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Jacksonville plans new business center with historic feel By Melissa Martin JACKSONVILLE � A bakery, brewery and welding shop might be the types of businesses drawn to a new commercial building planned for this National Historic Landmark town. The city of Jacksonville wants to find a developer who will help finance a historic-looking building where shop owners live upstairs and work below, similar to setups in downtown Medford. The building would be located on 3.5 picturesque acres, with the Jacksonville cemetery above and Jackson Creek flowing nearby. "I think it�s revolutionary," said John Dodero, a City Council member who works as a potter from his Jacksonville home. "People would be able to live, work and sell out of the same building. And people that make things � the creative types � are good people to have involved in the city." The $855,000 project would be funded through grants and loans paid back by private financing, according to Paul Wyntergreen, city administrator. The city would look for a developer to build the shops, then lease or sell them to business owners. Besides creating a cottage industry zone in Jacksonville, the plan would add 55 parking spaces to a city that runs short every summer during the Britt Festivals. "For us, it�s a good thing," said Ron McUne, director of Britt, the Northwest�s oldest summer concert series. The music events draw 60,000 people to an outdoor amphitheater in Jacksonville. "It�s one of the only pieces of property earmarked for Britt parking that will have a direct impact on us," McUne said. "The other pieces are either too small or too far away." The 55 spaces would connect with the C and D street public parking lots. The city plans to build an auto bridge between the lots, resulting in improved traffic flow on concert nights, McUne said. The new spaces are among 162 the city decided to create on vacant land around town after a study showed Jacksonville runs short 800 spaces on Britt�s sold-out concert nights. The cottage industry project also includes plans to extend city sewer connections about a mile uphill to the estimated 65 homes in the Pair-A-Dice Ranch Road and Mary Ann Drive neighborhoods. Those residents live in the city limits and have had city water for about five years, but still depend on septic tanks, said Jeff Alvis, the city�s public works director. New sewer connections are estimated to cost nearly $100,000. The project costs include $245,000 to purchase the 3.5 acres from resident Genevieve Cochran. Creating a place where folks can live, work and sell their wares all in the same place might help steer Jacksonville away from bedroom community status � a place where people live, but drive somewhere else to work � said councilman Bill Leep. "One of our goals is to cut commuter traffic, the things that cause congestion," he said. Leep said many northwest cities have cottage industry zones, including Portland, Seattle and even Joseph, a small northeastern Oregon town with high property values. Like Joseph, Jacksonville�s high property values can keep out middle income families with children, said Dodero, who, along with his wife, raised children in a cottage industry setting near downtown Jacksonville. The proposed commercial building might be the perfect setup for a family business such as a printing shop or a glass-blowing studio, he said. "It�s a great fit historically," Dodero said. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.