Jake Volz/Eagle Eye Droneography ## This Riverside Drive property, owned by McMinnville Water & Light, was never considered as a possible site for new civic facilities.
Imagine overlaying the adjacent photo with new McMinnville community and aquatic centers overlooking the Yamhill River, connected at the hip to sprawling Joe Dancer Park in the background.
A citizen advisory group couldn’t see it last year. However, they weren’t really looking.
MacPac was still conceptualizing civic facility needs in late 2020 when city of McMinnville and Linfield University officials stepped in with a surprise siting and partnership proposal. It was a plan devised earlier in 2020, outside a public view already made difficult by the pandemic.
The idea was to share facility costs and usage on parts of 80 acres owned by Linfield in McMinnville’s far southeast corner. MacPac paused only briefly to consider instead the possible use of Wortman Park, already home to McMinnville Senior Center, then voted overwhelmingly for the Linfield site.
There were some clear gaps in available information: No inkling of how costs and facilities would be shared by institutions with different agendas and client bases; no appraisal of land that may include some of McMinnville’s most valuable commercial property; a decision driven primarily by the desire for an Olympic-size pool allegedly made affordable through cost/program sharing, but without further details.
Swim club enthusiasts envision major events drawing visitors to McMinnville, and say city and Linfield aquatic programs could function without overlap. Others await more concrete analysis of programming, and wonder if other civic interests should be re-visited in the post-pandemic light.
Limited site investigation
Planning Director Heather Richards was tasked with analyzing possible development sites, perhaps hampered by a pre-set city agenda. When asked in February about the 27.4-acre Riverside Drive site, she said it was unavailable because its owner — McMinnville Water & Light — was master planning it for future economic development.
That wasn’t the case, as was confirmed by W&L Manager John Dietz:
“If a project comes along that the W&L Commission believes will add value to the community, they will make a decision at that time,” Dietz said. “The commission has and continues to have a long-term vision on how Water & Light can continue to provide the greatest value to our community. We have done no master planning for that parcel.”
Richards also said the Riverside Drive site had shortcomings related to location, access by alternative transportation modes, adjacency to residential neighborhoods, adjacency to K-12 schools, and adjacency to a highway or arterial.
Given the opportunity, however, MacPac might have considered that the Riverside site already is owned by local citizens; that its Dancer Park connection could make it hugely convenient for city services; and that it is closer to downtown, closer to middle and high schools, and easily reached by transportation from the nearby Lafayette Avenue arterial.
Perhaps the proposed Linfield site is part of a greater long-term vision to combine even more civic recreation and cultural facilities; perhaps a to-be-determined plan of financing and operations will persuade taxpayers to support the Linfield partnership idea; perhaps the alternative development sites have flaws that make the southeast property a more attractive choice.
MacPac and city officials, however, have followed a process that so far has lacked the level of transparency and full disclosure that voters ultimately need to make multi-multi-million-dollar decisions. There’s still time to remedy that situation with a post-pandemic review of all the alternatives.
Jeb Bladine can be reached at jbladine@newsregister.com or 503-687-1223.
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