The goal of the demonstration is to oppose the fee charges for access to public lands. According to the organizers, the fees exclude those with fewer economic means from accessing public lands, violate the Oregon Beach Bill, and turn the public's relationship with nature into a commodity.

The demonstration is scheduled for Saturday, August 14, 10:00 am to noon. For more information, contact Bonnie Henderson, 541-485-2104, bonnhen@aol.com or Bill Musser, 541-342-1540 or mussell@presys.com . Source: 7/24/99 News Release. 

Like many other cities with strip development, much of the big money has moved to Oregon 99E or Interstate 5 and its offshoots. On the way to the Woodburn Company Stores, the factory outlet mall that opened Friday, motorists will pass three automobile dealers, two of which once operated downtown.

But while all is modern at the freeway, downtown is a turn-of-the-century scene. Many store owners struggle to make first-time businesses fly, often in historic brick buildings that show their age. The ambience of the outlet mall is designed to evoke a Northwest feel with cultured stone accents, cedar shingles and 40 variations of earth colors. The ambience of downtown Woodburn, especially on Sundays, is traditional Mexico. Latinos gather at the plaza, a city parking lot of asphalt with a few benches at one end. A decade ago, it was mostly single men. These days, with more year-round work, increasing numbers of families make the stroll.

No matter how hot the weather, women turn out in dresses and high heels, some pushing strollers. They chat or amble past import stores that trumpet Mexican music, continuing a tradition played out in most every Mexican city, large or small. Before they head home, some will stop at Carniceria el Norteo, the new butcher shop on Front Street that carries everything from chili-flavored ice cream bars to meat cut thin for the barbecue. "It has to be well done and crispy," says owner Orlando Gepeda.

Gepeda started the business three months ago after a decade in the meat business. Woodburn was on his route as a meat salesman. One day, he quit that job and talked his wife into a "gamble," opening a store that makes its own chorizo and marinades for pork and chicken. On Sunday, his busiest day, Latinos will order four pounds of this and three pounds of that, "$120 a pop." "They don't freeze any of it," said Gepeda, who was born in Portland but learned Spanish as a first language.

While many white families might pick up a six-pack of brand-name soda, Mexican children head for the cooler and pick out different flavored bottles of pop with Mexican labels. He estimates that about 30 percent of his business is non-Latino, traditional steak-eaters whom he educates about other meat choices by providing free samples of his marinade inventions. This is the place to buy Mexican herbs, candles with religious figures or albums for quinceaeras, the big 15th birthday celebration. There are pastries galore at the popular Salvador's Bakery. In fact, some describe downtown as largely Latino stores catering to Latinos.

"I say it's a piece of Mexico," adds Maira Mendoza, 19, whose parents started Villanueva Boutique about a year ago. The family moved from California, where her father worked in a dairy with some of her relatives who also have businesses in downtown Woodburn. Now, he works in a forest products business in Molalla, and she tends the store, which sells women's clothes and sombreros, cowboy boots, Mexican boots and a smattering of other items.

How many other downtowns have businesses like La Caseta Telefonica? Visitors to this prime location at the corner of Front and Grant streets will open the door only to find 22 phone booths. This is where migrants call home to Mexico. It hops on Sunday, when La Caseta employees serve coffee and cookies to workers as they wait for a similar phone center at the other end to retrieve their families. Many storefronts also advertise phone cards, another way to call home, or offer to send money home to Mexico.

Competition for jeans -- Few of these businesses will compete with Woodburn Company Stores. But one that faces that challenge is the Woodburn Department Store next to Salvador's. A staple, Levi's, also will be sold at a factory outlet. Owner Ayesh Shana says he can't buy Levi's for the price they will be sold for at the outlet. He is counting on his quality and extensive supply of the jeans -- he prides himself on having more colors and sizes of Levi's than most -- to stay in business. He started the store in 1987. "It will be competition pricewise," he says of the outlet. But "they can't carry what we carry, and we can't carry what they carry."

