Talent City Council has approved the annexation of 43 acres of Phoenix-Talent School District property on Colver Road into city limits. The school district will use the land for improved and additional athletic fields, buildings and to host a couple of community programs.

“It’s super exciting,” said Brent Barry, the district superintendent. “I know it has been a long process. It has been a lot of due diligence with the city.

“Now another long process starts: the phasing and the development.”

The district’s board of directors will likely begin to look at the phasing of projects on the site starting this summer, Barry said. They will also need to determine funding sources.

The Boys & Girls Club of the Rogue Valley and Phoenix-Talent Little League are expected to develop facilities, which are shown in preliminary site plans. A building for the district’s Outdoor Discovery Program would also be built. There is no timeline at this point for the work.

Developments could include a building for the Boys & Girls Club, a district multiuse building, three Little League fields, a tee-ball field and a new combination baseball-softball field.

Current facilities include two natural grass soccer fields, a baseball and a softball field, a bus barn and high school agricultural program buildings. Plans call for putting artificial turf on the two existing soccer fields, allowing players to practice in bad weather, Barry said.

The area had been designated for future public facilities for a number of years in city and regional plans. The district and the city signed an agreement on how the property development will proceed, including criteria for transportation, utilities and treatment of residual pesticides.

Last year, the city brought the area, which was in an urban reserve category, into the city’s urban growth boundary, a necessary step before annexation.

“This is part of a really important, long process called Regional Problem Solving (undertaken) 20 years ago. Officials identified land around the valley in order to protect agricultural land,” Mayor Darby Ayers-Flood said. “This is no small thing to bring our first urban reserve into the city.”

Ayers-Flood praised the district’s approach to the pesticides issue because it creates a record the city can stand on to show that people can enjoy the property with total confidence.

The district purchased the land in 1965. It had been used as an agronomy station by Oregon State University Extension Service, and there were public concerns that pesticide residue might remain.

The district contracted with Alpine Environmental for assessments, which found that the low levels of residual pesticide contamination did not pose an immediate risk to human health.

The district will enter the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality’s Voluntary Cleanup Pathway to ensure the contaminants are handled in a protective manner. Under its agreement with the city, the district, prior to any development application, must show that no further cleanup is needed.

Some cleanup work is expected, but it will likely be minimal, Barry said.

Before city councilors unanimously approved the annexation, several players from the Southern Oregon Soccer Academy spoke in support during the public hearing April 24.

“I have been playing on these fields since I have been 3 or 4,” said Luis Rodriquez, of Phoenix. “Learning about the opportunity these fields have to expand and grow makes me happy for the future generations of players.”

Another player said bad weather keeps them off the soccer fields to avoid damaging them.

Representatives of the Boys & Girls Club and Phoenix-Talent Little League also testified that the development will offer their organizations a variety of benefits. The school district will need to develop agreements on the two groups’ use of the site.

“Colver Road will give us an opportunity to establish a club like in Grants Pass and Cave Junction,” said Greg Roe, executive director of the Boys & Girls Club.

The club facility would have a computer lab, a STEM lab, art center, a teen center, and gym and kitchen facilities in about 25,000 square feet. The organization currently leases space from the school district for its programs

The Little League currently uses three fields at Chuck Roberts Park in Talent, according to Matt Guthmiller, a former little league board member. During play, up to 70 kids and over 300 people are at the fields.

“It’s an exciting opportunity for us,” Guthmiller said. The group’s current lease with the city expires soon, and the city is looking at future uses for Chuck Roberts Park.

“There will be a lot of really good facilities and opportunities for kids,” said Jay Harland, a partner and principal planner with CSA Planning, a consultant for the school district, who spoke during the public hearing.