Archive
Subscribe
Weather
 |
|
 |
University will
utilize Kim case to stress security to students
A unique perspective on China and
its people
| LID
battle in the making |
A chasm widens between the city of Newberg and anti-LID
advocates |
By Heidi Aubrey, Newberg Graphic
intern
E-mail Heidi at haubrey@eaglenewspapers.com
|
Joe Brugato has two
conditions. If the city of Newberg meets them, he said he’ll halt his efforts to get
two measures on a ballot that would revoke aspects of the city’s authority to require
homeowners to help pay for local improvements.
These measures — one to repeal the city’s ordinance on local
improvement districts (LIDs), the other to amend the city charter to altogether revoke the
city’s authority to make such ordinances — are a means to an end, Brugato has
said.
Brugato wants the city to relieve 29 property owners of the costs of road
improvements near their lots — a one-block expansion of Mountainview Drive and a
two-block stretch of improvements on one side of Crater Lane.
The homeowners in two neighborhoods, Trinity Meadows and Prospect Park,
near the intersection of Main Street and Mountainview, each face costs of anywhere from
$4,000 to $17,000 each for improvements. St. Peter Catholic Church faces a possible
$150,000 assessment. The city said these initial estimates are high.
Brugato’s first condition would be for the city to remove the
non-remonstrance agreements from the deeds of these property owners. A non-remonstrance
agreement, in its most basic form, states that a homeowner won’t object to paying for
future improvements.
In his second condition, Brugato wants a statement from the city saying
it won’t exercise a certain clause in its LID ordinance when it comes to these two
neighborhoods. This clause is essentially a veto for the city. If a group of citizens
tries setting up an LID and fails to get 60 percent of the affected neighbors to accept
its terms, the city can step in after six months and mandate that citizens comply with the
LID.
“They need a resolution to do both of these things and then I withdraw
both of the initiatives,” Brugato said Friday morning.
These conditions Brugato will present to the Newberg City Council at its 7
p.m. Monday meeting at the Public Safety Building.
But at least one city councilor said the council will probably not go along
with the conditions.
Councilor Robert Soppe — adding the proviso that he doesn’t make up
his mind until the final vote is called for — said the issue, as he understands it at
this time, is “pretty simple”: The neighbors agreed to the improvements when
they bought the property and now it’s too late to raise arguments.
“I think it would be irresponsible to the other citizens of Newberg to
agree to those conditions,” he said.
Many residents of Prospect Park and Trinity Meadows are expected to attend
Monday evening’s council meeting.
Project may move forward
Possibly giving the neighbors a sense of urgency, the council that night will
consider taking another step in the formation of the LID to improve Mountainview Road and
Crater Lane. On the agenda is a resolution to direct city engineers to prepare a report
assessing the costs of the project.
Brugato, not a resident of either of the neighborhoods in question but a
member of the church, said he will take the city to court if the city moves forward with
the project. He will ask the court to place an injunction on the project until his
measures reach a ballot.
City Attorney Terry Mahr said Brugato’s argument to the court may
not hold water.
“I don’t think there’s any basis to do that,” Mahr said,
“but ... that’s what he said he’s going to do.”
The city has scheduled an executive session at the Monday meeting to discuss
the possible litigation.
Neighbors’ opinions
A brief walk around Trinity Meadows and Prospect Park on Thursday evening
found a few lights still burning, as well as a few views about the pending improvements.
Cindy Gibson has lived in Prospect Park since her house was built about 10
years ago. Her household, on a cul-de-sac off Main Street, is on the low end of estimated
assessments for the improvements, at nearly $5,000.
“I am outraged at the amount of money they’re going to charge
us,” she said. “When we bought this house 10 years ago we had no idea it would
be of this magnitude.” The dollar amount she recalled hearing then was $2,500.
Sally Strong said the developer, a friend of hers, gave her a discount on the
lot because of upcoming street improvements. Her house is also a part of Prospect Park,
but separate from the cul-de-sac, with a driveway that enters onto Crater Lane. Her
household is at the high end of the estimated assessments for road improvements at more
than $17,000.
She said it was her “fair share” to help pay for improvements in
front of her house, but she didn’t see the benefit in the extension of Mountainview
Drive and would rather not pay for it.
“I feel it’s being put in for the homes being put in across the
street,” she said.
Russ Kosters built his house on the corner of Main and Mountainview. He
said he’s worked at all ends of the development process, working in the trenches as a
plumber and behind the scenes as a project manager, a position he currently holds with MSI
Mechanical Systems. So he knew what it meant when he received the letter from the city
notifying its intent to form the LID.
He gave two main reasons why the proposed LID shouldn’t be formed. For
one, the city is abusing the non-remonstrance clause in the deeds of Trinity Meadows
owners, he said.
He provided copies of the non-remonstrance agreements of the two
neighborhoods and pointed to their differences. The one for Prospect Park says
specifically that neighbors won’t object to paying for the Mountainview extension.
The one for Trinity Meadows says only that neighbors won’t object to improvements,
and nothing specifically about paying for them.
His argument, then, is that the city, in proposing this LID, is asking the
Trinity Meadows neighbors to make a payment to which they did not agree.
Kosters also takes issue with one of the city’s arguments for
forming the LID, that those who benefit from the improvements should pay for them. Kosters
noted a point Mayor Bob Stewart made in a guest editorial last Saturday in this newspaper
— that when Mountainview Drive is finished and extends from Springbrook Road to
Chehalem Drive, it “will benefit every resident, business and visitor to
Newberg.”
Stewart was out of the office until next week, according to his answering
machine.
Koskers added that the city’s LID ordinance says “all” who
benefit from improvements are to pay. “It doesn’t say ‘some,’” he
said. “It doesn’t say ‘part.’”
|
|
From Aug. 14,
2004, Newberg Graphic
Click Here to Subscribe |
|
|
|
 |
|