On one stretch of Front Street, visitors can buy chorizo or a La-Z-Boy chair or a Russian scarf. They can eat at one of two Mexican restaurants or make a doll. "It is a good location for us," Tom Flomer says of his family's Flomer's Furniture. He is the third generation of Flomers selling upper-end furniture downtown. The store attracts customers from throughout the northern Willamette Valley, including a good number of Woodburn's senior citizens. "Vassa's Fabrics" caters largely to Russian Old Believers who follow centuries-old religious beliefs. Today's teen-agers still learn to sew and make many of their clothes. In addition to selling lots of fabric, owner Vassa Bodunov sells the cloth caps worn by Old Believer women and the scarves that the women wear over their caps so that no hair shows in church. Vassa's also sells the elaborate embroideries for the traditional men's shirts. Another store owner, Darlene Fredrickson, is converting a former home business into "Couture Cache Doll Shop & Hospital" on Front Street. It's a place to repair or make dolls. Haircuts, but no lattes.

Outside the retail scene, downtown remains the city's civic center with government offices and the library and post office. City Hall plans to expand into an empty bank building at First and Hayes, and Chemeketa Community College plans an expansion at its existing site across the railroad tracks from Front Street, both anchoring different parts of downtown.

There's no longer a movie theater downtown, but there is a cleaners and a barber shop. There also is a lone gas station, although the owner says business is slow. There's no banking service. This could be one of the few remaining business districts in the country where a latte is not evident.

Cultures still clash. Workers at some Latino businesses don't speak English, and at least one restaurant only recently printed its first menu in English. Downtown merchants, in turn, say they still struggle with perceptions that downtown isn't safe. While some merchants rely on customers who already patronize downtown, others want to do more to lure traffic into town.

For its part, the city is working to spruce up the historic core by planting trees, buying old-time light fixtures and spiffing up "Mayor's Alley" spanning the business area between First and Front streets, Koutny said. A summer concert series in the library park has been expanded this year. A Saturday market is planned for the plaza. Civic leaders hope to take advantage of the rail line that runs downtown by developing a train museum-depot and launching excursion trips to the Oregon Gardens in nearby Silverton or to Mount Angel's Oktoberfest.

Still, plenty of challenges to rebuilding downtown remain.

Many buildings are underutilized, the businesses undercapitalized. The problems are evident in the case of the former Salud Medical Center building. It remains vacant six years after the Spring Break Quake forced the clinic to move out of the brick building in 1993. The city now is suing an array of owners in hopes of forcing some action. But a major investment will be required. Mayor Dick Jennings says that rebuilding downtown will be a "long haul. But there's a more positive attitude now than there has been previously," he said. Source: 7/25/99, The Oregonian, by Cheryl Martinis.

Linda Westphal, the board secretary for the Siuslaw Area Women's Center (SAWC), says Morrison opposed continuing a $151,690 county grant to the non-profit because of a run-in (with) the commissioner's property management company had with her group. "It sounds like a conflict of interest to me," says Westphal. Morrison did not return several calls from Eugene Weekly.

Westphal says Morrison did not like it that SAWC was helping pay the rent for one of Morrison's low-income tenants. The commissioner demanded that the county investigate the female tenant and SAWC management based on "confidential" information Morrison had obtained as her landlord. County staff found nothing wrong, according to Westphal.

Last month Morrison pulled the SAWC contract off a long list of social services contracts that came before commissioners for routine approval, according to Rob Rockstroh, the county's health and human services director. Morrison later voted against the funding but was overruled in a four-to-one vote on June 30.

"There's been no love lost between Anna and that organization [SAWC]," Rockstroh says. Morrison has made allegations centering around some of the tenants of her private business, Rockstroh says. The commissioner has accused SAWC of somehow improperly helping these tenants with low-income rent subsidies funded with government grants, according to Rockstroh. Morrison "can be abrasive" and "doesn't like government in general," Rockstroh says. Morrison, who was involved with the pro-logging group Oregon Women in Timber, was elected last year to the west Lane County seat.

Commissioner Peter Sorenson says Morrison questioned whether SAWC was spending the grant money appropriately. Sorenson says Morrison said she would provide additional information regarding her opposition to the SAWC grant, but hasn't come forward with anything, yet.

Westphal says SAWC has assisted thousands of west Lane County women and their families for the past decade. Last year, the agency responded to 7,615 domestic violence complaints and assisted 1,300 low-income adults and 1,500 children with temporary housing, crisis intervention, money for utilities, and/or free clothing. The non-profit also provides volunteer help to the elderly and works with the Florence Police Department in helping domestic violence victims, Westphal says.

