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Sports park may get a start today By Jessica Smith If the city wants a south Medford farm for a future sports park, it�ll have to put the land on layaway. At its noon session today, the Medford City Council considers an agreement that would give city leaders two years to come up with the $4.8 million needed to purchase 124-acres straddling Bear Creek between Interstate 5 and South Pacific Highway. "This gives us the ability to set the property aside right now so that it won�t be used for something else," explained parks director Greg Jones. The city has yet to begin designing the new complex, but park backers have suggested the farm and open space behind the now-defunct Starlite Drive-In be turned into soccer fields, baseball diamonds, basketball courts and a bike-racing velodrome. Under the proposed purchase agreement, the city retains an option to purchase the property by paying the owners, the Heitkamp family, in three installments by March 2002.One of the chief benefits of an option agreement, said Assistant City Attorney Sydnee Dreyer, is the time it gives the city to finance the purchase. "It�s definitely intended as a safeguard," she said. "We don�t want the deal to fall apart as we pull the funding together." The city doesn�t have the cash to purchase the land for the sports park, but city officials have put together a financing strategy. The Bear Creek Greenway Foundation plans to chip in with a maximum $30,000 pledge toward the purchase. The foundation wants to locate a portion of the 18-mile bike and pedestrian trail through the sports complex. And earlier this year, the city increased business license fees and fees charged to new developments to fund park improvement. Medford voters approved the third component, an increase in the so-called hotel-motel tax, in the Nov. 7 election. Development of the sports park would be funded in much the same manner, with additional money coming from yet unnamed sources, Jones said. Under the option agreement, the first installment would cost the city $50,000. A second, $150,000 payment would be due March 16, 2001, and a third, $200,000 payment would be due a year later. Each option payment would be credited toward the total purchase price. The city would have 120 days after the first payment to decide whether to buy the property, based on ground surveys and environmental assessments, or ask for a refund. Subsequent option payments would not be refundable, Jones said. Though officials don�t expect to find problems with the land, Jones said the city wanted a way out of the deal in case environmental studies proved development would be too costly. "We�re trying to be prudent," he said. Reach reporter Jessica Smith at 776-4481, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.