Woodburn Independent Online

HCC and ODOT strike Highway 99E compromise

• By: Rachel Cavanaugh  
• Published: 12/15/2009 10:19:56 AM

HUBBARD — The Hubbard City Council has reached an agreement with the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) to hold a special work session on its Highway 99E upgrade project.
 
The idea of the session, to be held Dec. 15, is to brainstorm ways around the 10-foot right-of-way acquisition, which has largely prevented the project from moving forward.
 
The compromise, which councilors reached at a Dec. 8 meeting, comes after months of disagreement over how to proceed.
 
“(Let’s) see if we can’t find a way to save this project,” said Councilor Bruce Warner.
Warner has been one of the more vocal voices of opposition to the project.
 
One of the biggest issues so far has been that in order to do the needed work, crews must widen the highway by 10 feet. That would cut into homes and businesses in some areas. There has also been concern about trees and shrubbery.
 
Last Tuesday, Warner presented a 20-minute slide show of properties that would be impacted.
 
“You’re going to destroy a whole heck of a lot more landscape than you’re going to be willing to put back in,” said Warner. “You’re going to violate Hubbard city building codes. … You’re going to do more harm than good.
 
“Yes, we’re going to get our ‘pathway,’ but there’s nothing here that you’re proposing to us that we put in for and requested and explicitly said in our grant.
 
“We want to stay a small town. We don’t want to be divided by a five-lane monstrosity.”
“I can’t rightfully say yes to that and still feel I’m doing a service to the residents I represent here,” Warner said.
 
He and other councilors also pointed to the $300,000 cost of the acquisition, which would be about a third of the grant.
 
Another concern among councilors has been that the proposal will leave an open ditch, which had originally been slated to be filled. Warner said the application was targeted to fill in the ditch, put in sidewalks on top and do ground drainage.
 
He said Hubbard residents are “worth more.”
 
Pat Fisher, ODOT Transportation Enhancement Program Manager, said it is largely an issue of cost.
 
The original sidewalk concept, she said, was thought to cost under $1 million; however, once the design team began looking into details of the project, particularly unknown drainage implications, they realized it would cost three to four times that to proceed as planned.
 
“I sense the frustration here and it’s clear that this project is either going to look a lot different than what was originally proposed or cost a lot different than what was originally thought,” said Fisher. “Unfortunately, we can’t have both.”
 
She noted the transportation enhancement  funding specifically targets sidewalks and transports and can’t be used for downhill drainage issues.
 
“It kind of leaves us with this difficult situation, I think,” said Fisher. “We can’t build the sidewalk in the location that was originally envisioned because of cost issues. That leaves you with kind of a balancing act.”
 
No solutions are still on the table for the open ditch. The hope for the Tuesday work session is to find a way to mitigate the impact of the street widening specifically, particularly in single-family dwellings.
 
One idea put out was to only widen it by 5 feet in certain areas. There was also discussion of wandering the sidewalk in some spots to accommodate a narrower space.
 
It is unclear if any of those would be feasible or would comply with state standards.
 
However, the session marks the first time council and ODOT have been willing to discuss a compromise. If the work team is able to come up with any alternatives, property owners will then be invited to join at the end of the session.
 
If the project does not move forward, there is a potential the city could be liable to repay about $60,000 in design costs. Fisher said cities can be responsible if they invest in federal money for design and don’t proceed, if the project is feasible. However, she said they could request a waiver.
 
All four councilors, as well as Mayor James Yonally, expressed interest in finding a way to move forward.

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