Steve Manela, manager of the county Human Services Commission (HSC), says SAWC is one of the most important social service providers in the western part of the county. Manela says his staff closely reviewed the management, audits, board make-up, finances, and qualifications of the non-profit before recommending that the commissioners continue funding the center. "The Siuslaw Area Women's Center has provided the services requested for the last four years and has submitted quarterly reports and annual reports and audits that have indicated services are being provided in accordance with our contractual agreements," county staff wrote in a memo to commissioners before the vote.

SAWC also has the confidence of Womenspace, Eugene's women's shelter. "In my 10 years as Womenspace executive director; we have subcontracted funds to many non-profit and government agencies," says Womenspace Director Evelyn Anderton. "The SAWC stands out as one of the most proficiently managed and cost-effective agencies. How anyone can suggest otherwise shows an appalling lack of information."

Morrison obtained more than 50 percent of her 1988 income as the president of Dolphin Property Management in Florence, according to a statement of economic interest she filed with the state this year.

State law generally forbids public officials from mixing their business dealings with their role as elected officials. Elected officials must usually publicly declare a conflict of interest and recuse themselves from discussion and voting when they have a business interest in a government action under consideration. It is unclear how the rules would effect Morrison's case, particularly since she does not appear to gain or lose financially from decisions regarding the SAWC. Source: July 15, 1999, Eugene Weekly, by Alan Pitthan.

Taylor said he expects to resign as city manager in the fall when the council hires someone else. Unlike a pro-tem manager, Taylor has full authority to hire and fire without council approval. The council authorized him to hire McCorkle as a part-time assistant. McCorkle couldn't go from pro-tem to "permanent" because the city charter prohibits hiring a former council member as manager within a year of leaving office. Taylor will receive $5,000 a month as city manager, $266 above his normal salary. Source: 7/21/99 Register Guard.

The biggest known losses are in India, China, the United States, North Africa and Saudi Arabia. The lost water would be enough to grow 10 percent of world grain, said Worldwatch, a nongovernment research group. The use of giant pumps to extract water from ever-deeper in the earth was once viewed as a boon for farmers worldwide. Now, according to water expert Sandra Postel, the report's author, massive pumping intensifies water shortages.

What the pumps are doing underground is beginning to hurt, with wells running dry and parts of some cities showing signs of literally sinking because of groundwater drainage, Postel said. Source: 7/18/99 - The Register-Guard, by The Associated Press.

"Originally, we thought visitors were our treasure," said Neal Maine, a dripping canoe paddle across his lap as he drifted on Neawanna Creek. "And then, we realized we were standing on it." A former schoolteacher, Maine is one of the driving forces behind the acquisitions as resource manager for the North Coast Land Conservancy. A majority on the City Council -- voted in four years ago as development battles raged at City Hall -- now favors preserving the town's special coastal environment, as well as a native run of silver salmon in Neawanna Creek.

Seaside is on an aggressive path to preserve the ribbons of wetlands that slice the coastal plain that holds the town: It completed a $419,000 purchase of 24 acres of park land last month, the south end of a 2.5-mile planned wetlands reserve that will include a new interpretive center, library, canoe rentals and parks. And another 10-acre, $18,000 purchase next to the former Kohl Adler Mill is expected to close this week, paid for with U.S. Fish and Wildlife money.

The idea is to help save salmon habitat, give locals a place to play and reverse a century of tourist-related development. "We are trying to do it for ourselves," said City Manager Gene Miles. "And the truth of the matter is, it will probably be a bonanza." All this in a town that spends nearly $1 million in tax dollars annually to bring tourists to its boardwalk, where saltwater taffy, not salmon, is king.

Portland's playground Seaside has long been Portland's summer playground. Just 90 minutes from the city, traffic in Seaside can back up for miles on a summer day. Average daily vehicle counts range from 11,000 to 16,000 on U.S. 101. And on each side of the highway are miles of gas stations, stores and mini-malls used by tourists and coastal residents alike. Seaside is bracketed on the north and south by the more exclusive towns of Gearhart and Cannon Beach. Gearhart discourages franchise operations and large stores. Cannon Beach bans franchises altogether. So large commercial services have piled into Seaside, straddling the Coast Highway for four miles.

Between the highway and the beach, tight streets are typically clogged with summer traffic, making Broadway and the town's legendary boardwalk ground zero for tourists. It is a world of concrete and retail with an ocean view. Yet, Seaside is all but surrounded by water. It is just hard to see.

With the ocean to the west, the Necanicum estuary cuts Seaside's northern border. Into that brackish water pours the Necanicum River, Neawanna Creek and Neacoxie Creek. To the east, the Necanicum takes a fish hook run from the ocean, running parallel to the beach, leaving most of Seaside built on the resulting peninsula. Farther east, Neawanna Creek parallels the Necanicum.

All of that is lost, of course, in present-day Seaside. The mud flats and forests of bull rushes that once slipped gently to the Necanicum's shore are filled in where the river runs through town, leaving a channelized embankment that lacks the environment fish need to prosper.

But along the Neawanna, east of the highway and in the town's back yard, no one ever filled in the wetlands. As a result, a native run of coho salmon thrives in the creek. The salmon, listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, mean federal and state money is available to help save the Neawanna.

Centerpiece of proposal The centerpiece of the town's plan for Neawanna Creek is a proposed $1.6 million library building and wetlands interpretive center. The idea, said librarian Reita Fackerell, is to offer people a coffee shop and a place to enjoy a good book on the banks of the stream, complete with canoe rentals available for exploring the marshes. Upstream about one mile from the library is a series of three mill ponds will form the center of the city's new park. The goal is for the park to be "passive," meaning a minimum of conveniences.

Anchoring the system to the north is a 20-acre plot of land at the mouth of Neawanna Creek called the Sahhalie property. Deeded to the North Coast Land Conservancy by the prior owner, the parcel has a vacant home on it that will soon be moved, and the city hopes to buy another home on adjacent property. Using about $800,000 in federal highway funds, the city intends to buy some of the land for a wayside park, where visitors approaching Seaside from the north would have a place to stop and savor the Necanicum estuary. The Sahhalie property has views of the estuary and is home to two nesting pairs of bald eagles.

Maine and the land conservancy have worked for years to preserve the creek and estuary. But it took the new majority of four on the City Council with an environmental bent to get the work done, said Mayor Rosemary Baker-Monaghan. The battle over the Sahhalie property -- at one time approved for 60 condominiums by the prior City Council -- crystallized the new land ethic at City Hall.

"We have a large volume of tourists in the summer, and we always went elsewhere to enjoy ourselves," she said. "We wanted to do something that we could enjoy and stay here." Source: 7/11/99, Oregonian, by Peter Sleeth.

In a letter sent this week to Oregon companies regulated by the DEQ, Kitzhaber said he would invite the EPA to "become more involved in inspections and enforcement," given the Legislature's refusal to add enough money to the budget to make up for $2.8 million in revenue shortfalls in wastewater, water quality and air quality programs. Kitzhaber also is circulating a draft letter to the regional director of the EPA in Seattle formally requesting the agency's assistance in air and water compliance programs.

Already, the EPA had warned that it might step in after audits of the DEQ concluded that the state agency's fines were too low and infrequent. Now, Kitzhaber said he'll invite in the federal government - known for its more heavy-handed approach - unless the Legislature delivers the budget he's demanding.

DEQ director Langdon Marsh said state officials would bring in the EPA reluctantly because they prefer Oregon's approach, which emphasizes what he called a collaborative, problem-solving approach. "EPA traditionally prefers a different philosophy, which is to come in and use enforcement as a strong deterrent to noncompliance," he said. Marsh said the move would be necessary so that the DEQ could devote more of its staff to issuing permits that regulate how cities and businesses can discharge wastewater and pollution into the air and water to minimize environmental damage.

Kitzhaber's threat didn't dissuade House budget chief Rep. Leslie Lewis, who intends to push through a DEQ budget without the additional money. Lewis, a Yamhill County Republican and co-chairwoman of the Joint Ways and Means Committee, dismissed Kitzhaber's letter as "positioning for political reasons." Lewis said she didn't think the EPA would take over the inspection and fining of polluters if the Legislature went ahead with its DEQ budget.

Some lawmakers, including Senate President Brady Adams, R-Grants Pass, House Majority Leader Steve Harper, R-Klamath Falls, and Sen. Ted Ferrioli, R-John Day, said they were interested in adding money to the DEQ's budget in order to keep the EPA from taking over some state functions. "I have no problem with the governor's assessment that we would do well to put more money into air and water," said Ferrioli, who heads the subcommittee that assembled the DEQ budget. "The only thing that I take exception to is that he would actually invite the EPA into the process in Oregon. "They are very punitive and they believe that the process of education begins with the assessment of fines. They make examples of people."

But Lewis, who has been at odds with the DEQ over its treatment of industrial polluters, was opposed. "DEQ has been very obstinate," she said. "You don't reward an agency that's not willing to work with the Legislature and industry." Ferrioli's Natural Resources Subcommittee on Tuesday passed a $295.9 million two-year budget for DEQ, which fell just shy of the $300.1 million budget requested by Kitzhaber.

Marsh said that while the overall DEQ spending would expand from its $254 million budget in 1997-99, it's in the area of air and water quality that additional staffing is urgently needed. With the state's economic and population growth, demand for wastewater discharge permits has climbed. But fee collections haven't kept up, and the Legislature and industry have been unwilling to go along with higher fees, forcing the state to look to additional general fund money.

Rep. Al King, D-Springfield, who voted against the DEQ budget when it came out of the Natural Resources Subcommittee, said that with so much pressure to put general fund dollars into schools, other areas have had difficulty competing. "It's systematic of K-12, for understandable reasons, cannibalizing other budgets," he said. Source: 7/9/99, Register Guard, by David Steves.

7/8/99 - Senate guts, tables House-approved frivolous suits bill -- Senate Republicans on Tuesday voted down key features of a House-approved bill aimed at discouraging frivolous lawsuits, called SLAPP suits, then tabled what remained, probably killing the bill for this legislative session.

A key supporter of the House version, Jeff Lamb of Philomath, said Senate Republicans wanted to avoid admitting to voters that their actions discouraged public participation in land-use and other government decisions. "They won't even vote on their own bill," said Lamb, who heads a group called Oregon Communities for a Voice in Annexations. Other supporters of the House bill included 1000 Friends of Oregon and the League of Women Voters.

The result of the Senate's action is that, barring an improbable decision to reconsider, there won't be any change in the rules under which citizens can testify on public issues before city councils and other government bodies. Supporters of the House version say that leaves citizens vulnerable to so-called SLAPP suits -- for Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation. The bill, House Bill 2805, easily passed the House by a 49-9 vote in May. The bill contained features that supporters said are necessary to protect people who testify at public meetings from being dragged into court by developers and others for the sole purpose of stifling debate.

The debate became partisan in the Senate after several groups, including Oregonians in Action, a property rights organization, denounced the bill as "a license to lie." A proposal to restore House-approved protections failed in the Senate by a 16-13 vote, after which the Senate voted 17-12 table the bill. The votes were almost entirely along party lines, with Democrats favoring the House features and opposing tabling the bill.

Sen. Neil Bryant, R-Bend, the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, led the opposition to the House version. He objected to several key features, especially a provision that would give witnesses immunity for their statements, whether or not they were accurate, as long as they were relevant to the issue. He said that such blanket immunity "encouraged irresponsible speech" and that citizens have a responsibility to do enough research to make sure their testimony is accurate. He earlier won his committee's approval to remove immunity if the witness knew, or "should have known," the testimony was false.

But Sen. Ginny Burdick, D-Portland, urged the Senate to restore the blanket immunity, saying the Legislature grants the same immunity to witnesses before its committees. Without such immunity, she said, "well-heeled developers" and others can stifle public debate through groundless lawsuits against witnesses, even though they know they will probably lose later on.

"The purpose of this bill is not to protect liars," Burdick said. "The purpose of this bill is to protect the truth. The truth will not be available to any of us if discussion is stifled." Sen. Lenn Hannon, R-Ashland, moved successfully to table the final bill, saying he opposed the amended Senate committee version as well as the original bill. He said both versions would allow people "to say and do things without being held accountable for their actions." Source: 7/7/99, The Oregonian, by Gregory Nokes.

"If it takes time to find the right person for the city of Florence, we'll take the time," Mayor Alan Burns said. He said the council plans to re-advertise the manager position and make a temporary "permanent" appointment at the July 19 council meeting. Such action will satisfy the requirements of the charter, he said.

Six months ago, former Mayor Roger McCorkle was appointed interim city manager after the resignation of former manager Ken Hobson. Burns wouldn't say who will be appointed July 19, but he added that the person will have all the powers of a permanent manager, including the right to hire and fire. Under the interim manager, such decisions had to be approved by the council. According to the charter, the permanent appointment, even if it is temporary, cannot go to McCorkle. No former council member can be named permanent manager within a year of the time he or she leaves office.

There were 62 applicants for the manager job, and the council considered a list of 20 other candidates (who) were screened by League of Oregon Cities consultants. Council members did "video interviews" in which nine of the candidates answered a set of questions on camera, but they only had one face-to-face interview. That person wasn't hired. "They basically weren't satisfied with the first round of applicants," McCorkle said.

After re-advertising, he said, the council should be in a position to choose from a new set of finalists in three to four months. So far, things have gone smoothly without a full time manager, McCorkle said. "It's just that it leaves things unsettled because it's something they have to get done," he said. Source: 7/7/99 Register Guard, by Larry Bacon.

The lawsuit contends that the city violated its own municipal codes by not requiring soils testing in the area, ignored expert warnings about soil conditions and knew the land was unstable when it issued building permits over three decades.

Law denied the allegations and said the documents in the complaint were taken out of context. "The way the law is, the city doesn't issue guarantees when it issues a building permit, and people don't pay anything for a guarantee and that's what they're asking for here," law said.

Steve Berman, the plaintiffs' lawyer, disagreed. "The whole purpose of a permit is to make sure a site is buildable," he said. Law said all the information in the complaint was available to the public. "Now they're trying to say hat somehow or other they have no individual responsibility at all. I guess I'm so amazed here that the city gets sued but not the developer," Law said.

At least 30 homes were destroyed and 73 damaged by the March 1998 landslide. Geologist predict the remaining 34 homes in the neighborhood will eventually be damaged as well. The lawsuit seeks class-action status that would enable 200 families in Aldercrest and surrounding areas to join the legal action against the city. Source: 7/5/99 Register Guard, by The Associated Press.

No matter that the speed limit sign says 30 mph. The broad thoroughfare fairly shouts, "Drive me fast." And many people do, sailing through town without stopping or, to the chagrin of merchants, spending any money.

As part of a new downtown plan for Florence, a team of consultants from Portland has been working with citizens to slow the flow along that wide river of asphalt. The team initially suggested drastic measures, such as shrinking the highway to three lanes or creating a one-way couplet. "We told them to get real," said David Jackson, a member of the citizen steering committee who knew such a plan would prompt an uprising by highway business people. Instead, Jackson and others who worked with the consultants are more hopeful about elements in the plan that would lead to redevelopment of an area of town largely gone to seed. The idea is to slow traffic by simply making the section of highway less boring and more like the nearby "Old Town" area along the waterfront.

Put up rows of interesting two or three story buildings with street-level shops and apartments above, reminiscent of buildings along the Siuslaw River at the turn of the century when the river was Florence's main thoroughfare, planners advised. And change zoning to allow buildings right up to the sidewalk, like on nearby Bay Street where crowds of summertime tourists already enjoy strolling and window shopping.

"What we've done is we've attempted to connect Old Town and Highway 101 and make the whole area Florence's downtown," Bill Lennertz, a planning team spokesman, told city officials. The renovation is not aimed at Florence's whole length of Highway 101, just the section between Highway 126 and the bridge, with the primary emphasis on the section south of Rhododendron Drive. The idea, Lennertz said, is to give people the feeling they are coming into a town, not just another dismal stretch of coastal commercial property.

Motorists will naturally slow when they feel they have reached "Main Street," Lennertz said. The plan also proposes narrowing the highway by widening the sidewalks and constructing "bulb-out" projections at cross walks to shorten the distance for pedestrians to cross the road. Traffic won't be crowded by the changes, assures City Planner Jim Mulder. "This is by far the widest section of Highway 101 all the way up the coast," he said.

The concept envisions landscaping, old fashioned streetlights and other amenities to make the highway area inviting. Now many of the businesses sit back from the highway and have parking in front, making the expanse of asphalt appear even wider. Some places, such as City Hall and Western Bank, have attractive landscaping. But others have little or none, with narrow sidewalks passing patches of dead grass and dandelions. "You can see very little investment in that section of (the) highway," Mulder said. It's just getting older and older and it doesn't look that good. We want to create an environment where people want to stop, walk, and shop."

