The deal shouldn't have been this hard to pull together to begin with - but it's still a deal well worth pursuing.

We refer to the pending deal between Evanite Fiber Corp., the city of Corvallis and the state of Oregon that would give the city land in exchange for some relief from state development restrictions.

We've written before in this space in support of the idea, which has gone through some twists and turns since it first surfaced about a year ago. In the most current variation, Evanite is offering a permanent easement through its industrial site just south of downtown Corvallis.

The deal offers a potentially huge payoff for Corvallis and its residents: The 32-

foot-wide, quarter-mile-long strip of land on the Willamette River would allow the city to fill in a missing link in its riverfront trail system. The result would be an uninterrupted 3.5-mile path for pedestrians and

cyclists from the north end of downtown to Willamette Landing.

In return, Evanite wants the city's help in getting out from an extra layer of oversight of development requests on part of its 35-acre site on Crystal Lake Drive.

The entire property is within the Willamette River Greenway, a state land-use designation imposed in the 1970s to protect the river. Evanite initially wanted the greenway boundary - which is much narrower through downtown Corvallis - redrawn to make construction easier on part of its property. The state balked at the proposal, however, in part because no mechanism exists for changing the boundary - and don't get us started about that.

The new approach from Evanite uses a different method to get essentially the same results: The city and its residents get a chance at completing what could be a crown jewel in its trail system. Evanite gets a chance to move and consolidate its glass-fiber operations and a chance to develop other parts of the property, closer to the river, for residential, office and retail use.

At the same time, Evanite is seeking a permit to tear down its mothballed hardwood plant, which comes right to the water's edge, in addition to a number of smaller structures the company no longer needs.

The city government in the past has backed the essential parts of the deal, and we trust that the city's support will continue as this new variation works its way through the Planning Commission and the City Council. That city support could well be critical, because the entire deal may need to survive a review by the state to ensure that it satisfies statewide planning goals, especially Goal 15, which gives special status to the Willamette River.

It's hard to imagine how completing a riverfront trail and tearing down mothballed buildings to open up other appropriate new development along the river wouldn't be in the spirit of the greenway.

Evanite deserves credit for sticking with the deal and being flexible enough to craft other alternate approaches. There are signs, however, that the company's patience is fading. The city should work as expeditiously as possible to review the new proposal. The state should approve it.

As future generations remember how Corvallis rediscovered its waterfront, this deal will be part of the story.