Downtown project may go on ballot.

Byline: Jack Moran The Register-Guard

SPRINGFIELD - November is the right time to ask voters to support creating a downtown urban renewal district, city councilors decided Monday night.

Faced with the option of delaying the plan until spring 2008, councilors instead directed city planners to prepare information that could be shared with city residents in advance of an election this fall.

"I'm happy with trying for November," Councilor Christine Lundberg said. "There's a lot happening (downtown) right now. I think it's a great time to capitalize on the enthusiasm."

If the ballot measure is approved, the city would begin setting aside property taxes to help improve downtown infrastructure and possibly purchase blighted buildings.

In a renewal district, cities funnel into a special fund any increases in property taxes paid by owners in the district. The money is used for improvements in the district. The new tax revenue is withheld from general city services and local governments that use property taxes to help fund their programs.

Councilors also decided Monday not to merge the proposed downtown district with an existing urban renewal district the city oversees in Glenwood.

Final City Council approval of a November ballot measure is scheduled for July 23. At that time, councilors will decide the proposed downtown district's boundary. One option is to establish a boundary stretching east from the Willamette River to 10th Street. But the council might prefer a much larger district that includes properties set between the river and either 16th or 23rd streets.

In other business Monday, the council held a public hearing to consider permanently closing a blocklong stretch of B Street downtown to make room for a public safety complex. A decision is set for July 16.

An opponent of the closure, Scott Olson of Springfield, testified that the plan would violate established local land use plans that support street connectivity. "Why not just drop this misguided effort now ... and leave the street to all of us?" Olson requested of the council.

Olson is a member of a City Council-appointed citizen advisory committee that recommended B Street be closed to accommodate the project. He said the plan was the only one presented to the committee that fit within the justice center's construction budget.

Olson informed councilors that if they approve the street closure plan, he will ask the state Land Use Board of Appeals to overturn the decision.

Another member of the citizen advisory committee, Steve Singleton, spoke in favor of the street closure proposal. He said committee members were "very well-informed all the way through the process."

Singleton noted that a council vote against the plan would require the city to pay architects to devise a new design for the justice center.

B Street would be closed to accommodate a secure, fenced parking area adjacent to the voter-approved complex, which will include a new police station, municipal courtrooms and 100-bed jail. City police officials say a secure area next to the building would ensure the safety of officers responding to emergencies and give the city a place to hold prisoners if the jail ever had to be evacuated.