NEWBERG, Ore. — After four months of meetings, the Newberg River Street Ad Hoc Committee presented its support for the “Talt Plan” and additional recommendations to the City Council on Sept. 21, through Councilor Jeri Turgesen, the committee’s chair.
Councilors voted unanimously to direct City Manager Will Worthey to begin a request for proposals using the committee’s recommended design options, once the project’s finance package is verified, and to bring a draft of the RFP’s scope of work back to the council’s Oct. 19 meeting.
Community-supported journalism
This article was made possible by the generous support of Newsberg readers and advertisers. Independent local news takes real resources to produce. If Newsberg is valuable to you, please consider joining us — for as little as $1 a month, or with a one-time gift in any amount.
Turgesen presented the ad hoc committee’s recommendations, including the Talt Plan street design, a request that raised, concrete intersections be considered — particularly at Ninth and River Street — and a commitment to prioritize the 58-foot road width.
“We are still kind of at this 30,000-foot view, so to speak, and that is one of the things that I think is really important for us to all keep in mind as part of this process,” Turgesen said.
According to prior Newsberg reporting, the Talt Plan calls for a 22- to 24-foot roadway with two travel lanes, bike lanes at least 5 feet wide on each side, a 6-foot planter strip that also serves as a stormwater facility, and 5-foot sidewalks. A roll plot presented to the committee in July showed the corridor extending from Third Street to 11th Street.
A concept for a raised, concrete intersection at Ninth and River Street, presented to the committee by Keller Associates, emerged after a survey found that state-mandated, ADA-compliant ramps there could encroach on adjacent properties because of existing power lines and other constraints.
Turgesen said ideas presented by consulting engineers could provide alternate solutions.
“There was some creative thought process that the engineers had about perhaps angling the ramps in a different way or the raised intersections could be a maybe — they had a couple options they were looking at — because there is a very large power pole right at the corner [of Ninth and River Street],” Turgesen said. “But again, we’re down the road a ways from that level of specificity so we have that on our active close monitoring list and acknowledge some of the limitations — we can’t change ADA.”
Ad hoc committee member Jim Talt expressed concern about the raised intersection proposal at the Sept. 21 council meeting, as he was unable to attend the Aug. 18 ad hoc meeting where it was discussed.
Trevis Smith, the city’s engineering consultant with Keller Associates, told the committee at the July 16 meeting that maintaining the 58-foot width might not be possible everywhere on the road, citing the variance of driveways, shrubs, fences, and other features along River Street, along with the placement of power lines, utility poles, and stormwater facilities. City staff proposed two commitments at that meeting: “inclusion of corridor preservation as a primary objective in the Request for Proposals (RFP), and a personal commitment from city staff to minimize impacts to private frontages throughout the design process,” according to the meeting minutes. The ad hoc committee approved the commitments in a unanimous motion.
At the Sept. 21 council meeting, Turgesen acknowledged the ambiguity around the project’s impact on individual properties along River Street but stressed the need to continue with the project to clarify specific details.
“The RFP will allow us to get a survey that will allow us to then start taking the Talt Plan and getting very specific design related information about exactly where things will go,” Turgesen said. “It is not until 90% [through the design process] that we are going to have that very specific inch-by-inch detail of exactly what the plan is going to look like.”
Councilor Elise Yarnell Hollamon expressed hesitancy due to subjective language in the recommendation and pushed for more public engagement before construction begins.
“I can support this today of moving forward with the RFP, but I cannot support moving forward with construction without another presentation from the ad hoc committee back to City Council when the design and the impacts to the properties are back property by property so that we can hear those subjective proposals,” Yarnell Hollamon said.
Mayor Bill Rosacker agreed with Yarnell Hollamon on the need to review individual impacts before construction begins.
“The ad hoc committee is going to remain, and they’re going to be used as consultants,” Rosacker said. “Now it’s up to the engineers to see what fits on the properties, then we’ll take a look at it again before we begin construction.”
Worthey confirmed city staff’s commitment to maintain the existing Talt Plan as much as possible and to continue seeking recommendations from the ad hoc committee. He said he would bring a draft of the RFP’s scope of work statement, which would give applicants design considerations for their proposals, to the council’s next meeting, Oct. 19. Councilors added that suggestion to the motion, which passed unanimously.
“I can absolutely say the pledge to have the ad hoc committee reconvene to look at the designs and have all folks of the street invited to come back absolutely will happen,” Worthey said. “The commitment to try to stay within the width, if it is at all possible, absolutely will happen.”
