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Architects hired to form Bear Creek master plan Public meetings in March will generate ideas on better use of the waterway By MELISSA MARTIN Mail Tribune A Denver architect who helped design a riverwalk in downtown Pueblo, Colo., will create a master plan for the seven miles of Bear Creek that wind through Medford. The city of Medford and the Medford Urban Renewal Agency will spend $70,500 to hire Design Studios West Inc. The Denver architects will schedule three public meetings in Medford beginning in March. "They will be hands-on meetings where people will have maps and markers and write and draw their ideas," said architect Eric Iversen, senior planner with Medford Urban Renewal. Restaurants with creekside patios, benches by the water or downtown signs pointing to the Bear Creek Greenway bike path are possibilities that have already been suggested. "How can we encourage businesses to turn around and have frontages on the creek as well as on the street?" Iversen asked. "This is one of the things the City Council mentioned when they first asked us to do this master plan." Medford council members set goals in 1989 for Bear Creek's path through the city that included better linking of downtown to the creek, providing more recreational opportunities and orienting businesses toward the water. "One of the things that everybody wants to see is how the creek can relate to the city more," said Medford landscape architect John Galbraith, whose firm, Galbraith & Associates, unsuccessfully bid on the master plan project. He's designing a master plan for the city's proposed sports park. "Right now, it seems like everybody is turning their back to Bear Creek except for the parks," Galbraith said. "That would have been our thrust - to get businesses to see the potential." A 25-river-mile stream, Bear Creek flows from its head at Emigrant and Walker creeks near the Ashland airport to its mouth at the Rogue River near Gold Ray Dam outside of Gold Hill. The master plan will look at Bear Creek as it flows through a proposed 132-acre sports park near the old Starlite Drive-In Theater on Highway 99, as well as Bear Creek Park, a favorite of children who scramble around on its fort-like play structure. It also will study the creek's downtown path where it winds between buildings and beneath a busy freeway viaduct. "The master plan will lay out what we want the Bear Creek corridor to look like, how we will use the creek and how we can make it the greatest asset for Medford," Iversen said. Design Studios Inc. worked on the Historic Arkansas Riverwalk in Pueblo. With boats meandering through downtown, brick pathways, flags and creative landscapes, the Pueblo riverwalk is modeled after San Antonio's waterfront. Design Studios also created a master plan for the Colorado State Capitol and worked on riverfront plans for Estes Park, Denver and Dubois, Wyo. 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.