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43 °F Forecast | Road Cams Monday, January 24, 2005 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Wellness Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Real Estate Guide Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People Volunteer Opportunities Moving to Southern Oregon? MARKETPLACE Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Classifieds Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend December 15, 2004 State to appeal zone change ODOT says Home Depot store at Phoenix interchange would gridlock traffic By BUFFY POLLOCK for the Mail Tribune PHOENIX — State transportation officials said Tuesday they will appeal a zoning change that would allow a Home Depot store at the Fern Valley interchange. The Oregon Transportation Commission will appeal the City Council’s decision to rezone a 19-acre parcel along North Phoenix Road to the state Land Use Board of Appeals. Transportation officials said they had yet to be shown how allowing the 103,000-square-foot project to move forward could cause anything less than constant gridlock at an already failing interchange. Terry Harbour, Oregon Department of Transportation Region 3 planning manager, said the commission, which sets policy for ODOT, had sided with staff on appealing the Dec. 6 rezoning. Under state law, land-use decisions must be appealed with 21 days. The appeal could then take six to eight months to get through LUBA. Advertisement "There were two reasons," Harbour said. "The first was that we believe there was inadequate data to base the decision on. The second is they didn’t provide adequate mitigation to the impact that would come from a business like Home Depot." While developer Bob Robertson and JRH Engineering of Eugene persuaded the City Council that the first phase of the project, the store itself, could be built without negative impact to traffic, Harbour said traffic impact studies by ODOT did not concur. Home Depot spokesperson Brian Cannard was out of town on Tuesday and Robertson was unavailable for comment. City Council member Dan Sauro said he wasn’t surprised by the state’s decision to appeal. "We really expected them to do that," he said. "However, we still feel the entire process was well thought out and qualified under existing rules. "We feel very confident we will win out. I don’t see any big problems coming our way," he said. Harbour said ODOT was still open to working with the developer on the project despite the appeal. "Through this we still hope to work with the developer on coming up with solutions, so we’ll see where that goes," said Harbour. "We truly want to see the developer and the city of Phoenix and ODOT successful in this and we believe that could happen." Buffy Pollock is a free-lance writer living in Medford. E-mail her at [email protected]. Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback ADVERTISERS A D V E R T I S E R S SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Opportunities Student Loan Consolidation Conference Calls - $50/Month Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker, Trunk, Footlockers