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Talent council sends diesel tax to voters Saturday Feb 18, 2017 at 12:01 AM Tony Boom for the Mail Tribune Voters will be asked whether they want to enact a tax of 3 cents per gallon on diesel fuel in the city after the City Council approved putting the measure on the May 16 ballot. Potential redevelopment of the former Talent Truck Stop along West Valley View Road and a need for money to repair roads led to the decision, city leaders said. “There’s a lot of really good points to this," said Councilor Ryan Pedersen, who made the motion to put the measure to voters. "The fact that we do have the potential of a truck stop coming in — there are actual costs related to that possibility of significant damage to the roads." The council voted 4-2, with Ken Baker and John Harrison in opposition. At a previous meeting, Baker said he would like to find a way to exempt off-road-vehicle operators from paying the tax. A potential buyer of the truck stop property had a pre-application meeting with the city on development of the site, Community Development Director Zac Moody told the Mail Tribune. Such sessions allow developers and the city to discuss what is feasible. Developers proposed fueling stations for trucks and cars and a 12,000-square-foot building for a restaurant, convenience store and trucker lounge. All the proposed uses are allowed under the commercial zoning on the property. The building would have to go through a floodplain review, and the city likely would require a traffic impact study, but the developers already had planned to do one, said Moody. “As far as that property is concerned, the new plan is still under investigation and is not expected to be complete until late spring," wrote Randall Simonson of the Commercial Real Estate Co. in Medford, which represents the property, in an email response to questions. "Until the respective parties have finished that segment, I would not want to speculate.”  An estimated 3.5 miles of roads in the city will require maintenance work over the next 10 years, with annual costs projected at $132,000 per year, City Manager Tom Corrigan told the council at a Feb. 1 session where members approved wording for the resolution. State law allows enactment of gasoline and diesel fuel taxes by local governments. About 20 cities have passed the tax, most of them on both types of fuel. Portland charges the highest rate at 10 cents per gallon. Phoenix voters passed a 2-cents-per-gallon, diesel-only tax in September 2015. City officials said the money was needed to maintain roads in the new Exit 24 configuration, which receives heavy wear from big rigs going to the Petro Stopping Center. Between November 2015 and December 2016, the diesel tax brought in $94,000 for the city. The Talent tax would be applied to anyone who sells more than 500 gallons of diesel in a year.  — Tony Boom is an Ashland freelance writer. Reach him at [email protected]