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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2017
SOUTH LANE AND NORTH DOUGLAS COUNTY'S MOST AWARD-WINNING NEWS SOURCE SINCE 1889
Tiny homes cause big uproar
Plans for 13 tiny homes drew a crowd of neighbors, exchange of information
VOLUME 130 • NUMBER 50
CG schools $1.7 million
in the hole for new year
BY CAITLYN MAY
cmay@cgsentinel.com
Cottage Village Coalition and Square One Villages held a town hall meeting on Jan. 28 to discuss their plans to
develop a 13-tiny-home village for low-income renters.
BY CAITLYN MAY
cmay@cgsentinel.com
A proposal
to construct a
low-income
housing village on Madison Ave. earned
the attention of approximately 30 neigh-
bors during a town hall-style event aimed
at addressing fears and concerns about the
project.
Cottage Village Coalition teamed with
Eugene's Sqaure One Villages to concep-
tualize a tiny home village to address the
growing need for affordable housing in the
city. The group, which has spent just over a
year working on the project, researched sev-
eral pieces of available land for the devel-
opment before settling on the Madison lot.
However, homeowners in the area vented
their frustrations during the Jan. 28 meeting
when Cottage Village Coalition members
insisted residents were "being brought in
at an early stage of the project." According
to coaltion member Valeria Clarke, several
reasons went into the decision to hold off on
notifying residents of the neighborhood that
the land was being considered. "We didn't
want to interfere with buying the land and
maybe have another company or developer
swoop in and certainly be able to outbid us
fi nancially," she said.
Current plans for the village are still be-
ing sorted. Few answers were available for
attendees of Saturday's meeting, adding to
the frustration of residents who fi red ques-
tions at coalition members and raised con-
cerns over several aspects of the project.
The coalition submitted the idea of con-
structing 13 tiny homes on the property, each
with their own kitchenette and restrooms.
An existing shed and house would serve as
a community center and possible apartment
for an on-site manager. The number of resi-
dents was unclear with representatives from
Square One Villages and Cottage Village
noting that it designs would most likely suit
a "single mother and child."
Square One nodded to its Opportunity
Village located in Eugene as a rough esti-
mate for comparison with the development
planned for Cottage Grove. While Oppor-
tunity Village is not located in a residential
area and serves primarily homeless indi-
"We would not be serving people from Eugene, bussing them in. This is for Grovers."
viduals, working plans would have Cottage
Grove's development function in some of
the same ways.
Residents of the Cottage Grove devel-
opment would have to go through a strict
application process to be considered for
one of the homes and once selected, they
would have to sign a community standards
agreement. However, representatives from
Square One noted that residents within the
village are self-governing. Exact policies
were not available with representatives
from both organizations citing the fact that
the project has not moved far enough along
in development to have hashed out the de-
tails of utilities, community governing and
several other aspects of the village.
"This is for people who have to move out
because they're mother is moving in and
they don't have fi rst and last month's rent.
These are people who are currently renting
elsewhere, typical renters," Clarke said.
Final details concerning rent have not
been ironed out with estimates currently set
at $250-$300 per month. The target rent-
er includes individuals on Social Security,
minimum wage workers and those in dan-
ger of losing their housing due to ever-ris-
ing rental rates around the city.
While both organizations agree they
looked at other properties around the city
including space behind Safeway, the Madi-
son lot met the requirements of their project
with public transportation close by.
However, the Madison property is not
without its issues to address before con-
struction can begin. Annual fl ooding over-
takes a portion of the property, often fl ood-
ing into neighboring yards. An easement
would mostly likley be required for the back
end of the property where a large tree stands
in the way.
The project would have to meet all city
requirements.
The group, with help from a grant ob-
tained by Square One Villages, put an of-
fer on the property which was accepted in
December. Several residents raised their
concern that the project was moving ahead
before notifying property owners but Clarke
said illness in the group, the holidays and
fears over other developers moving in on
the property kept the coaltion from sharing
the news any earlier.
Some of those present at Saturday's meet-
ing inquired as to whether or not the group
planned to move forward with the devel-
opment if community support was lacking.
After several answers circulated the room,
the group settled on the fact that they would
consider community support and may be
willing to re-sell the property if, for some
reason, they could not complete the project.
Clarke, whose own property borders the
project implored those present at Saturday's
meeting to keep an open mind and invites
interested residents to attend the group's
meeting the fi rst Thursday of the month at 6
p.m. at the Presbyterian church.
The new legislative session
begins today, and with it comes
a slew of issues for lawmakers
to grapple with including a re-
ported $2 billion shortfall for
the state's budget. Included in
that fi nancial hole is the fund-
ing for local schools. According
superintendent Krista Parent,
South Lane School District
could be facing a gap of $1.7
million.
Governor Kate Brown's pro-
posed $8 billion dollar budget
would leave South Lane short
$1.3 million. The subsequent
budget released by Ways and
Means creates an even big-
ger hole of $1.7 but according
to Parent, the current service
level budget would still see a
$400,000 gap due to fi ve phys-
ical education positions that are
previously been funded through
grants.
"It costs about $100,000 for
one day of school in South Lane
School District," Parent said.
"And we're a people business
so 86 percent of our budget is
people. We have 400 employ-
ees, we're the largest employer
in the community so we'd have
to cut 18 days of school to wipe
out the $1.7 million defi cit and
you can't cut 18 days of school."
Cutting school days is just
one of the solutions the school
district is cutting but it's a fi x
that comes with its own set of
challenges. Students in grades
nine through 12 are required by
law to be in school 990 hours
a year. If school districts drop
below that level, they are given
what is essentially described as
a warning and must not drop be-
low the level the following year.
However, due to several winter
storms in the area and the poten-
tial for more, South Lane may
end up below the 990 hours this
year.
"We're in a situation right
now where if we have more
snow days then we're going to
have to make a decision about
that, but right now we're still
ok because we have a calendar
that gives us some room," Par-
ent said. "We don't want to get
in the penalty box this year be-
cause we're going to need to cut
days for next year and we may
need to cut enough days that
it will drop us below those in-
structional hours."
Other cost-cutting ideas cur-
rently include an increased cost
for extra curricular actives for
students and a possible reduc-
tion in staff.
Currently, South Lane School
District employs 400 people and
while Parent hopes that if the
budget calls for a decrease in
staffi ng, it can be done through
attrition.
"We're looking at cutting po-
sitions and my goal, as it is ever
year I've been superintendant is,
to not have to lay people off,"
she said noting that retiring em-
ployees may help ease the bud-
get burden.
The legislature is expected to
complete its work within 120
days but the budget it approves
will span two years.
"We don't like any of these
options," Parent said. "None of
them are good for kids."
CG parks may close
Senate Bill 504 may cause issue
BY CAITLYN MAY
cmay@cgsentinel.com
The Oregon League of Cities
has released its list of top leg-
islative priorities for the 2017
legislative session and one bill
specifi cally, has caught the at-
tention of Cottage Grove offi -
cials.
Senate Bill 504 (SB504)
would alter the limitations of
recreational liability concern-
ing public lands. Essentially,
the bill fails to address the is-
sues caused by a recent supreme
court decision that excluded city
employees from the recreation-
al liability shield and allowed
individuals injured during rec-
reational activities in a public
park to sue city employees.
barricades sometimes walk off,
the barricade was gone,” Cot-
tage Grove City Manager
See Parks pg. 11
SLSD to consider "sanctuary" status for undocumented kids
On Jan. 28 President Donald Trump
issued an executive order banning
individuals from seven countries in-
cluding Iran, Iraq, Sudan and Libya
for 90 days. Reports of separated families and green card holders
being detained at international airports ignited social media and na-
tional news shining a spotlight on a controversial issue.
In Oregon, several cities, universities and school districts have
declared themselves "sanctuary cities," essentially refusing to re-
port or reject residents based on their immigration status. As a re-
sult, the Trump Administration has threatened to withhold federal
funding.
BY CAITLYN MAY
cmay@cgsentinel.com
"We are going to put this on an upcoming board meeting agen-
da," said Krista Parent, South Lane School District Superindendant.
"We have been asked by a number of individuals to put this in front
of the school board and whether or not we have an interest in be-
coming a sanctuary school district."
Nationally, there are an estimated 11 million undocumented im-
migrants. In Cottage Grove, that number is more diffi cult to pin
down. Oregon overall estimated 170,000 undocumented immi-
grants within its borders in 2010. That number has fl uctuated with
the recent turmoil in Syria and Governor Kate Brown's public as-
surance that Oregon would continue to accept refugees as other cit-
ies turned those who fl ed the war torn region away.
According to Parent, there is not a noticed bump in the population
of students from Syria. However, she did note, "We have a number
of kids, especially in the last few years, who are here from Guate-
mala and in some cases, are undocumented."
The process of becoming a sanctuary city or school district is
murky at best. While the University of Oregon and several other
districts in the region have moved forward with declaring them-
selves a sanctuary against federal orders, South Lane School Dis-
trict is gathering further information.
"We don't know all the details of what it means to be a sanctuary
school district and so we need to do some learning of our own but
we are going to be talking about it," Parent said. "We understand
See Sanctuary pg. 11
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