By Scott Unger • Of the News-Register • 

McMinnville City Council approves large new development

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Comments

BigfootLives

That sounds great! $4,350,000 loan from the wastewater capital fund. It's a shame the brain trust didn't think of this when they overspent the budget by $1.8 million, and they decided after deep thought and head-scratching that the only way out was to stick us with a fee (tax) on our water and light bill that would raise $2.1 million a year, year after year.

And I hope these 'city documents' that assure us that wastewater won't need the extra $4 million aren't kept in the same filing cabinet as the documents that got us caught with an extra $167,000 annual admin fee from Bonneville for the new lifetime fee (tax) to fix a one-year budget problem.

With as much b**l s**t they are trying to flush downtown, what could possibly go wrong?

PAO

It's quite noble of Mayor Drabkin to support the developer by refusing to "change horses in the middle of the race." Apparently, it's fine to change horses on the residents. Both Councilors Garvin and Geary completely ignored the agreement the council made to limit any development on that land to two stories. If the council had followed the ordinance they enacted a few months ago, the amount of parking wouldn't be an issue. In this area alone, the planning department and the council have changed their horses at least 5 times in favor of developers and at the cost of residents.
The traffic decision was made based on a traffic study that was done June 15th. Any traffic study done during the school year shows significantly higher volume on Baker Creek. Instead, the council made their decision based on conditions that exist only 25% of the time. Once again, a favorable call for the developers and the residents will have to pay with their time and frustration, then they'll get to pay for the traffic light.
Councilor Payne made an attempt to protect the hazelnut orchard but clearly hasn't visited the site to see that trees have already been planted. Also, the wind in that area frequently comes from the west. The orchard is west of the development so I expect complaints to be filed against the orchard owner for dust and chemical impacts since the developers have not been required to provide any buffering.
Finally, no one seemed to be concerned that the parking lot has direct access the Baker Creek Road, just to the west of the power station. There is a cross road just to the east of the power station. I expect that residents will use the parking lot access to Baker Creek making the road access more congested.
If the plan had been flipped east/west, road access issues and farmland issues would be minimized.
I am disappointed with every councilor for how the entire development has been handled. I hope we have better choices next election.

Bill B

I voted for both Garvin and Geary which I now regret. They have been a huge disappointment. Honestly, I don't think I've agreed with any of their decisions.

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