This is the third installment of a four-day series examining the urban renewal district proposed for downtown Corvallis on the May 19 ballot.

Read the whole series on our Urban Renewal Web site

Projects tied to the proposed formation of an urban renewal district for downtown Corvallis don't come with a price tag or a definite timeline.

There's a reason for that: People associated with other urban renewal districts around the state say it's because the districts are living, evolving doors for economic development.

Many of the community's needs might not exist at this time, but will develop over the life of the district, or as funds generated by the district become great enough to pay for improvements, or to be used as leverage to secure state or federal grants.

That's been frustrating to some people trying to get a handle on potential projects that might be paid for by the money raised by an urban renewal district for downtown Corvallis, if voters approve the proposal in this month's election.

Supporters of the district say any projects for downtown likely will meet one or more of these goals:

• Providing incentives to new public and private building investments in the urban renewal district.

• Providing assistance to create and maintain affordable housing in the area.

• Providing incentives for the repair and rehabilitation of deficient structures.

• Contributing to funding new parks and public buildings.

• Improving the physical appearance of the area.

• Improving parking and access to alternative transportation.

Pat Lampton, the owner of The Inkwell Home Store in downtown Corvallis and a longtime advocate of the district's creation, realizes that the first few years the urban renewal district is in place, there will be limited funds available for projects. (If the district is approved, any increase in property value in the district is taxed at the usual rate, but the additional tax money from the increased values goes to pay for improvements.)

Because it can take a while for the proceeds to build up, he said, it's difficult to make hard and fast projections about what sort of projects might be funded. The needs of downtown might be different in five years or a decade, and sometimes districts need that much time to get some traction. (See related story.)

"I'm a business guy, I'm a free market guy who doesn't normally jump on every program people want to do," Lampton said. "I see there's a return on investment here. There's definitely an element of trust here. Some people believe that anything the government touches, it messes up. There are appropriate places for the government to be. Government is us organizing ourselves, doing things collectively for the public good. That's what the urban renewal district is."

Changing needs for downtown

Corvallis' downtown is in pretty good shape today, said Lampton, whose family has owned The Inkwell since 1964.

But that makes this a good time to create the district, said Lampton, a longtime supporter of the proposal.

"Downtowns in today's economic environment don't exist without people taking care of them," Lampton said. "There is all kinds of competition in the form of shopping malls, cyber shopping, proliferation of catalogs and shopper mobility to larger communities such as Portland."

Just like the individual businesses that make up any community, downtowns must morph to meet changing public demands, Lampton said.

He said the best time for an urban renewal district to be put into place is while properties and businesses are still economically viable, not when potential business investors no longer want to take a chance on locating there or the general public no longer sees the downtown area as an important part of their lifestyle.

"When new people move into a community or tourists pass through, they usually go to the downtown area to get the feel for that community," Lampton said. "If they see run-down buildings, unattended spaces, they come away with the idea that most people wouldn't want to project."

"We've been building downtown Corvallis for 150 years," Lampton said. "It was built along the river because of commerce, but has changed considerably over that time."

Lampton said changes in downtown areas can occur slowly so that people don't recognize it's happening until they wake up one day "and discover they have a bombed-out looking center that does not speak well for their community."

He said Corvallis is fortunate that its downtown remains vibrant and alive, and he pointed to surveys showing that residents dearly value the area.

But as much as Corvallis residents love their downtown, they also see issues such as a need for easier access to stores including parking that doesn't get confusing; a great mix of stores, more professional offices, even housing as Baby Boomers begin retiring and want easier access. Those are issues that funding from a renewal district could help address.

"As people retire, they don't want to drive all over the place. If the downtown is alive, they can go to a restaurant, get their groceries, see their friends and get services in an attractive, compact urban area," Lampton said.

Jeff Tashman, a partner in the consulting firm of Tashman Johnson LLC, has worked with a number of Oregon and Washington cities on urban renewal district projects over the last 30 years, although he has not been involved with the Corvallis effort. He agrees with Lampton's assessment.

