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OnTrack, neighbors work out differences By JONEL ALECCIA After six years of waiting, OnTrack Inc. will soon launch an expansion of its long controversial drug and alcohol treatment center in east Medford. The Medford City Council on Thursday unanimously approved a zoning change that will make the expansion possible at 3397 Delta Waters Road. More influential, however, was a private agreement hammered out over nearly a year between OnTrack and neighbors concerned about its effects on nearby traffic. Thanks to a contract that limits the number of OnTrack clients and staff, prevents clients from driving and requires that residents be limited to clients and their children, neighbors who have long waged legal battles against the center agreed to give up the fight. "I no longer oppose the zone change," Glen Anderson, one of two neighbors who previously fought the expansion, told the council. "I'm not going to appeal what you do, no matter what you do." Co-petitioner Robert Pierle Jr. was so satisfied with agreement, he waived his given time to address the council. The change pleased Rita Sullivan, director of the nonprofit agency that provides drug and alcohol treatment to women while allowing them to care for their children. "As soon as I can get the money together, I'm going to start," Sullivan said after the meeting. Initially, the expansion only will involve creating a bigger dining room, for instance. Eventually, it could include an addition of 3,500 square feet and room for 10 more beds. Anderson urged the council to adopt the conditions of the private contract as city mandates, but the council demurred on the advice of lawyer Sydnee Dreyer. Instead, the council approved the zoning change by including details of traffic analysis that would satisfy concerns of the Land Use Board of Appeals, which remanded the issue to the city in October 2000. That was the second time LUBA had sent the problem back to the city for review. Previously, the zone change had been approved by the planning commission, the decision reversed, then approved by the council. For the neighbors, the issue has remained the same since OnTrack first petitioned in 1996 to change land use designations of its property. Local residents were concerned that the center would grow too large and generate too much traffic, impacting the intersection of Delta Waters Road and Crater Lake Highway. But conditions in the unusual contract should mitigate that impact, Anderson said. Under terms of the agreement, OnTrack will limit the number of treatment clients to 37, up from the two dozen or so now served; the agency will mandate that residents may not drive, a stipulation already in place; the center will offer residential services only to clients and their children, not for temporary alcohol and drug treatment to others; and OnTrack will add no more than four staff members, unless greater numbers are mandated by county, state or federal requirements. Although the city didn't adopt the contract, Anderson said there are provisions in it to allow legal enforcement of the conditions by anyone who lives within 1,000 feet of the OnTrack center. "It's not going to be a problem," Anderson said. The resolution pleased Councilman Jim Key, whose seat on the council was vacated by Mike Borwick, who was recalled in 1996 by neighbors furious that Borwick voted for a change that paved the way for expansion. "I am delighted, absolutely delighted, that the neighborhood and OnTrack have come to an agreement that both parties are content with," Key said. Sullivan expressed relief that the long, often contentious, process appeared to be over. "Anything that takes the pressure off our clients, I'm all for it," Sullivan said. Reach reporter JoNel Aleccia at 776-4465, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.