Kelly Kenoyer
The City Council decided last week to move forward on a contract for a downtown streetscape and parking plan for Sweet Home.
“The intent behind this is that we want to make our downtown a much more pleasant place to be,” Community and Economic Development Director Blair Larsen told councilors at the Jan. 12 meeting. “A place that is comfortable for pedestrians, for visitors, for residents.”
This streetscape plan will include details about landscaping, benches and other street furniture, and other improvements intended to drive foot traffic, and therefore bring in more businesses.
“If you build it, they will come,” Larsen said.
Money for the streetscape plan will also come from the Economic Development Fund. The base cost for a plan with the chosen contractor, Dougherty Landscape Associates of Eugene, is $33,220. There are also optional services which could add a cost of up to $42,235, Larsen said, and he suggested the council move forward to approve the optional services as well.
Those services include a parking study, a cost analysis, civil engineering analysis, and street lighting consultation. Larsen said Dougherty has worked with several other towns that have state highways running through them, so the firm is experienced with the limitations that come with operating under the jurisdiction of ODOT, which is a challenge for Sweet Home in any improvements to Main Street.
“Part of their job is to craft a plan that is viable, that is not a pie-in-the-sky dream,” Larsen said.
Councilors initially seemed a bit skeptical of the plan, stating that they had seen similar plans in the past and they never culminated in any projects. But Larsen said prior plans have all been ideas, not concrete designs.
“You want a vision for your overall downtown. Regardless of how long it takes to get there, when you get to the point where you want to expand beyond the one spot you’ve finished, you have a plan that fits in with what you’ve already done,” Larsen said. “It can save you a lot in the long run because otherwise you’re looking at redoing work.”
Gerson asked whether the additional services are necessary, since they more than double the cost of the plan.
Larsen said he thought the optional services were important, particularly because the public has been so vocal about parking in downtown Sweet Home.
“I firmly believe in committing to a goal, and that good things come for those who plan for it,” Larsen said.
Public Works Director Greg Springman agreed that a plan is important, partially because it could help open up funding mechanisms and grants to the city that wouldn’t be available without a plan or a public process. This plan would allow a project to be “handed off” to an architect, Larsen added.
Public Works will likely be in charge of maintenance of any landscaping that goes in, in addition to the Beautification Committee, Larsen said.
Towry added that the plan would go through a “public input process,” and that the council would ultimately review and adopt the plan.
Councilors expressed other concerns, from public benches being misused to limited parking hurting downtown businesses. But ultimately, the council voted unanimously to hire the contractor to pull together a plan, including with the optional services. The total cost of the plan will be $75,455.
Finally, a vacant building ordinance received its third and final reading and passed with six votes in favor, Diane Gerson voting alone in opposition.
The ordinance requires general upkeep on vacant buildings in commercial and industrial zones and imposes penalties on vacant buildings that fall into disrepair.
The ordinance requires the owner to have a local agent who is in charge of the welfare of a vacant building, to keep the premises free of weeds, dead vegetation, graffiti, and trash. It also requires regular lawn and plant care, that fences and gates be in sound condition and good repair, as well as foundations, basements, cellars, and crawl spaces remaining in sound and watertight condition. Exterior walls are required to be free of holes, and exterior windows and doors must be in sound and lockable condition, with no broken glass.
There is some bite to these requirements: Property owners who do not fix problems and maintain their buildings could be subject to fines up to $500 per day, depending on what a judge decides.
“The intent is not to punish someone for having an empty building,” Larsen said at a previous council discussion. “There clearly is a need to have some basic care put into these buildings.”
The ordinance will go into effect 30 days after passage, meaning it will be effective on Feb. 11.