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Jacksonville panel: Wait on downtown plan What's next? The Jacksonville City Council will hold a public hearing at 7 p.m. Tuesday on the Planning Commission's recommendation to delay the Core Enhancement Plan. Business owners, residents protest $1.1 million concept By JIM DAVIS JACKSONVILLE -- A plan to spruce up downtown -- creating a more pedestrian-friendly area while trying to recapture some of the city's history -- would be put on hold indefinitely under a recommendation by the city's planning commission. With more than 80 people crowding wooden benches, standing in the doorway and even listening through the windows of Old City Hall, planning commissioners voted unanimously Wednesday night to take a deeper look at the proposed Core Enhancement Plan. "We certainly have lots of attention," acting Planning Commission Chairman Terry Welinsky said after the meeting. "Our job as commissioners is to get as much information as possible." The commission will forward its recommendation to the Jacksonville City Council, which will hold a public hearing on the project at 7 p.m. Tuesday. The Core Enhancement Plan, put together by a consulting firm, outlined 49 projects costing almost $1.1 million. Among other things, the project would have built a pedestrian plaza with a wishing well at Oregon and Main streets; an archway over Highway 234; a visitor center near the Britt Gardens; and an outdoor rail-yard museum at the city parking lots. The plan also laid out options for paying for the work, including creating an urban renewal district and instituting taxes on such things as gas, meals and events. But residents and business owners gathered en masse Wednesday at the meeting to argue against adopting the plan. Marshall Lango of Jacksonville blasted specific parts of the plan -- from the effect it could have on the city's historic status, to the proposals for parking. Lango said the commission should look at postponing a decision. "There's a lot of good things in this plan, but there are some bad things," Lango said. Jacksonville resident Carol Knapp criticized the financing of the plan. She also said that the plan stated that urban renewal projects are meant to reinvigorate blighted areas. "It would be pretty unethical to call downtown Jacksonville a blighted area," Knapp said. Chiliman Serrano of La Fiesta, a Mexican restaurant, worried about the effects of potential ways of financing the plan. He said that a gas tax would mean that Jacksonville residents would gas up in Medford; a meal tax would mean that residents would eat at chain restaurants in Medford. Linda Graham, owner of Scheffel's Toys, said the plan has the attention of Jacksonville's business community and its residents. She asked the commission to "put the brakes" on the plan and let the city and residents review what is good and what is bad about it. "Let's sit down, chew it up and really find out what's good for this town," Graham said. City administrator Paul Wyntergreen said there is no deadline on the project; he said the city can only establish an urban renewal district on Jan. 1 of each year, but there were no other restrictions. And the members of the audience didn't reject every aspect of the plan. Several members said they liked the idea of putting downtown utilities underground. Some like the idea of antique streetlights. Planning Commissioner Debbie Sharp made a motion to recommend tabling the plan. She also made a motion to junk two ideas that already had been boo-hooed by the city's historical commission -- the pedestrian plaza and the archway over Highway 234. She said the city should have more meetings with the business owners and residents on the project. "It's really nice to hear they're going to be involved in the coming year," Sharp said. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA