The Sweet Home City Council approved, last week, the concept of creating a state scenic byway through Sweet Home.
The scenic byway would start at the junction of Highway 228 and Interstate 5 and go through Brownsville and Sweet Home to the junction of Highway 20 and Highway 126.
The council raised some concerns about the idea, but went along with it in concept.
Councilman Jim Gourley was concerned about stories that come out of the Columbia River Gorge concerning land use restrictions. The council wanted to learn more about the possible effects of the designation.
“This is a community effort,” U.S. Forest Service Sweet Home Ranger District spokeswoman Joanne West said. “If it’s not, we don’t want to do it.”
West is primarily involved as a facilitator for the process.
The designation comes with no land use restrictions. A single restriction prevents off-site signs for businesses. The City of Sweet Home already prohibits off-site signs farther than a quarter mile away from a business. Existing off-site signs would be grandfathered.
In Oregon, the scenic byway would join four others in the state in addition to six state tour routes, five national scenic byways and three all-American roads, which is the highest designation.
The byway would be called the “Calapooia/South Santiam Corridor” following a process that can take up to two years.
West and others involved in the project have met with members of the communities of Sweet Home Brownsville and captured their ideas and concerns.
The next step in the process is to prepare a pre-application with letters of support from the road managers, which are Oregon Department of Transportation and Forest Service.
The Scenic Byway Oversight Committee will travel the proposed route following the pre-application then decide whether the route is eligible.
If eligible, the community will need to develop a corridor plan, which will involved community meetings allowing everyone who lives along the corridor to participate.
After that plan is complete, it is sent to the committee, which will decide whether the route should be designated a state scenic byway.
The route would provide I-5 travelers with an east-west scenic route to the existing McKenzie/Santiam Pass and West Cascades scenic byways and the Quartzville Back County Byway, West said. The route “would provide a means to recognize the unique features of the South Santiam Corridor, such as Native American use and historic settlement, old-growth forests, wildflowers and Old Cascades geology.”
The byway comes with a marketing plan and brochures, providing an opportunity to make partnerships and promote tourism, West said. It also will make areas within the corridor more competitive in seeking grants.
West recently applied for a grant where Sweet Home was named an alternate. Had it had the scenic byway designation, it would have won the grant.
The route begins through Brownsville to tie a history theme together along the route, West said. “For the public land portion of it, we already have an interpretive plan in place.”
The plan focuses on the history of the area, which parallels the Old Santiam Wagon Road, which is known as the only route developed west to east during the settlement of the West.
Cascadian architecture, which includes large logs, such as that used by the Civilian Conservation Corps and visible at Longbow Campground, will be featured at interpretative points and fit with the McKenzie Pass theme.
“What’s neat about this byway, too, that makes it unique” are limitations that already exist on vehicle weight and length, West said. Other byways are wider, more open, while Highway 20 is narrower with trees overhanging the roadway, “so it’s a very intimate feel.”