Residents, developers vie over road assessments
CJ Council continues public hearing to July 23 on business, residential improvement district
Some 30 persons packed Cave Junction City Hall for the city council’s Monday night, July 9 meeting for a public hearing on a proposed $2.56 million Local Improvement District (LID) on Redwood Hwy. at the north end of town.
The LID includes work such as Hwy. 199 widening and the addition of a turn lane in connection with projects involving 77 residential and five business sites planned by Willow Development, of Grants Pass.
John Chmelir, of Willow Development, said that the city should add accumulated interim costs to the LID. He stated that the council should approve the developers’ assessments proposal based 50 percent on highway frontage and 50 percent on total acreage.
Chmelir characterized that proposal as the “most fair to all.”
The city has so far proposed three separate options. One calls for the developers to pay two-thirds of the LID costs, with the remaining third paid by the other property owners; then 50 percent for area and 50 percent for highway frontage.
Land and frontage owned by ODOT would be excluded.
A second proposal by the city calls for the developers to pay two-thirds of the cost; and other property owners paying a third, with several properties excluded. That proposal also retains the 50 percent frontage and 50 percent area formula.
The city’s third option excludes several lots, and utilizes the 50 percent frontage and 50 percent area methodology.
Chmelir said that the city’s options “show favoritism” towards some property owners and may lead to “unintended consequences.”
Developers paid $600,000 to acquire right-of-way for three roadway intersections relating to the project, Chmelir said.
“We stepped up to the plate,” he said. “We didn’t have to do that.”
Chmelir added that the developers did so “at the behest” of ODOT and the city, and that they spent 18 months on the LID proposal.
The highway roadwork went from a $900,000 project to more than $7 million, Chmelir said, because the developers leveraged their funding for a greater commitment from ODOT.
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Many property owners with highway frontage have been paid by ODOT for rights-of-way, Chmelir said. He presented the council a list of those payments.
The developers donated their rights-of-way, and the payments to property owners for those were made with “our money,” he said.
Chmelir said that the 50-50 proposal is a “very standard split.” He reiterated his opposition to the city’s proposed LID funding options, which excludes St. Mathias Episcopal Church.
Holger Sommer, a Hugo resident and land-use activist, spoke in opposition to the developers’ proposal. Sommer emphasized that Josephine County is supporting the actual road project, not the LID.
The city can’t assess county properties, Sommer said, because it does not have the authority to do so.
“That’s impossible,” Sommer said. “You don’t have the power to do it.”
He added that the developers’ LID funding plan ultimately would leave the city open to liability.
“This immediately makes this a field day in court,” he said.
Steve Zabriskie, owner of Z Coffee at the north end of the city on Redwood Hwy., said that “the conglomerate” of developers benefits the most from the LID. Zabriskie’s remarks drew scattered applause from audience members.
Medford attorney David Ingalls, representing the Versteeg Family, described the developers as “outsiders” in search of “economic opportunity.”
“These are not people that are part of the community,” Ingalls said.
He said that the original $2.5 million paid by the developers is “the cost of doing business” for them. But property owners, he said, would have a more difficult time paying for the assessments.
“These people don’t have the cash flow to pay for this,” he said.
No council decision was made, and the public hearing was continued to the council’s meeting set for Monday, July 23 at 7 p.m. at city hall.
