A local timber company says it would drop its objections to the proposed Northgate retail/commercial center next-door if the developers elevated the highway and committed $5 million toward enclosing plants that currently emit noise and dust.
"We're not opposed to development," said Erik Vos, business analyst for Timber Products. "We just want to make sure we're not having to pay."
Timber Products, which plans to voice opposition to a change in the city's zoning policy Thursday, recently filed a land-use appeal related to the 84-acre development with the state. Fear of traffic problems and dust and noise complaints top its list of concerns.
The Medford City Council will hold a public hearing on a change to the Comprehensive Plan allowing a zoning change for the Northgate project at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Council Chambers, City Hall, 411 W. Eighth St., Medford. It's the third public hearing on changing city policies to allow Northgate to be built.
The shopping/office/light industrial development, proposed for the former site of the Medco lumber mill complex near Highway 238, would take about 10 years to build. Two wood products manufacturers adjacent to the land have asked the city to reject it. Representatives for Timber Products and SierraPine say open-air boutiques and restaurants are not compatible with their existing manufacturing activities, which generate noise, dust, fumes, truck traffic and round-the-clock activity.
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Vos said the report doesn't distinguish between different qualities of industrially zoned lands, such as one 50-acre industrial parcel having more value than 50 one-acre parcels.
"We believe they're adopting a flawed report," he said.
The Planning Commission in October approved the rezoning of the Northgate parcel from industrial to commercial, pending the upcoming council decision about amending the comprehensive plan.
Mike Montero, a consultant for Northgate and chairman of the Rogue Valley Area Commission on Transportation, said he wasn't able to comment on what the developers would or would not pay for to mitigate impacts to Timber Products. However, he said mills are next to residential and commercial developments all across the country. He said Northgate will include in all its lease agreements that there can be no frivolous lawsuits against the mills.
"So long as Timber Products and SierraPine are operating within their permits it would be a baseless suit," he said. He said he wasn't sure how real the fear is that the new neighbors would complain.
"I'm sure Erik Vos has his opinion based on something and I'm not sure what that something is," he said.
Vos said as proposed, the project will impede traffic flow for the hundreds of 18-wheelers that use Highway 238 daily on their way to Timber Products, SierraPine and Gordon Trucking, all located in the same neighborhood.
But Montero disagreed.
"Northgate's traffic engineer's analysis deemed that it would, in fact, meet all of the standards," he said, adding that the Oregon Department of Transportation, Medford Public Works Department and an outside consultant of public works concurred.
"If his professional engineering qualifications are greater than (those agencies), then he's certainly entitled to his opinion," he said.
Montero said the goal is for Northgate to be a good neighbor to the industrial businesses.
"Not only do we not bear any ill will," he said, "we have no desire to see them go anywhere."
Vos said people aren't going to be shopping in the retail center and look over to admire two large industrial plants.
"You don't look at them and go, 'Wow, those are cool looking,' " he said. "It's not eye candy."
If the council approves the change to the Comprehensive Plan Thursday, the next step will be for the developer to submit a master plan to the Site Plan and Architectural Commission in a public hearing.
Reach reporter Meg Landers at 776-4481 or e-mail mlanders@mailtribune.com.
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