landscape. But pioneers drove covered wagons back then, not Suburbans and other glorified station wagons -- a factor that helps explain why the so-called Southeast Plan has remained unexplored territory for 10 years. Until tonight. Topping the Planning Commission's biweekly agenda at 7 p.m. in City Hall is a project proposed by developer Mike Mahar, who wants to build 267 homes on nearly 67 acres of old farmland at the corner of North Phoenix Road and Cherry Lane. With most of the necessary infrastructure in place -- storm drains, sewer, water lines -- the only real holdup is the impact Mahar's project would have on traffic. The proposal would require rezoning the property from farm to residential. City planners are recommending approval. It would be the first for the Southeast Plan. Like other developers who own various chunks of the area, Mahar has been blocked from breaking ground because of a voluntary moratorium by the city and the Oregon Department of Transportation. The policy, casually known to city planners as the "one-trip scenario," called for restrictions on any new development that threatened any one of more than a dozen jammed intersections around town. A single trip was one too many. ODOT was involved in the policy because traffic spawned by new development eventually ends up at the freeway. The I-5 interchange at Barnett Road, one of only two in Medford, is often congested; ODOT has tentative plans to build a new interchange. The moratorium changed last year, however, when the city and ODOT modified the traffic policy. The new policy gave the green light to developments that added fewer than 25 cars an hour to failing intersections. The thinking was that if an intersection was already failing, 25 more cars an hour would be unnoticeable. The need for modification of the old policy was simple, according to interim Planning Director Mark Gallagher. "Everybody started to realize that we're not going to be approving zone changes anywhere in the city (not just the Southeast Plan) if we continue to do this," he said. Because the new policy allows only a minor increase in traffic, the development community is keeping a wary eye on projects like the one proposed by Mahar, Gallagher said. Even so, he predicts, the traffic policy will not start a development free-for-all in the Southeast Plan. "With the new scenario, at least some projects will get approved," he says. "But until there's actually a fix for the freeway interchange, there won't be wholesale development out there." If the modified policy does make certain intersections noticeably worse, Gallagher says the city would have to reconsider it. "If the current policy allows too much and things get really dire out there, then we'll probably have to look at changing the policy again," he said. "It's relatively tight now." The city is taking an aggressive approach to the design of the Southeast Plan. Earlier this week the city held a neighborhood get-together to get input on the centerpiece of the plan, a 46-acre commercial area known as the "Village Center." In two weeks, an intensive three-day event involving planners, developers and architects is scheduled to look at the center's design. Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA