TALENT — Most participants at a workshop to plan the future downtown look of Talent like the idea of a roundabout and public art greeting people entering town on West Valley View Road. Sixty residents and property owners worked with city staff and consultants from Fregonese Calthorpe Associates to design the swath of land between the highway and downtown on Tuesday night.

The new look for the road, which also funnels traffic from Interstate 5 into downtown, will include streets and alleys off of West Valley View Road between Talent Avenue and the highway. There are two mammoth blocks that side up against West Valley View Road between Talent Avenue and the highway. The north block starts at New Street, near Umpqua Bank; the south block ends at Gangnes Street. The consultants brought three street design options for the entrance area. The most extreme relied on a roundabout two-thirds of the way down West Valley View Road to feed traffic north and south along a new street in the now-undeveloped area. Five of six small groups chose that design over two other street plans that included more traditional intersections on the road.

“I like this one because I’ve seen roundabouts in high-density areas, and they work,” City Councilor Don Steyskal said to the nine others in his working group. Talent Police Chief Bob Rector agreed with Steyskal. “I like this option too,” the chief said to the group. “It provides the best through-flow option to get traffic through.” However, some participants weren’t on board with the roundabout idea. Concerns about the safety and accessibility of a roundabout led one group worked on a plan that transformed the final third of West Valley View Road into a promenade and suggested a T-intersection instead of a roundabout.

“People don’t understand about roundabouts,” Wayne Van Blarcon, a retired police officer, said to his group. “I’m hoping there that there won’t be a roundabout.” He explained that roundabouts in other Oregon cities have been problematic for large trucks — including fire trucks — and drivers who are unfamiliar with the traffic design. Van Blarcon also noted that the cost of installing a roundabout is significantly higher than that of stoplights.

While opinions on the new design of the city’s entrance varied, all six groups agreed on the placement of a new Camelot Theater facility. Participants located the theater, considered an anchor of the downtown, just north of it’s current location. Groups also agreed on adding green space, such as pocket parks and pedestrian paths, and that including mixed-use buildings allowing people to live and work in the downtown core should part of the plan.

“It’s clear when you look at this place, you don’t see what’s just there, you see what could be,” consultant John Fregonese said. The Talent Urban Renewal Agency hired Fregonese Calthorpe Associates, a Portland-based urban and regional planning firm hired to facilitate the master-planning process for the West Valley View area. The consultants have also met previously with city officials, locals and property owners. They will return to Talent in April with a draft of the master plan based on the community input they received.