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Panel pares glitter from Jacksonville plan By MELISSA MARTIN JACKSONVILLE - A Portland consultant's $3 million plan to spruce up downtown Jacksonville has been scaled back by a team of local residents who trimmed out the glitter. Among the items cut by the Citizens Advisory Committee were: An outdoor railroad museum near the proposed library (estimated cost: $350,000); A Britt Gardens welcome center ($300,000); and The burying of power lines ($750,000). The Jacksonville Planning Commission was scheduled to review the new plan Wednesday, re-work it and forward it to the City Council for public review. Once the City Council approves it, the Core Enhancement Plan will result in new ordinances and codes, Wyntergreen said. With new laws will come ways to fund the projects, such as grants, loans, user fees or the creation of an urban renewal district. During a public hearing a year and a half ago, more than 100 people packed Old City Hall to criticize what they called a Disneyland-like approach to revitalizing the town. City eyes urban renewal JACKSONVILLE - The Jacksonville City Council could decide to pay for downtown improvements by forming an urban renewal district. Tax-increment financing works as follows: assessed values are frozen for a 20-year period. Taxes on property values above the frozen level are used for projects in the urban renewal district, which would stretch along California Street, from the city limits near the Texaco gas station to a block past Oregon street. Meanwhile, other taxing districts would not reap the benefits of assessed value increases, including Jackson County, Rogue Community College and Medford School District. Resident Carol Knapp opposes an urban renewal district, partly because it creates a new level of bureaucracy. The city would have to hire someone to manage the projects, file state reports and complete audits. She also questions the ethics of a city that boasts the region's highest home prices describing its boundaries as having "blight." "To create an urban renewal district, you have to declare a blighted area," Knapp said. "To claim Jacksonville blighted seems to be a stretch of the law." Other urban renewal districts exist in White City, which recently helped Fire District 3 purchase a new ladder truck, and Medford, which helped First Presbyterian Church turn an rundown building into a day care center. The citizens team cut some of the most hotly-debated items - a meals tax, arches over California Street, a wishing well on Oregon Street and a proposed parking lot on a road spur that Jacksonville Lumber Company has been using for storage for 40 years. "The city should live within its means," said Carol Knapp, a critical care nurse and chairman of the citizens committee. "The businesses shouldn't bear the burden of supporting new development." After more than a year's worth of meetings, the 15-member committee presented a $382,250 version - about $2.5 million less than the plan created by Shapiro & Associates Inc., of Portland - scaling it down from 31 to 19 projects, Knapp said. "We took as much input from citizens as we could," said committee member Linda Graham, owner of Scheffel's Toys. "We differed with what the city administrator and City Council envisioned for this town. But we are the true voice of the people. We tried to look at it from everyone's perspective and tried to keep the vision of Jacksonville intact - to keep it one of Southern Oregon's most livable, enjoyable, small, friendly towns." City staff object to the committee throwing out the welcome center and historical display at the Britt Gardens. "To throw out the Peter Britt master plan would be a mistake," said Paul Wyntergreen, city administrator. "Peter Britt was the most prominent person in our history and there is nothing up there that notes his accomplishments - taking the first photograph of Crater Lake or planting the region's first varieties of pears or grapes." The citizens committee objected to the portion of the master plan that called for building a second information center in town and the city's assuming of Britt grounds maintenance at an annual cost of $52,000, Knapp said. Currently Jackson County owns and maintains the gardens and amphitheater, home of the Britt Festivals summer concerts. But there are parts of the plan that almost everyone approves of - including replacing cobra heads with gas lamp-like street lights and improving the city's storm drain system. Runoff water is a problem not only for historic brick buildings downtown, but for new $350,000 homes in nearby Pheasant Meadows subdivision. 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.