West Hills Neighborhood Association residents and two city councilors teamed up Thursday on a remote discussion of southwest Corvallis issues.
Jan Napack (Ward 1) and Gabe Shepherd (Ward 4) answered questions from community members for 150 minutes, with infrastructure and development concerns dominating the discussion.
Narrow and hilly West Hills Road, which slices west when Western Boulevard veers southwest to merge with Highway 34, came in for the harshest criticism. Residents say the road is failing now and yet numerous new developments have been proposed for the area.
âThis has to be addressed,â said Jon Polansky. âItâs the elephant in the room. We need to see some answers.â
Get in your car and take a drive to the corner of Southwest 53rd Street and Philomath Boulevard in Corvallis. Almost any direction you head from there will lead you to new housing, housing under construction or bare land that is proposed for housing.
Neighbors have consistently expressed concerns for years as projects such as Sylvia (37 homes) and Ridgecrest (46 homes) have come forward, while the 118-acre Marys Annexation could add up to 2,000 homes (see map at right/be for the full list of projects).
Traffic is a major concern, particularly on narrow West Hills Road. Neighbors also are worried about loss of open space, wetlands issues and the fact that the region needs a âspecific area planâ to guide development. They also think the streetlights are too bright.