Downtown Medford Faces New Threat
By MARK KIRCHMEIER
Correspondent, the Oregonian

    MEDFORD--Some time next spring, construction will begin on a $40 million regional shopping center in Medford that some feel could be the death knell for the city's downtown business district.
    Mayor Al Densmore is hoping to avert that with a renewal project to revitalize the downtown, before the new Rogue Valley Mall is completed by September 1980.
    "For nearly 10 years businesses have been leaving the downtown, and the new regional shopping center (to be built near the city's northern Interstate 5 intersection, two miles away) will further aggravate this problem," he said.
    In May, the City Council approved the 50-acre mall project, sponsored by Northwest Commercial Inc. after a one-year battle between Northwest and rival developer Ernst W. Hahn Inc. for rights to build the regional center. The Rogue Mall will include four major department stores and more than 100 smaller stores and specialty businesses.
    The council rejected Hahn's plan for a $60 million, 70-acre development near the Medford-Jackson County airport. As mayor, Densmore was unable to vote on either development, as he can only vote in cases of a council tie. Nevertheless, he publicly opposed both developments.
    Densmore said a city planning office study predicted the Rogue Valley Mall will draw 20,000 vehicle trips daily by 1980. The figures, though imprecise, show that most of these shoppers will be siphoned from downtown Medford, rather than being new customers attracted from Grants Pass, Klamath Falls or other Southern Oregon cities, he said.
    "With a growing number of vacant store fronts, and our two biggest stores, JCPenney and Montgomery Ward, threatening to relocate in the mall, our downtown renewal must begin immediately," he said.
    Ironically, Densmore believes the Rogue Valley Mall may have been just the catalyst needed to finally spark a genuine revitalization after years of talk.
    In 1972, city voters rejected a $30 million, 35-acre enclosed downtown mall by a 5-4 ratio. The city would have contributed $4 million to the project, with businesses paying the rest. Since then, downtown renewal efforts have lain fallow as the council has concentrated on attracting a regional shopping center.
    And now, Densmore believes, since the council's success in attracting Northwest Commercial Inc., the time is right to shift attention to the deteriorating downtown core.
    The city council Aug. 4 approved a 15-step renewal plan prepared by Densmore with $3 million to $5 million in public expenditures, and "much more than that in private capital," he said.
    "The key part of this plan is simply to get more people to live downtown. If we can get people into apartments, lofts in commercial buildings, and other types of urban housing, we can keep the area live and vital at night, instead of just from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.," Densmore said.
    Densmore's hopes for luring downtown residents will lie heavily on the city's success in obtaining federal housing and urban development grants. Additional downtown stimulation will come from rezoning non-residential areas and encouraging private apartment investments.
    A second principal goal is eliminating many of the city's chronic traffic congestion problems by rerouting vehicles off Central Avenue to Front Street. Additionally, a parking study recommended construction of a 4-story over-park, Densmore said. The structure would be the city's first multiple-story parking facility.
    Densmore also hopes to get the Rogue Valley Transportation District to increase its downtown bus runs, and to help link the core with other commercial and activity centers.
    Monte Stamper, City Council president and a leader in opposing the 1972 renewal project, is enthusiastic about Densmore's concept.
    "I think it's an excellent idea, desperately needed," he said.
    Stamper in particular cited the importance of improving traffic access to the downtown, saying, "Right now, things are so bad on our arterial feeder streets that we have no problems--just crises. I hope the Front Street rerouting can finally begin correcting this for shoppers."
    Densmore, who proposed the project after consulting with other officials, including Portland Mayor Neil Goldschmidt and President Carter, said, "The face of downtown Medford is changing, but it's a change we can adapt to. We're not likely to get another major department store to locate here, but we can revitalize in a different direction. And that direction is to encourage the trend toward professional, smaller stores and specialty shops, making it attractive for them to relocate in downtown cores like Medford's."
Oregonian, Portland, August 20, 1978, page 100


    The Land Conservation and Development Commission ended a long-standing Southern Oregon land-use dispute Friday by placing 650 acres inside Medford's urban growth boundary over the objections of timber interests that own much of the land.
    The city of Medford originally did not want the land, which is adjacent to the city limits, inside its growth boundary. Then Oregon Fair Share, a consumer protection group, said the land should be inside the boundary to ensure that the industrial owners pay their share of property taxes for urban services.
    The city council reversed its position and voted to include the lands. Meanwhile, the Jackson County Commission voted to exclude the 650 acres from the county's growth boundary.
    The effect was to exclude the land from the city's growth boundary as well.
    The two governments asked the LCDC to arbitrate the matter. The LCDC vote to include the land in the city's growth boundary was unanimous.
    The commission staff said the land is contiguous to the city and developed for industrial uses and provided with an urban level of services. "The nature and location of these parcels makes them urban lands as defined by the statewide goals and thus are part of the Medford urban area," the staff said.
    Most of the land in question is owned by Boise Cascade Corp., Medford Corp., Timber Products Co. and KOGAP, all lumber firms.
    "We are being regulated from all directions. By putting us in the urban growth boundary you are just adding more regulations on our shoulders," pleaded a Medford Corp. attorney.
Oregonian, Portland, October 21, 1978, page 32