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City council affords LID foes no quarter |
Joe Brugato a new initiative petition
to make abolition of LID retroactive to July 1, 2004 |
By Gunnar
Olson, Newberg Graphic reporter
E-mail Gunnar at
golson@eaglenewspapers.com
|
The opposition to the Mountainview Road and Crater Lane local
improvement district (LID) and its de facto leader, Joe Brugato,
reverted to “Plan B” Monday night — making his LID initiative
petition retroactive.
The large turnout of the affected homeowners from Trinity Meadows
and Prospect Park who attended the Newberg City Council meeting
Monday failed to net what the neighbors had hoped — a postponement
of a resolution calling for an engineering report. That’s an early
step toward forming the LID that would assess these neighborhoods —
with 28 households and St. Peter Catholic Church — for an extension
of Mountainview Road one block west of Main Street and for
half-street improvements on two blocks of Crater Lane.
After about 30 minutes of testimony from the neighbors, the council
deliberated for five minutes before unanimously passing the
resolution to begin the engineer’s report. But the council views the
engineer’s report as getting the ball rolling on the LID, not a full
commitment to it.
“It doesn’t necessarily discuss who’s paying for what,” said
Councilor Robert Soppe.
Councilor Bob Andrews said he supported going forward with the
engineer’s report on the condition it include multiple methods for
funding. It was one of the several instances in which the council
seemed to say it was willing to hear the neighbors’ concerns, but
that going forward with the report wouldn’t hinder that process.
Council President Bob Larson made a point of saying there will be
public hearings before the LID would be formed.
“Plan B”
The move by the council nevertheless prompted the opposition to
make its own move. “Plan B,” as Brugato called it, is basically an
adaptation of the original plan.
Brugato’s initial attempt at helping the neighborhoods in the
proposed LID was to ask the voters to abolish LIDs in Newberg.
Brugato, a member of the church located within the proposed LID,
filed two initiative petitions — one to repeal the city’s LID
ordinance, the other to amend the city charter to altogether revoke
the city’s authority to adopt such ordinances.
But the soonest Brugato could get the measures on the ballot —
after collecting signatures and having them validated — is March
2005. Brugato has been trying to get the measures on the November
ballot, figuring that would be sufficiently early to prevent the LID
from being formed.
When the city council declined to do as Brugato asked and use its
authority to put the measures on the November ballot, Brugato moved
to “Plan B.” He filed a new initiative petition, replacing the
initial petition for the repeal to the city’s LID ordinance with one
that’s nearly the same, but with a new section that would make it
retroactive to LIDs formed on or before July 1, 2004. The city will
review the initiative petition this week.
Neighbors speak
The city councilors had the chance Monday night to hear the reasons
the neighbors think the proposed LID is unfair.
Russ Kosters of Trinity Meadows said the LID draws the boundary too
tightly, and that the city should consider opening it up to include
more people.
Brugato, the last to speak, read from a prepared statement: “The
homeowners here have expressed their hurt and sense of betrayal at
the way the city has treated them. I share that feeling. It pains me
to see that my local government has been so unfair to its citizens
... .”
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From Aug. 18,
2004, Newberg Graphic
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