Downtown boosters crank up campaign.

Byline: Jack Moran The Register-Guard

SPRINGFIELD - A relatively low-key campaign championing the city's downtown urban-renewal plan is shifting into high gear.

Several downtown businesses now sport signs urging voters to approve Measure 20-131, which would allow the City Council to create a renewal district encompassing more than 400 acres in and around downtown.

Yard signs, radio spots and newspaper ads will appear soon, thanks to a political action committee that formed in August to raise money in support of the ballot measure.

"It's important for us to inform people, to get them to vote and to let them know that the way (the urban renewal district) would be funded, it won't affect their taxes," said Terri Leezer, chairwoman of the Springfield Downtown Urban Renewal Plan PAC. Leezer serves on the city planning commission and lives in downtown Springfield, where she also owns a business.

"We need to change the face and the heart of downtown," Leezer said. "I want to be able to walk downtown, go to dinner and go to the Wildish (Theater) and feel safe."

Through Sept. 25, the committee had raised $8,700 for the pro-measure campaign. The largest donor is Timber Products Co. of Springfield, which gave $2,500.

Other major contributors include the Springfield Chamber of Commerce Greeters group ($2,000), the Chamber of Commerce ($1,000) and health insurer PacificSource ($1,000), which is based in Gateway.

"I think we have everything we need," Leezer said.

According to information filed with the state, the Springfield committee has spent $2,980.

The money was paid to Marketing Consultants Inc. of Eugene, which is owned by Mike Clark, a Eugene city councilor.

"My job is to work with the PAC on communications," said Clark, whose firm was previously involved with two successful public-safety measure campaigns in Springfield.

"I have had a connection with some of these folks professionally," Clark said. "They asked for my help, and I was happy to do it."

There is no organized campaign against the Springfield measure, which voters will decide in the Nov. 6 election.

The measure's passage would permit the city to pursue a plan in which up to $43 million in tax money could be spent to upgrade much of southwest Springfield, including the downtown core.

The plan calls for no new or increased property taxes. Instead, a portion of taxes paid by property owners citywide would be set aside each year and used for renewal projects in the downtown area.