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Building costs rise in Central Point BY SUSAN JAY CENTRAL POINT -- New homes and commercial development just got more expensive, but now the city has a way to pay for new or expanded streets. The City Council Thursday approved a resolution to enact a street development charge, based on a formula developed by the public works department. The city has an ordinance allowing a street development charge, but it has never been enacted. The charge takes effect July 1. For example, the average cost charged to the developer for a single-family dwelling will be $1,624. The formula considers daily vehicular trips, average trip lengths and the cost to build a mile of a lane on a street. The money is earmarked for new streets, or improvements needed to handle more traffic. It applies to all development. Central Point based much of its formula on street projects in Medford and on its own recent traffic study. The charge is not expected to affect the new Albertsons grocery store to be built off Freeman Road. Building permits for that project are expected to be issued in the next couple of weeks. City staff were unsure whether it would affect a RiteAid drug store proposed for the city. Brett Moore, a local developer, and his attorney raised concerns over the process and the resulting formula used to calculate the charge. Moore said the city needed to provide more specific information, including a full description of the work involved in the Medford projects. "I don't think it's accurate to what it portrays," Moore said of the formula. "There are bits and pieces pulled from different jurisdictions. There's some apples and oranges going on here." His attorney, Mark Burkhalter, said no one knows if the amount is fair. Because the city doesn't know how much residents paid for streets in the past, how can it know what to charge new residents, he asked. They both stressed they weren't against the charge, but thought it needed more study. City administrators and city attorney Doug Engle disagreed. Engle said the information the city used to develop the formula is acceptable. "You can use an approximation," he said. "To say there's no basis to calculate the system development charge is unreasonable." Engle also said he had full confidence that the city's methodology would hold up under legal scrutiny. City Administrator Jim Bennett said "you could argue all day" over the proper way to produce the formula. It may not be perfect, but it works, and comes from acceptable sources, he said. Carol Fischer was the only council member who opposed the resolution. "We've done without it for so long, to hit the developers with this charge, I think it needed more study," she said. "I wanted to make sure it was reasonable before it's put in." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA