Document text
75 °F Forecast | Road Cams Saturday, August 28, 2004 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Prime Times Wellness Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Rogue Valley's Finest EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People MARKETPLACE Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Classifieds Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend August 4, 2004 Village Circle resident Kate Gallant gestures across the private road that�s now getting public traffic thanks to an 83-home townhouse project going up in the background. Gallant and her neighbors don�t want to pay to maintain the road anymore. Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell Neighborhood wants city to take over road By MEG LANDERS Mail Tribune How would you feel if you built a swimming pool for your own use but everyone in the neighborhood came to swim and you couldn’t’ stop them? That’s the kind of problem members of an east Medford homeowners association are facing. They own and maintain a private road (formerly a dead-end) that’s now getting too much traffic. Now they hope the city will take it over. Twenty-two Alderwood homeowners each pay $40 a month — more than $10,000 a year in all — for maintenance, sidewalks, street lights and insurance for their street. Like many small streets in the Alderwood subdivision, Village Circle is private as requested in the builder’s original planning application. But Kate Gallant, president of the homeowners association, said they can’t even block it off or put in speed bumps, and she’s frustrated with a nearby construction that’s tearing up the road. Advertisement "We really have our hands tied," Gallant said. Builder’s equipment spews mud, rocks and digs gouges in the asphalt, she said. So the association voted last month to ask the city to take over the street. Medford-based Pacific Trend Building Co., owned by Lou and Dan Mahar, is developing a townhouse project just beyond the end of Village Circle. City planner Jim Maize said the development will include 83 townhouse units, plus a pool, tennis courts and a clubhouse. When that project is complete, Village Circle would connect to Juanipero Way to the south. Although Pacific Trend is responsible for repairing any damage to the private road in the meantime, Gallant said this is just the beginning because once the road punches through, there will be much more traffic. Maize said developers might propose a street be private instead of public for several reasons, such as space constraints that make building a road to city standards difficult. Gallant has no qualms about the adjacent development; in fact, she bought her home from Pacific Trend, also known as Pac Trend. It’s the coming traffic that worries her. "It’s a dead-end street until this new development’s done," she said. Gallant said she started looking into putting barricades in but learned she couldn’t do that. "Even though it’s a private road, they have to allow public access," city engineer Larry Beskow said. "That’s the nasty part of having a private road." This situation is rare but comes up once in a while, he said of changing the street from private to public. "There’s some folks out there that do build a private road but not to (city) standards," Beskow said. He said Village Circle, built in 2000, is close to city standards and that the homeowners association would just have to have the road surveyed, clean out storm drains, drill holes to verify the road’s physical structure and submit drawings of the street to the public works department. "Public Works could make a favorable recommendation to (the) City Council to accept that as a public road," he said. Lou and Dan Mahar were out of town and unavailable for comment. Reach reporter Meg Landers at 776-4481 or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2004 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback ADVERTISERS A D V E R T I S E R S SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Opportunities