"The best circumstance for urban renewal is when the underlying real estate market conditions are favorable," Tashman said. "It's not that urban renewal districts aren't critical, it's just that you can't work against the underlying economics. Urban renewal districts can help remove obstacles."

Tashman said Portland and outlying communities have had tremendous success thanks to the districts.

"Portland is sometimes in the news for having urban renewal districts that don't go away," Tashman said. "But people have to remember when Portland was in bad shape. You have to give a lot of credit to the urban renewal program for turning it around. It looks nice and it works well. People love Portland."

Tashman also pointed to Troutdale, Tigard and Gresham.

"All of those elections were adopted by a pretty healthy margin; now Beaverton is considering a feasibility study for an urban renewal district downtown," Tashman said.

"The margin of approval was pretty large in places where people in the past had been skeptical."

Districts have brought new life to other cities

By ALEX PAUL

Gazette-Times reporter

Dan Durow, manager of the Columbia Gateway Urban Renewal District in The Dalles, said it took nearly a decade for the district in this area of 15,000 people to really gain traction.

Durow has lived in The Dalles since 1977 and was hired as the community development director only a few months before an urban renewal district was formed in 1990.

"At first, it was definitely slow," Durow said. "Just after we formed the district, Ballot Measure 5 passed and it created a lot of problems for the agency."

The experience in The Dalles is not an uncommon one for urban renewal districts, which often take years to hit their stride. But the state of the economy added another issue: Durow said that in the 1980s, Wasco County was "one of the hardest hit counties in Oregon and Oregon was among the hardest hit in the nation. We were at the bottom of the barrel. Our property values dropped 50 percent and our unemployment was in the high teens. People were walking away from their homes and many storefronts were vacant. It was economic hell. Now, we're at record levels for both industrial and commercial development. That didn't happen by accident."

Durow said the Urban Renewal District now collects from $1 million to $1.2 million per year.

"It has really made a difference in our community along with a number of other things that we have done to change our economy from not being so dependent on one employer base, which was the aluminum plants," Durow said. "In the mid-1980s, both aluminum plants closed and we lost more than 1,000 full-time, high-paying jobs. We have worked really hard the last 10 to 15 years to turn the economy around and diversify. Urban renewal was a big part of that. It really changed the face of our downtown."

Successes have included developing property at the community's port, improving the downtown area block by block including infrastructure, and building an underpass under Interstate 80 connecting the downtown to the Columbia River.

"That cost about $7 million, about $5 million was from grants, but we used urban renewal district money as leverage to get those grants," Durow said.

Durow said the district is supposed to sunset in 2015, but because it took 10 years to really get it rolling, voters might be asked if they want to extend it.

In part because of the many improvements being made in the community, The Dalles was chosen by Google for its data farm.

"That has made a huge impact on our economy," Durow said. "It's the icing on the cake, but we had already begun to turn out economy around when they chose to move here."

In southern Oregon, the Medford Urban Renewal Agency was formed in 1988, according to director Jackie Rodgers, who says there are three key factors to a successful urban renewal district:

• Stay on task

• Follow the plan

• Encourage public participation as well as public and private partnerships.

But there are also pitfalls, such as economic factors beyond the community's control. If the economy tanks, she said, that limits what a district can do.

Medford's program started by identifying 576 acres within the city's core area. A revitalization plan was developed that involved 19 public projects to be undertaken over 25 years. In May 2006, the program was extended for several years.

Projects have included assisting with development of the South Gateway Center, a 90-acre shopping center; renovation of the Craterian Theater; water quality projects on Bear Creek; downtown development led to construction of a new downtown library; streetscape programs; transportation improvements; and property development.

"Future growth is projected to result almost exclusively from appreciation in property values, improvement of existing buildings and redevelopment of selected sites," Rodgers said.

In 1999 Medford's URD generated $1.5 million. In 2008, it generated $2.5 million.