Document text
Core plan modified Jacksonville council eliminates unpopular bits of downtown fixup By MELISSA MARTIN JACKSONVILLE -- City Council members separated the chaff from the wheat Tuesday, voting 5-0 to strike unpopular proposals from the Jacksonville Core Enhancement Plan. Gone from the original proposal are elements such as the archway over Highway 238, the cistern plaza on California and Oregon streets and the meals and sales tax funding option. The Jacksonville City Council tabled the plan to spruce up the downtown historic area until the city can create a citizen committee to help write a new version. "Hopefully, there will be plenty of public dialogue before this plan resurrects itself," Jacksonville Inn owner Jerry Evans said during a hearing that drew 60 people to Old City Hall. Fellow restaurant owner Dennis Ramsden of McCully House said the proposed plan to revitalize downtown rallied the business community when the issue came up of how the city would fund the projects. "I'll tell you, this is not an easy place to do business October through May, and that's the biggest bulk of the year, and to ask the businesses to pay for this is not right," Ramsden told council members. Jacksonville residents have been packing public meetings this past month because of several of the elements in the draft Core Enhancement Plan, historian Marshall Lango told the city council. "When you read a plan that lists 1,250 feet of concrete sidewalks, the condemning of private property for public domain, the building of an RV park below the cemetery and a vendor alley, which would allow push carts that would compete with existing businesses, then you have people upset," Lango said. The council also adopted recommendations made by the Historic and Architecture Review Committee (HARC), the Planning Commission and the state Historic Preservation Office, which all favored eliminating the archway near the Britt Gardens, and the cistern plaza. Evans asked the audience for a show of hands in support of the enhancement plan. One person supported it, 50 opposed it. "Everybody in this room wants to see what's good for Jacksonville," Evans said. Resident Carol Knapp told the council she objected to the main funding source listed in the plan, creating an urban renewal district and using tax increment financing to pay for the projects. "It would have a financial impact on other taxing bodies in the area. It would create another level of bureaucracy and could require the city to hire more staff to oversee the urban renewal district. It would declare Jacksonville a blighted area and give the city the power of eminent domain to acquire private property, even if the property owner didn't want to sell," Knapp said. Jacksonville Mayor Jim Lewis told the audience that the enhancement plan was not created on a whim. The city used a grant to hire a Portland consulting firm to write a plan that would fulfill a state requirement for the Comprehensive Plan. Council member John Dodero noted that only a few items in the plan were getting all the attention. He said the most important projects listed in the plan are repairing the city's storm drain system, building sidewalks and placing utilities underground in the core area, which is from 5th to North Oregon streets. Next month, the council will adopt a time line for recruiting residents for a Citizen Advisory Committee and give recommendations to the Planning Commission and City Council. Public hearings will be held about the rewritten version, City Administrator Paul Wyntergreen said. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA