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Officials say initiative will hurt drivers A plan requiring voter OKs for Medford-area ODOT projects could bring delays and hurt funding, they say By MELISSA MARTIN Mail Tribune Drivers ultimately would suffer under a proposed initiative that would require the city of Medford to get voter approval before participating in state road projects, officials said. "It would make it really difficult and time-consuming to work with the Oregon Department of Transportation," said Cory Crebbin, Medford's public works director. The Eastside Neighborhood Association of Medford filed an initiative Friday that would require voter approval before the city signs agreements on state or federal road projects. Association members last year spoke out against the state's proposed $50 million Interstate 5 interchange in south Medford. Petitioner John Pearson said the City Council failed to listen to neighborhood concerns about the new interchange's impact on residential streets. Petitioners must collect 3,606 signatures from registered voters for the measure to qualify for the ballot. If it passes the lengthy review process, the initiative could be put on the November ballot, said city recorder Beverly Sandblast. The city could be asking voters constantly for approval of road projects under the initiative because the city has many agreements with ODOT, Crebbin said. Medford, for example, maintains traffic signals at Poplar Drive and Highway 62, Central Avenue and Highway 238 and Stewart Avenue and Highway 99. It also will be responsible for a signal soon to be installed at Garfield Drive and Highway 99, he said. Other examples of projects include ODOT paying the city to sweep the freeway and the state and Medford working together to build a $1.7 million storm drain project across from the Rogue Valley Mall. "We wouldn't have been able to do that project because there would have been a delay while we waited for an election," Crebbin said. "We saved money on that project because we put the storm drain pipe in while ODOT was working on Highway 238. The heavy equipment was already out there. All we had to do was dig deeper trenches." Delays could mean less funding, an ODOT leader said. "It puts the city at a competitive disadvantage for obtaining non-local funds," said Monte Grove, ODOT district manager. "They are competing for projects throughout the state," Grove said. "If this passes, the city would have to get a vote before we could even entertain a project." He doesn't think the city's agreement to spend $15 million for the new south Medford interchange would be affected by the initiative because the agreement predates the petition's filing by more than a year. And it would not impact the north Medford interchange scheduled to begin next year, Grove said. That project is farther along than the south Medford interchange. Crebbin objected to the Eastside Neighborhood Association's claim that a new south Medford interchange would increase traffic on Highland Drive, where the new off-ramp will enter Barnett Road. Most drivers coming off the freeway and stopping at the Highland Drive signal will turn right or left on Barnett Road, not continue straight onto Highland, he said. As to drivers who don't turn, Highland Drive is a collector street designed to handle a traffic increase, he said. Pearson, one of three petitioners, along with Dick Simonson and Dick Bridenstine, have called the new interchange a band-aid approach to serious traffic problems on Barnett Road. They wrote a 33-page report predicting the failure of intersections along Barnett from Highway 99 to North Phoenix Road. Medford's road projects are a response to increased traffic in the region, not the cause of the increase, Crebbin said. Medford traffic is predicted to increase by 35 percent over the next 20 years. New houses springing up in Eagle Point, Talent, Central Point and other towns across the valley will eventually bring more computer and shopping traffic to Medford. "That increase in traffic is going to happen whether or not you build roads in Medford," Crebbin said. 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.