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Photo by Steve Johnson Louise and Andy Gonzales have lived in their 1,568-square-foot manufactured home in Shady Cove for four years. Their home would be in the path of a new street. They don't want to move Street plan pierces city's heart By MELISSA MARTIN SHADY COVE -- Andy and Louis Gonzales sold their walnut and prune orchard in the San Joaquin Valley four years ago and settled into a new manufactured home to live their remaining years near the Rogue River. But last week they learned that their home is among 24 in Shady Cove Mobile Home Park that stand in the path of a new street sketched out in a city transportation plan. "We came here to be content and now it has the same atmosphere that we left in California," says Louis Gonzales, 72. "Progress comes in and pushes you out." Mobile home park residents, business people and riverfront property owners were among a crowd of more than 100 last week when the Shady Cove Planning Commission asked for public input about the plan. The state-mandated report calls for creating a traditional street pattern in a town that's bounded by hills, a river and a state highway. Deer lounge near the Gonzales' home in Shady Cove and are often visible from their deck. "If you just had bare acreage and were going to build a city, this would be an acceptable plan," says Fred Thomas, owner of Shady Cove Market. He says his dream of building a larger store with more parking could be threatened by the plan. "But this plan leaves out the human values, the emotions, the character of Shady Cove." The Planning Commission listened to testimony for four hours Thursday and continued the hearing to 7 tonight in City Hall. "The city can use this plan as a starting point to know what people don't want," says Ray Novosad, owner of Bel Di's On The Rogue, a dinner house that would lose about a third of its parking lot. Real estate broker Mike Malepsy says the transportation plan as it's written now could leave a black mark on dozens of properties in Shady Cove. "It's going to be difficult to market anybody's home if these transportation plan maps show streets running right through the middle of the house," says Malepsy, owner of Windemere/Trails End Real Estate. "There's no money to do these projects, but at some point and time, it could happen and that concerns people." There is always a cost in creating long-range plans, says Dick Converse, senior planner with Rogue Valley Council of Governments. He worked with the seven-member Citizens Advisory Committee in writing the plan. "What we are trying to do is establish a framework that would help guide the city's day-to-day decisions," Converse says. "At some point you need to make tough choices." The state Department of Land Conservation and Development requires every city to write a transportation element in its Comprehensive Plan, a master plan to guide growth. The Shady Cove City Council adopted a plan about five years ago, but the state rejected it and gave the city until July 1 of this year to fix it, Converse says. Ernie Dodson, the owner of the 74-unit Shady Cove Mobile Home Park, says meeting that deadline shouldn't have to come at the expense of displacing residents. "These people are senior citizens living on a fixed income," Dodson says. "They have security here and independence. "We need to slow down this train." Planning Commission chairman Roger Hays agrees: "This is a big step and not something we will rush into." The Planning Commission could send the plan back to the Citizens Advisory Committee for changes, he says. Eventually, the plan must go to the Shady Cove City Council. Advisory Committee member Chuck Johnisee says the committee is willing to make changes. He says he likes an idea offered by several business owners to move a proposed street closer to the hill to avoid taking out so many of the manufactured homes. "Something needs to be done in Shady Cove," says John Collins, the owner of Rogue River RV Park. He supports part of the plan and rejects part of it, although he stands to lose an office complex parking lot and a portion of his three-acre riverfront property. "I do not want to attempt to stop a program if it's going to relieve the traffic problem we have here." Shady Cove Administrator Jerry L'Estrange says he doesn't want to discredit the hard work that volunteers put into the plan, especially chairman Gil Purdy, a civil engineer who created detailed maps. "The plan is to make things better, not worse," L'Estrange says. "If most of the people think the plan would make their life worse, we need to take a hard look at it. "People brought up questions that we have to find answers for." Mary Perry, whose manufactured home stands in a proposed street path, says she hopes the answers arrive before she and her husband, a retired Teamster, move to Portland to be closer to her doctor. "It's sad," Perry says. "We invested everything we had into our home. Real estate agents say once a property is condemned they can't sell it. We are caught between a rock and a hard place." Plan proposes three streets SHADY COVE -- The Transportation Plan has stirred emotions in this community of 2,315 people, mostly because of three proposed streets and a rerouting of Rogue River Drive. The plan calls for: Building a street running from Rogue River Drive to Schoolhouse Lane. This proposal would affect dozens of property owners, including 24 manufactured homes in Shady Cove Mobile Home Park. Building a street east of Highway 62, roughly between Chapparal Drive and Williams Lane. On the map, the street is sketched with cul-de-sacs on either end. It would require removing Brownies Family Restaurant and Phil's Frosty drive-in, as well as much of the parking lot of Bel Di's On The Rogue dinner house and an office complex that has 15 tenants. Re-routing Rogue River Drive. This plan would take out boat parking owned by Jackson County Parks and would move the entry into Shady Cove's new motel, The Edgewater Inn. The plan also calls for pouring sidewalks and marking bicycle lanes as a way to encourage residents to walk or ride instead of drive. Other aspects of the 125-page plan include adding curbs to control how cars enter and exit parking lots of Highway 62 businesses; installing a stop light on Highway 62 at Rogue River Drive; encouraging the federal government to start home mail delivery so residents don't have to drive to the U.S. Post Office every day; and creating a plan to better maintain city streets. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA