LA GRANDE — The Urban Renewal Agency outlined its priorities for the upcoming year during the annual retreat with city staff on Tuesday, Jan. 24.

The possibility of leveraging urban renewal dollars to assist with a new police facility and continuing the downtown streetscape project all emerged as areas of interest.

“One of the things we have talked about, I think pretty much every year, is what, if anything, do we want to do for sure with the streetscape downtown. Do we want continue, where do we want to continue? And then the secondary piece is do we want to and should the agency consider using any portion of urban renewal dollars towards a police facility,” City Manager Robert Strope asked.

The evening retreat serves as an opportunity for members of the city council and Urban Renewal Agency to collaborate on ideas with city staff. The budget is among the topics of discussion during the retreat, but no official decisions or votes are conducted.

Police department facility

Last year, the city council began taking steps to explore what it would take to have a police station downtown. The city contracted with Mackenzie Inc — a Portland-based design firm that specializes in architecture, interiors, engineering and planning — to complete a comprehensive facility needs assessment for the police station.

The consultants are conducting what is known as a fit test, Strope said, where they take a look at a property and assess whether the project would work there. One option they are looking at is adding a police station onto the existing fire station, 1806 Cove Ave., and the other is a bareground option at the La Grande Business and Technology Park.

Strope requested guidance from the agency whether they would be interested in utilizing urban renewal dollars to partially help fund a new station.

In order to use urban renewal funding in this way the agency would need to amend the current plan with the consent of three of the four major taxing jurisdictions that are impacted by urban renewal. The facility would also need to be located within the urban renewal district.

“The reason that I’m asking this question of the agency at this juncture is knowing whether or not that is on the table for the agency will be beneficial to (Mackenzie Inc) when they are talking about potential uses of funds and how we might build a police station,” Strope said.

Across the board agency members liked the idea of exploring this option. Councillor Nicole Howard said that other cities in Oregon have done something similar with Newport amending its urban renewal policy to fund a new police facility and Coos Bay a dispatch center.

“I like the idea of leveraging those dollars to whatever degree the agency likes for public safety,” she said. “I think it’s a really good use of the money. I think it would help them get a leg up.”

The city would not be able to fully fund the construction of a new police station through urban renewal funding, Strope said, because there is not enough maximum indebtedness left. It would also take away all of the other economic development efforts.

Multiple agency members inquired if this could be a good use of the $500,000 set aside for an agency-initiated project.

Strope said that those funds have not been allocated towards a specific project, so they could be used on this project — but it could also be used for streetscapes.

Streetscapes

La Grande has completed a number of improvement projects along Adams Avenue over the years.

The “Big H” project, which was completed in 2012, rebuilt sidewalks, alleys and alley approaches on Elm and Depot streets between Washington and Jefferson avenues. The project also did a section of Adams Avenue between Elm and Depot streets, the north side of Washington between Elm and Depot streets, and the two alleyways that run between Elm and Depot.

Councilor Mary Ann Miesner — who currently also serves as the president of La Grande Main Street Downtown — was in favor of completing the streetscape project. She would like to see Adams Avenue down to Greenwood Street and Fir Street between Washington to Jefferson avenues redone. Miesner believes this will help create a cohesive feeling in downtown.

“We spent the money on doing the other part of the town. I think we just need to finish it,” she said.

Miesner said that she would also be OK with just doing Adams Avenue and leaving the last side street out of the project.

Howard was concerned about how much a project like this would cost and also expressed that she personally could not tell which areas had been done.

The majority of agency members were interested in at least pursuing cost estimates for the project.