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Home My WebLink AboutMiscellaneous Miscellaneous 1/14/2008 0 W I > 00 11 = - = w C',J """ - () ::z: <( -, w ~ . . 0:. ~ a:l I "';..' .-:"," BIG MEN, BIG FEAT Oregon tops ranked Stanford despite a size disadvantage. Sports-, Dl S11lUMMING TO A NEW TUNE You don't have to be a kid to learn to piay a musical instrument. Personal Life, 81 [bt J1Itgisttr-~uarh EUGENE, OREGON MONDAY, JA..'lUARY 14, 2008 50 CENTS' Springfieli' caught in a street fight Mixed signals: Developer says city should pay for a roundabout in big Marcola Road project By J"-CK MORAN The Register-Guard lust large:-scale mixed-use project, The ambitious plan calls for building homes, shops and a LOwe's home improvement center on a lOO-acre parcel in north Springfield. Representatives for Belle, president of JHB Inc. International of Reno, Nev., now say it's unfair for city officials to require the com. pany, as part of its project, to build a round. about on Marcola Road and pay for other street improvements aiID.ed at protecting neighboring residents. Belle's hope.is that the City Council on Jan. 28 will uphold his appeal and permit him to install traffic signals, instead of a roundabout, SPRINGF1ELD - Getting a green light from the city to launch a major project hasn't satis- fied Nevada developer Jeff Belle. Springfield officials find that surprising, in light of the fact that just last month, a Belle representative publicly indicated acceptance of a compromise between the developer and the city for street upgrades along Marcola Road. But Belle dropped a'bombshell on the city last week when he took the unusual step of formally asking the City Council to review a December planning commission ruling that allows construction to begin on Springfield's Please tum to APPEAL, Page A7 Curb appeal: Residents say road will carve up yards Development dispute The City Council will decide whether to uphold the planning commission's approval ofa development plan mr the Villages at Marcola Meadows mixed-use projects. . \ :;Springfield 'I'~ ~;;; ""'"" I !,""'-''''~ " ! ~ SPRINGF1ELD - Most people have heard of the NIMBY (not in my backyard) principle,. which is some- times applied to describe neighborhood land use dis- putes. But the objections of several Marcola Road residents to the Villages at Marcola Meadows development plan rep- resents something a tad different. It's more lUte NIMFY, because it's their front yards that are of concern, Springfield officials want Marcola Meadows' developer, Jeff Belle, to pay for cunstruction of a street that fronts nearly twO dozen homes located along the south side of MarcolaRoad. The idea is to make it easier for existing neighbor- hood resid,::nts to safely a(:cess then: properties with- Please tum to NEIGHBORS, Page A7 STI!PIU.NIE BMRow/The &gist~r-Guard Sheldon's leprechaun mascot exudes optimism and determination despite disabilities :~:\, 1IE,i'_:ir. Spending . dip fuels . receSSIon .. womes Consumer spending has begun to slow sharply.a.t every level of the economy -.-, --,,~, writing tor DIS Dealtn ClaSS. -l-Ol'a~ll:l uu "'" .....~_.<> --- - -- --- about him every day." way Niles speaks of him on the base- Many of Childers' connections at ball team. Sheldon 'have come through the ath- While Williams said Childers has Ietics program _ and not just as an made tremendous progress in the past observer from the sidelines. Thanks twO years, he has yet to win a match to extensive physical therapy and - a fact that hasn't deterred him in sheer will, by ninth grade Childers the least. ~ad abandoned his brace, walker and He, loves the competition and even cru~cheS and was walking without the physical violence of the sport. assistance. He's taken numerous hard falls and OI1€ day during his junior year, has had his lip busted open and his he saw a buddy from the Life Skills nose bloodied, but he's always ready to program in the hallway and asked jump back into the fray. him where he was going. ~He said, ~I sprained (my shoulder) three 'I'm going to wrestling,' and I was times last season. It was awesome. A like, 'Where do I sign up?'" Childers true warrior," he said with a grin. recalled. Childers' first sports were swim- Now in his second year on the ming and tae kwon do, which his team, the 5-foot-tall Childers is devoted late mother, Carol Childers, encour- to the sport, attending grueling two- aged him to try. After her death, her hour practices. five days a week and longtime friends, Bonnie and Ken- competing in tournaments, usually in neth Teeman, became legal guardians the 125--pound class but occasionally - for him and his IB--year.old autistic . she ca;;;-out to the car, Childers was sobbing. She asked what was wrong. "He said, 'That movie reminded me so much of my mom _'she never gave up on anything,'" Teeman recalled. Childers has the same quality in spades, she said. "I think he got that from Carol." she said, noting that his mother, too, overcame adversity, including her own debilitating spina bulda and' the death of another child in a car accident:" - Niles said he has' learned never to doubt Childers when he says he's going to do something. This past fall, for instance, the boy decided he wanted to join the choir on- a week- long trip to Ireland. First, he would have to raise $2,700, which he planned ~o do through a variety of nickel-aod-dime fundraisers. ~I didn't take it seriously," Niles said. Lawsotr1)lllle.."'''........ ~..-:--~~--~-... and social skills will contInue to serve him well. He noted that Childers is part of the student leadership class, and lost a bid for student body vice president .by just a single vote. "He's very high-functioning, he can really express himSelf well," he said. ~From my perspective, he's done incredible work in bridging that gap -_between our program arid' mainstream' . students: helping (Life Skills) students not feel so excluded." Childers hopes to attend Lane Comn1.unity College, with the goal of becoming a personal trainer. Niles said so long ashe's given a fair opportu- nity, ~the sky's the limit." "I don't MOW what he cannot do," Niles said. "Every time I've ever thought there's no possible way in the world, he's proved me wrong." . Appeal: City contends developer agreed toits conditions Continued from Page Al at the main entrance to his pro- posed Villages at Marcola Mead- ows development.' Belle also wants the city to pay for a frontage road that offi. cials say he must build to serve the existing adjacent neigh- borhood; and promise that he won't De required to construCt a second roundabout near the Lowe's entrance. "The main reason we appeiued was to get some clar- ification for what traffic control could be there, how much prop" erty it would require and who bears the cost," Eugene attor- ney Jim Spickerman said. City officials say they were caught off guard by the com- plaint. That's primarilY because another Belle repres!i!ntative, Eugene land use consultaiit Rick Satre, told the plaiming commission last month that Belle would agree to the city's requested road upgrades, as long as no developable prop- erty was affected by the con- struction, and there was no chance that a second round- about would have to be installed in a few years. Satre ~conceptuallY agreed to the condition at that public hearing," city planner Gary Karp said. BRlAND."'lul'TheR.gister-GlIaro' Wesley Swanger describes where a road may be cut on property off Marcola Road in Springfield where a Lowe's store is proposed. Joining him are neighbors (from left) Adrian Campos, Elizabith Sanchez, Rafael Campos, Nick Shevchynski,]eannee Beauchaine and Donna Lentz. "We're already on record saying that we're going to work with. them on the project and lessen the impact on them. But for whatever reason, they still decided to appeal." While a formal response to the appeal has not yet been drafted, Springfield officials are expected to stick to their Olig- inal position and recommend that the Marcola Meadows plan not be approved unless the road-related conditions remain intact. Spickerman acknowledged that risk. "There's always a concern about not wanting to alien- ate staff," 'he said. ~They've worked with us all along, We just believe that there are a lot of issues here, and not all of them have been clarified." Satre stressed that Belle's group has no interest in making enemies at City Hall. "We view this as a friendly appeal," he said. ~We're not mad, or angry. We fully respect Springfield staff. We merely have a disagreement and want more certainty about what this condition rea1lymeans." Spickerman's Written appeal statement rued on behalf of Belle mentions that the devel- oper could install two signal- controlled intersections on Marcola Road for $500,000. But construction of a round- about and parallel frontage road that allows existing residents to safely access their proper. ties without turning in front of vehicles accessing the Marcola Meadows development would cost about $2.5 milion. The road improvements would require one-half to 2 acres of ,property, Spickerman' wrote. According to the Mar- cola Meadows plan, the 171,ooo.square-foot Lowe's store would sit adjacent to a dense neighborhood filled with more than 500 homes and apartments, park space and various retail and commercial outlets. Belle's company purchased the 100-acre property from the local Pierce family in 2006 for $8 million. Neighbors: Residents want access road located across street Continued from Page A1 out turning in front of vehicles entering or exiting Marcola Meadows, a mixed-use project planned to cover 100 acres on Mar- __,_ D_n-"'c ~nrth ~;rl" idents have landscaped the streetside area, essentially. making it part of their front yards_ . Six neighborhood residents, includ- ing three who live on Marcola Road, have fIled individual appeals of the city ~l~~ should do it on the north side." Fellow Man:ola Road resident Nancy Falk agreed. "We're being punished and pushed around for another developer, and iI's not right," Falk said, adding that a frontage __~-' _._..,-" ~.,!.... h.... f_l ~fpn"~ in." Massive blaze guts Calcutta bazaar THE AssOCIATED PRRsS "C-tlemen~t-jusEthe:UllHU- thorned outposts, to tii illegal encroachment on their land. In February 2006, - just weeks after taking office,' Dlmert sent police to tear down . nine unauthorized homes in the Amona out- post, sparking violent c~sh~s with settlers. In the two years i, siricii;' he fulstaken no'serious' 1 '. action against outposts. At a news conference last week in Jerusalem with Olmert, Bush said, ~Look, I mean, we've been talking about it for four years. The agreement was, 'Get rid of outposts, illegal outposts,' and they ought to go." In his speech Sunday, Abbas said; "We told Pres- ident Bush that we Can't move ahead in negotiations while settlement activities are going. on. "We' can't have negotia: lions while they are building houses all over." -. CALCUTTA, India - A huge fIre that has gutted much oLa central market in Calcutta raged for a second day Sunday, destroying the livelihoods of 7,000 people and sparking fears it could bring down a 13-story building,offi- cials said. The fIre, which began earlySaturday,enguIfedmore than 2,500 makeshift stalls and. shops in the Burraba- 'zar marketplace, the largest in eastern India. On Sunday, soldiers' and firefIghters tried to extingUish the blaze, . Aft: 5 -;m.:-;;'nly'i: o:iou:;e you c:: 9"; o'';--~ Et~';';,,~,i.-:, - horsd'oeuvres,SCllads,.andWiche$Or1i9'lldinnenfTomtheloungoo menuandg...iiw_ondafequ...lorlesserv<:t!u..... I ......... ....M....... ......................... ,,_. 1i:!:J~~Iol.!~.-iII I