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Medford council debates whether to extend urban renewal agency Properties along Central Avenue near Beatty and Maple streets in Medford show signs of neglect. Mail Tribune / Denise Baratta Monday Jan 30, 2017 at 12:01 AM Damian Mann Mail Tribune @reporterdm A blighted neighborhood north of downtown Medford hasn't received a lot of love from the city even though it was one of the reasons for the formation of an urban renewal district in 1988. MURA board member Dick Gordon said Thursday he was embarrassed that the Beatty-Manzanita district was largely ignored by the Medford Urban Renewal Agency, which has spent $67.3 million mostly on projects in other areas. "Very few dollars ever went to that area," Gordon said. "That area was very slighted by the old MURA board and the City Council." The MURA board, made up of City Council members, debated Thursday whether it wanted to continue the Medford Urban Renewal Agency to specifically help the Beatty-Manzanita district, which is bounded roughly by Central and Riverside avenues and includes the former, now-empty Lithia Honda dealership. Other options the board considered were creation of a new urban renewal district or just letting the current one sunset in 2018 and return the tax dollars now being collected to pay off bonds back to schools, the county and other taxing districts. If the board extended the life of MURA, it could potentially receive another $24 million in bonds. But board member Tim D'Alessandro said he was unclear why the city wanted to extend MURA's life without having a specific list of projects that would help deal with blight. "I feel we're putting the cart before the horse," he said. Board member Clay Bearnson said, "I agree with Tim that it's hard to decide unless we have a Christmas list of projects." The board previously discussed other possible projects, including an indoor pool in Hawthorne Park. Board member Kim Wallen said it was difficult for her to support extending the life of the agency, particularly after all the negative comments she's heard about it. She said she was uncertain about coming up with a project list because it's difficult to determine whether officials would accomplish what they intended, citing the poor outcome of the current urban renewal effort. "You're presupposing that everything urban renewal did worked and was good — and it wasn't," she said. Elaine Howard, an urban renewal consultant hired by the city, told the board that taxing districts that have foregone money over the years might object to extending MURA's life. "We all have to remember it's their money," she said. Other taxing districts would receive $2 million annually once MURA ends, and the city of Medford would receive $1.3 million. The money being collected is helping pay off bonds for MURA that paid for building Pear Blossom Park, remodeling Hawthorne Park and other projects. More than half the dollars MURA has spent since it began have been used to create more parking downtown. Board members also took jabs at the spotty record-keeping from the days when MURA operated as an independent agency. In 2010, the City Council took over MURA. "There seems to be gaps in paperwork from 1988 to the time the council took over," Bearnson said. Mayor Gary Wheeler, a board member, said he was on the MURA board for 12 years starting in 1992. He said the assumption at the time was that records were being kept, but he said much of the information from back then is pretty hazy in his mind. "The records — I don't know," he said. City Manager Brian Sjothun said the city received many boxes of files from MURA, and his staff has attempted to sift through it. "The record-keeping isn't what we do here," he said. Sjothun said he would help compile a list of potential MURA projects and present them to the council in the near future for more discussion about extending the agency. — Reach reporter Damian Mann at 541-776-4476 or [email protected]. Follow him on www.twitter.com/reporterdm.