Regional Group Works to Make Crestview Crossing a Reality

GARY ALLEN – Crestview Crossing has been stuck in the permitting stage for more than 18 months, as the site contains several acres of wetlands as well as a stream tributary. Both features trigger mandatory mitigation requirements and bring a few state agencies into the process. But the Newberg development has also attracted particular state attention for another element: the extension of Crestview Drive through that parcel, a project which is essentially tied to the development and which local and regional officials have identified as an important ‘relief valve’ for when the Newberg-Dundee bypass opens next year.

Crestview Crossing, the planned development on the site across the highway from Providence Newberg Medical Center, came back from an eight-year recession-driven pause in 2014 as Gramor Development signed on and the preliminary development work began. But the project stalled due to an issue with mitigating the filling in of both wetlands and a stream tributary that runs through the site.

Since wetlands legislation began to come into play in the 1960s, development that requires filling in wetlands has faced regulations, particularly mitigating measures that ensure there is no net loss of wetlands. If a development fills in one area of wetlands, it must create a certain amount elsewhere, or buy wetlands “credits” that property owners who have created wetlands can sell.

The wetlands on the Crestview Crossing site were not mapped out prior to the development proposal, but surveyors subsequently completed a wetlands delineation and figured out that parcel has about seven acres of wetlands, according to Department of State Lands aquatic resource coordinator Michael DeBlasi. That meant mitigation was required, but that land also has a tributary of Springbrook Creek running through it, prompting some more regulatory measures and stream mitigation.

So the Army Corps of Engineers joined the permitting process, there were a few more barriers to surmount, and the pre-development phase stretched on.

But there’s an element about the Crestview Crossing development that makes it particularly desirable for both the city and a wider, regional contingent: it’s tied with a major street enhancement project that the city hopes will act as a “relief valve” when the Newberg-Dundee bypass project opens.

Right now Crestview Drive has some improvements in its span that dead-ends just south of its intersection with Birdhaven Loop adjacent to the proposed development area. But the city reclassified the road in 2007 in an amendment to the Trans­por­ta­tion System and Com­prehen­sive plans, and tied the Crestview Crossing development to the extension of the road down to Highway 99W.

With the Newberg-Dundee bypass planned to open next year, and with major traffic patterns expected to shift along city streets given the completion of only the first phase of the bypass, that road has taken on a new significance. Local players managed to relay that significance to Regional Solutions, a program out of Governor Kate Brown’s office that brings representatives from a range of agencies and interests together to work through cross-agency problems in 11 regions around the state.

The Mid-Valley Region includes Marion, Polk and Yamhill counties, and county Commissioner Stan Primozich serves on the advisory committee that meets to discuss the region’s priorities, and how they can be achieved. The basic idea, Primozich explained last week, is to get through some of the bureaucratic roadblocks that can present themselves when working on substantial projects.

“With Regional Solutions they have the ability to convene a meeting and bring all these parties to the same table,” Primozich said. “The idea is to streamline these things rather than let government red tape get in the way.”

The Mid-Valley Team lists the Newberg Crestview Drive Enhancement project on its current priority list, explaining how the roadway being extended and turned into a major collector “will function as a relief valve for the new congestion on the city’s local grid system. The improved road would provide an alternative route for more than 1,000 A-dec employees and, more importantly, the company’s freight movement.”

“The improved road also would improve access and/or open more than 80 acres of land for commercial, retail and industrial development,” the Regional Solutions priority list says, referencing the proposed Springbrook Properties major development in the northeastern part of town. “The project also would provide increased access to vineyards and wineries north of Newberg and the Allison Inn & Spa …”

The Crestview Drive project in full would span three segments, the first bringing intersection improvements to the Highway 99W and Providence Drive intersection and the construction of a new Crestview Drive portion through the Gramor property. The second segment would expand a portion of the existing road into minor arterial standards, similar to a segment that already received improvements several years back. The third segment would bring those same improvements to the segment of Crestview Drive that’s now a gravel road connecting with the Springbrook Road roundabout.

Because of all the different properties adjacent to the roadway, the project involves the city, county, Gramor Development, Providence Newberg Medical Center, Springbrook Properties, the Oregon Department of Transportation and the other state agencies.

All in all, the project has been working with a tentative $5 million cost figure, City Engineer Kaaren Hofmann said, although that figure comes out of older estimates and has only been adjusted slightly for inflation over the years.

To turn the group’s interest into something tangible, Regional Solutions has funded the Crestview Drive enhancement project with $740,000 of state money. The city would also add some money to the road project, although the specific breakdown hasn’t been drawn out, Hofmann said.

But if the Crestview Crossing development doesn’t happen, DeBlasi said, the thinking is the road extension through the Crestview Crossing land also won’t happen, because the developer is chipping in a substantial portion of the funds to complete the road work. When Regional Solutions was considering getting involved with the Crestview Drive project, an application from local representatives estimated some $2.9 million of the project would be funded by private developers. Given the substantial work that would be completed in the Gramor Development land, a lot of that cost would be tied in with Crestview Crossing.

At last week’s Newberg City Council meeting City Manager Joe Hannan described the most recent meeting between all the agencies, the developers and the city, and expressed a positive outlook on the project’s future.

“I’m hopeful after that meeting, even though it’s the third one that’s happened, that we think we’ve got a resolution,” Hannan said.