Other elements of the plan include:

• Building a park-like "green" to serve as a gateway to the Old Town area just north of City Hall. The green would sit between a planned extension of Second Street and a realignment of Maple Street. A new traffic signal at Second Street would allow vehicles easy access to Old Town.
• Putting in more crosswalks to encourage people from the west side of the highway to walk into the area.
• Offering more parking behind buildings and in the interior of blocks throughout Old Town and the redeveloped highway area.
• Make use of property that the Siuslaw School District will sell due to passage of a bond measure paying for new school buildings. The site across from the Florence Events Center would be a good spot for a hotel, the plan suggests, and the football stadium and bus barn could become a park.
• Encourage motorists to use an alternate route on a couplet that takes them along Quince and Second streets through Old Town.

Joshua Greene, another member of the steering committee, said there is definitely a demand for more downtown businesses to serve tourists and townspeople. With positive leadership from the city, he said, private investors could be encouraged to develop upscale businesses that the downtown area now lacks, gradually transforming it into a year-round tourist destination.

A market survey included in the plan indicates new retail space beyond that of a planned Fred Meyer store north of town could capture an additional $36 million in consumer dollars annually. But how much of the proposed plan becomes reality remains to be seen. City Council and planning commissioner were enthusiastic about some proposals, such as the green and the extension of Second Street to Highway 101.

But one councilor doubted the city could afford to develop a park in the football stadium area and questioned the wisdom of even including it in the plan. "It removes all credibility because that (park) is not going to happen," Councilor Lonnie Iholts said. Even if the plan gets adopted, Iholts said resulting changes likely wouldn't happen in his lifetime. And Mayor Alan Burns remained skeptical that Highway 101 property owners would redevelop their land with Old Town-style buildings. "A lot of things can be done to beautify Highway 101, but I can't visualize buildings moved up to the sidewalk," Burns said.

But Laurence Qamar, the plan's lead consultant, said the retail property can change quickly, especially if it becomes evident that changes will lead to increased profits. "The pattern of retail development will often rejuvenate itself every six to 10 years," he said.

Councilors plan to continue discussions with members of the steering committee. Public hearings and further review by both the planning commission and the City Council are necessary before a final version of the document is adopted and becomes part of the city's comprehensive land use plan, Mulder said. Source: 7/4/99, The Register-Guard, by Larry Bacon.

Homes bordering the 12-mil Burke-Gilman trail in Seattle sold for 6% more than other houses of comparable size, the report says. Land next to green space in Salem, Oregon is worth $1,200 an acre more than land only 1,0000 feet away. River rafting and kayaking generates $50 million for the Colorado economy each year, according to the report. And Atlanta's tree cover has a value of $15 million for improving air quality, the trust said.

"The Oregon experience over the last quarter of a century validates what's in this report," said Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., who attended the report's release. He said Portland's focus on adding parks and improving transportation has fueled the growth of the high-technology industry in the city. The group's report follows a trend among environmental groups. They are pushing the argument that curbing sprawl isn't just good for air quality and saving plant and animal life – it's good for your pocketbook.

The argument flies in the face of past beliefs of many community leaders, who contended that fast growth was the surest way to economic prosperity. The report, "The Economic Benefits of Parks and Open Space," says that in San Francisco, Golden Gate Park increased nearby property values from $500 million to $1 billion, while at the same time generating $5 to $10 million in property taxes.

In Hebron, Conn., farms required 43 cents in municipal services for every dollar they generated in taxes, compared with residential properties that required $1.06 in services.

The report also cites examples of how preserving space has improved cities, such as how a parking garage in downtown Boston was converted into an underground garage covered by a park.

In Chattanooga, Tenn., leaders lured people back to the city by cleaning the air, acquiring open space and constructing parks and trails, the report said. Roy Bernardi, mayor of Syracuse, N.Y. said there is no room left to outwardly expand in his region. "We have to reclaim what we have," he said. "We have plenty of land that we can reclaim in our urban areas." But Bernardi acknowledged there are limits to what cities can do. For instance, cities and counties often lack the money to clean up former industrial land to be used for redevelopment, he said, so the land often lies vacant. Source: 6/24/99 Register Guard, by John Hughes, The Associated Press.