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Commission looks over design No action yet on �Village Center� By Jessica Smith With a vision for a proposed southeast commercial center in hand, the Medford Planning Commission is ready to focus in on the project. Plans for the "Village Center," a 46-acre commercial district off North Phoenix and East Barnett roads, picture shoppers strolling among boutique-style stores and patio cafes along wide, tree-lined sidewalks. Although the commission took no formal action at a meeting Monday, it considered a design concept for the project and agreed to review suggested policy changes that would support the plan. "They�ve given us the bones and now we�ve got to put the rest together," commission Chairman Carl Bartlett said after the noon study session. Consultants have been working for several months to design the Village Center, the commercial heart of the city�s Southeast Plan. With input from developers and others interested in the project, consultants developed concepts considered throwbacks to pre-World War II developments, featuring pedestrian friendly roads and mixed uses of land. "This is where you�re really challenging yourselves," said Bill Lennertz, a Portland architect who heads up the city�s team of consultants. "You have an opportunity to create neighborhoods that have a sense of place. "The great old neighborhoods that we no longer have � that�s what you�re talking about building," he added. Lennertz said the consultant team�s preferred alternative attempts to follow the principals of the ambitious Southeast Plan, approved by the City Council in 1998. The plan attempts to blur the lines between commercial and residential neighborhoods while reducing traffic and making better use of 1,000-plus acres set aside in the urban growth boundary. The proposed commercial district would serve as a gateway to planned residential neighborhoods to the east, where more than 10,000 people are expected to live within the next 20 years. Heide Seeman, who owns property in the Southeast Plan area but not in the commercial district, said she liked what she saw in the consultants� plans. Architects envision a "main street" along a realigned Barnett Road, allowing retail zoning on both sides of the street. Barnett currently allows retail on the north side and office space to the south. The consultants also recommend mixed commercial and residential use of buildings, a series of boutique-type shops and some larger stores, cafes and restaurants that take advantage of the greenway along Larson Creek and tree-lined roads with on-street parking. "That way people will walk and enjoy the area instead of just drive through," said Seeman. The architect�s plans show an inviting commercial center that will make people want to stop and get out of their cars, she said. "It�s up to the city now not to just sit on it (the plans)," she added. Rob Scott, community development director, said city planners are expected to review the proposal and investigate whether changes in the city�s zoning and design standards are needed to implement the plan. Suggested revisions would be forwarded to the commission at a future, yet unscheduled, meeting. Consideration of a master plan would follow. Obituaries | Sports | Business | Classifieds | Tempo | Prime Times | So Oregon Sites | Outdoor Journal | Subscribe | Contact | Movies | Advertise | Real Estate Showcase | Archive | Editorials | Letters to the editor | Religion | Wake-up Call | NIE | Cyber Chef | Job Network | So Oregon Weather | WSJ Northwest | Forums | AP Wire | AP Money | F.A.Q. | Awards Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. The Community Newspaper Subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co, Inc Copyright �The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA