THE MT. DAVID FIASCO

When we lived in Cottage Grove on Ash Street, our neighborhood on the westside of town backed up to a forested hillside called Mt. David.    The history of the mountain included a sacred rock of the Calapooya Indians, Indian artifacts, the site of an old oil well that never produced any oil, and a playground for many children who roamed this hillside that lived in the neighborhood over the ages.    There were two or three owners of this mountain and it was within the urban growth boundary of  Cottage Grove.    In short, there was money to be made.    One morning we woke up to the sound of chain saws cutting down the trees on the hillside and the neighborhood went into shock at the sight of the devastation, better known as clearcutting.    We learned that the land owners had sold out to a developer, who had plans to build streets and the infrastructure for a subdivision of 400 to 500 homes.  Our neighborhood formed a group called Friends of Mt. David to fight this development.   We attended city council meetings, met with the city planning department staff and even had a meeting with the developer, who we later learned was not known for quality work.    We were advised by all the city officials and the good old boys on the city council this would be a great development.    Basically they could all smell money; more tax revenue for the city, an economic boom for local contractors and for some of the members of the city council.     Instead of using local contractors the developer brought in a big construction contractor from Eugene to start building streets and other improvements for this subdivision.   The contractor would start up their heavy equipment in the early morning hours before the sun was up, even though the city had an ordnance limiting any work from starting before 7 am.    The Friends of Mt. David later found out that some permits required by the state were not obtained, including from the state historical preservation office until we brought it to the attention of city officials.   The city planning staff of two people was overwhelmed with the size of this development and let things get out of their control.   In addition, we could see the existing infrastructure in our old neighborhood, such as the streets and the storm drainage system would never accommodate the increased traffic and storm run off from this new subdivision.    Sure enough in the winter of 2006 there was heavy rainfall and the water came flowing down from the new development flooding streets, yards and filling the basement of the old hospital.  Pictures below show the water flowing in channels that the contractor constructed in order to control the runoff.   That is Celia to the right of the first picture surveying the mess.   In the end the developer went broke and certain members of the city council were not reelected.  After looking on Google Maps only about 20 homes were constructed on the subdivision and many of the planned streets were never put in.   Most of it is now is just a big bare spot within the city limits that is called Mt. David.  .