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Group wants residents' voice on roads Neighborhood Association says Medford City Council didn't hear their concerns about I-5 interchange plan By MELISSA MARTIN The City Council should allow residents a voice in how it spends taxes and fees for major road projects that impact neighborhoods, a Medford physician said. "When our city government spends millions of dollars of our money - which affects our livability and leads to major increases in our fees - our elected officials need to be responsible by having public debate and public voting on these contracts," Peter Noyes said. Speaking for the Eastside Neighborhood Association at Thursday night's City Council meeting, Noyes asked the council to support a proposed initiative that would require voter approval before the city participates in state road projects. The initiative could be on the November ballot. "It's our duty and right,'' Noyes said. "The amendment will not cost the taxpayers any increased taxes or fees - it is very simple and very specific." Eastside neighbors object to the city contributing $15 million to the Oregon Department of Transportation's $50 million South Medford interchange project. They predict crowded residential streets as a result of the new freeway off-ramp's alignment with Highland Drive at Barnett Road. "The process has to change," Noyes said. The decision-making process was defended by council member Bill Moore. "What I get from this initiative is that you think we did things behind closed doors and in a shady way and I resent that," Moore said. "The committees we served on recommended that we be partners with ODOT." The neighborhood group hired Eugene attorney Douglas DuPriest to help write the initiative, said John Pearson, one of three chief petitioners, along with Dick Simonson and Dick Bridenstine. Eugene residents passed a similar initiative in the 1980s in response to a highway project proposed for the middle of town. City staff misunderstood the initiative when they said it would require a vote for all city agreements with ODOT, including the city's maintaining of signals along state highways or using city sweepers to clean the freeway, Noyes said. "It will not affect any decisions between the city and state or federal government for routine maintenance, temporary traffic diversions, coordinating traffic signals, pedestrian sidewalks, bicycle lanes or cosmetic appearances," Noyes said. "Voter approval will not be required for projects conducted by the city and will not have any effect on negotiations of proposed agreements or conducting traffic planning." Neighbors are seeking the initiative because the City Council failed to listen to their concerns, said Audrey Casey, one of 30 association members who attended Thursday's council meeting. "Every time we come here to the council chambers, they look at us like, 'Who are you?' " Casey said. East Main Street resident Paul Avery said, "They hear what we are saying but they are not listening to our words." Eva Avery said residents showed up many times at public meetings concerned that the state's highway project is a temporary fix to a larger traffic problem in East Medford. Most of them support a third interchange near South Stage Road. City Council members also invested a lot of time in public meetings, responded Moore, who represents Ward 4 in east Medford. Also Thursday, the City Council voted 7-1 to expand the Urban Enterprise Zone to include 91.9 acres at the old Medco mill site. The acreage is surrounded by the Big X interchange, where Highway 238, Highway 99 and Highway 62 converge. "I hope we get somebody in there that will pay family-wage jobs to replace what we lost when Medco was there employing 1,400 people," said councilman Sal Esquivel. He voted against the zone change because he wants the city to create an industrial park master plan to avoid the property being re-zoned and developed as commercial. "The traffic impact in that area if commercial is put in would be staggering," he said. The council also approved spending $10,700 for a National League of Cities Transportation Steering Committee meeting scheduled in Medford in June. Reach reporter Melissa Martin at 776-4497, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.