A top Bend official sparked some emotional city council debate with an impassioned defense of the planned “southern river crossing.”

Assistant City Manager Ron Garzini argued that the long-debated route is desperately needed to meet citizen calls for traffic relief without having to widen other east-west thoroughfares.

“Building roads does not promote growth; it promotes livability and meets a demonstrated public need,” Garzini, the city’s chief operations officer, said in a statement distributed at Wednesday night’s council meeting.

Garzini attacked what he called “much inaccurate and misleading information” put forth by opponents of the two-lane road and bridge across the Deschutes River, a hot discussion topic in recent years. Councilors have held firm to plans for the westward extension of Reed Market Road, and the citizen Bend Transportation Advisory Committee recently voted 10-5 to make the project their No. 1 priority in a five-year capital improvement plan.

Garzini attacked the statements of a consultant hired by a group, Friends of Bend, that included widening a portion of Colorado Avenue from three to five lanes. If that were done, Garzini said, parkway offramps and Colorado and Reed Market Road would fail, as would the new roundabout at Colorado and Century Drive and another traffic circleplanned at Simpson and Colorado avenues. He also said it would send cut-through traffic into the nearby Columbia neighborhood and that Colorado would not serve well as an east-west connection, since it ends at the parkway on the east and the Shevlin Industrial Park on the west.

While “there are those who say we must stop growth,” Garzini said, a recent city survey found that a large majority of residents “wanted the traffic problems fixed now, not in five years.” He said the city must seek alternate modes of travel, such as transit, but noted that less than 10 percent of all trips around the country are made by means other than cars.

“We need to disperse the traffic,” Garzini said, in order to keep traffic counts from climbing ever higher on Newport, Portland and Galveston avenues, among other arterials.

Schubert, Teater spar over road needs

Councilor John Schubert, a champion of alternate transportation modes, took on Garzini, saying only a short stretch of Colorado, from the bridge to Simpson Avenue, is suggested for widening to five lanes. He also said the decision to replace a signal on the parkway at Reed Market Road with an overpass was completely separate from the southern bridge debate. “I daresay it’s a little bit of revisionist history” to argue otherwise, Schubert said.

Councilor Oran Teater said his concern is what lack of the planned bridge would do to Newport and Galveston. “If you four or five lane Galveston, that’s going to devastate Drake Park,” he said, sparking a glimpse of “road rage” among councilors that could be a prelude of tough debate and decisions in the next few weeks.

“Don’t go there,” Schubert told Teater. “I don’t think it’s relevant.”

“Well, I do,” Teater replied. Colleague Kathie Eckman added, “I think it’s extremely relevant.”

Schubert – who voted against the southern bridge route while on the city’s planning commission — chided his colleague for “scare tactics” and said, “To raise the specter of a five-lane Galveston is alarmist.”

Schubert also asked Garzini why the new 5-year project plan didn’t include funding for suggested improvements to Newport and Galveston. The assistant city manager replied that once the southern crossing is in place to handle additional traffic, efforts at “traffic calming” on the neighborhood streets can be studied – and are more likely to succeed.

Garzini included in his statement a report from the Oregon Department of Transportation, which found that road-building has had “much less effect” on traffic growth than rising population, employment and incomes.

At least two nights of hearings coming

The city council plans a June 21st public hearing at City Hall on a proposal to sharply increase road development fees, charged to new construction. It will wait until June 28th and likely will meet at a larger facility, such as the Boys and Girls Club, to take public testimony on the city’s transportation systems plan. It will couple that hearing with one on a five-year capital improvement list that, along with 23 road projects, includes more sidewalks, bike lanes, trail construction, expanding the Dial a Ride program and instituting “traffic demand management,” through park and ride, carpools and the like.

Much of that work will depend on whether councilors agree next month to ask voters in November for a $7 million, 5-year transportation levy, costing the owner of a $200,000 home about $70 a year. City Manager Larry Patterson proposed Wednesday night that three elements – sidewalks, trails and street maintenance – be bundled in one measure, with the Dial a Ride transit improvements offered to voters as a separate measure. Councilors are split on that idea as they go into the upcoming public hearings.

As if all that weren’t enough, the council also will hold a hearing on a proposed pair of local improvement districts, funded by the “Westside Traffic Consortium.” In order to gain clearance for their projects, the consortium members would pay for eight more Westside roundabouts, completion of Mount Washington Drive and construction of the new southern bridge. Developers would be reimbursed from development fees as those projects occur in coming years.

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