City/MRA Land Swap a Done Deal!
In July, the City of Jacksonville will close a long-awaited land swap deal with the Motorcycle Riders Association thanks to a grant awarded to the MRA for $684,000 by the State Parks Commission.
The Reservoir at Forest Park
This week, Mayor Paul Becker and City Administrator Jeff Alvis traveled to Baker City, Oregon where the State Parks Commission met to dole out this year’s round of park-oriented grants. The deal, when closed, will transfer 380 acres of city-owned land in the upper reaches of the city’s watershed to the MRA. In exchange, the city will reap the money and take control of the MRA-owned parking and staging area in the lower-most acres of the 1800 acre watershed area.
The deal, which has been in the works for 15 years, effectively removes motorized vehicles from the Forest Park, a city-owned park with miles of new hiking and mountain biking trails. Funds utilized to purchase the acreage are collected via gasoline sales taxes and are available to groups like the MRA to create off-road use areas. Although highly contentious at times, the deal solidifies the future of the Forest Park by making it an exclusively non-motorized area.
While en-route to Jacksonville from the Baker City meeting, the Mayor called the Review to say, “This is a win-win-win. I loved the attitude of the State Parks Commission which reduced other grant applications by 15% just to make this one happen.” Other Jacksonville representatives at the meeting included Tony Hess, considered the leader and founder of the Forest Park as well as Steve McIntyre and Steve Croucher of the MRA, all of whom worked for years to make this happen.