Experts urge city housing changes
ay hum
Of the Emerald
Unless the City of Eugene
changes some of its policies to
allow more building of apartments
and duplexes, it could face a large
shortage of multi-family buildings
by 1985, an independent
economist and University
economics professor told the city
council.
Ed Whitelaw, retained by the
city to study housing supply and
demand, also told the council
Wednesday that if current housing
trends continue, the city will ex
perience a surplus of single-family
buildings.
Whitelaw, a partner in
Economic Consultants of Oregon
Ltd., says the study is based on
projected population statistics for
Eugene, and on the expected
trends in housing. He says his
two-part study of housing pres
ents a "black picture" for
Eugene’s housing market.
According to Whitelaw, the in
creasing cost of housing, espe
cially of single-family buildings,
will create a greater demand in the
future for apartments, fourplexes,
triplexes and duplexes. Consum
ers, he reasoned, will seek more
inexpensive living quarters as
housing prices rise.
Whitelaw said his study is,
however, unrealistic because it
assumes that present economic
and social conditions will remain
constant until 1985. Also, he said,
the report assumes that the prop
ortions of houses to apartments
will remain constant.
Whitelaw added that the report
gives the city a good idea of what
the housing trends are likely to be
in the future, so policies may be
made to react to those trends.
The report makes three re
commendations to the city council
on ways to meet the expected in
crease in demand for multi-family
housing units.
The first recommendation is
that the city should use already
existing powers, such as zoning
regulations and building permits,
to increase ‘‘the efficiency with
which the housing market can
satisfy the apparently increasing
demand for higher density resi
dential densities."
The second stipulates that the
city should study areas where the
demand for higher density hous
i ng is likely to occur. Whitelaw said
his evidence suggests that the
demand will center around
Eugene's downtown area, the
University and other commercial
and employment centers.
The report also recommends
that the city rezone land now
zoned for manufacturing and
single-family residential areas to
make more room for higher den
sity housing. The report says
there is presently an oversupply of
land zoned for manufacturing
purposes.
Whitelaw also said the ex
pected housing problems won't be
solved by annexing more land to
the city.
“Annexation won't eliminate the
(economic) inefficiency because
...Of environmental concern
By KATHLEEN MONJE
Of the Emerald
A small leak that is releasing
radioactive water from one en
closed Trojan nuclear plant sys
tem to another does not pose a
public danger, according to Plant
Superintendent Bart Withers.
Portland General Electric Co.
(PGE) announced the leak's exis
tence late last week. Withers said
the contaminated water is not es
caping into the environment.
The leak is in the primary cool
ing water system, which passes
over the nuclear fuel within the
reactor core. Withers said less
than one gallon a day is leaking
into the steam supply system that
runs the electricity-producing tur
bines.
He said the contamination is
completely isolated from a third
enclosed system that circulates
water through the cooling tower
and releases water vapor to the
atmosphere.
The plant’s operation will prob
ably not be interrupted, Withers
said. PGE plans to correct the
problem when the Trojan plant is
shut down for its scheduled refuel
ing this spring.
The Bonneville Power Ad
ministration (BPA) has filed an
official notice of intent to develop a
formula for allocating energy from
the federal Columbia River Power
System. (
“The long-range apportionment
of federal hydroelectric energy is a
subject of growing controversy in
the region,” said BPA Adminis
trator Sterling Munro.
Unless and until congressional i
legislation is enacted spelling out
who gets what share of the federal
power pie, he said, BPA has to i
pursue such a process. “But the
resulting formula should reflect
broad public input," Munro added.
BPA has scheduled two years
for developing the allocation plan;
Munro hopes an allocation for- i
mula will be adopted by early
1980.
He noted that BPA has firm
power contracts with 138 custom
ers in the Pacific Northwest, which
will expire between 1981 and
1994. In addition, new public
eodies and cooperatives have
applied for preference status and
access to the federal hydropower.
Many variables and alternatives
will be considered before adoption
af any proposed formula, Munro
said. The class of customer
served, customer-owned genera
:ion, type of load, grades of energy
and their rates, and energy con
servation will be included in BPA
consideration.
Public information and com
nent forums will be scheduled in
he summer of 1979 for discussion
af possible allocation formulas,
Munro said.
The Coast Guard recorded
1,008 oil spills off the coasts of
Dreg on and Washington in 1977.
Bain rips assessor’s record
Although William Bain, candi
date for Lane County assessor,
never mentioned incumbent Ken
Bylund by name, it was clear he
was the target of his comments at
the Republican Round Table
Forum Friday.
Bain said the county assessor
who is completing his first four
year term as assessor has no bus
iness “making promises he can't
deliver.” Bain referred to the
incumbent s promise to cut prop
erty taxes when “the only thing an
assessor can do is properly
equalize taxes in the area and
work with others in government to
shift the property tax burden.”
Bylund has not declared
whether or not he intends to run
for reelection.
Bain criticized the current office
management, saying he sees
“real problems" such as low
morale, high turnover and lack of
efficiency in the county assessor's
office. He said the current lack of
efficiency is a “pie in the face of
the incumbent, because it was a
campaign promise.”
Bain said the level of morale in
the assessor’s office was so low
that it’s "akin to a snake’s belly.”
He said 70 of the 147 employes in
the office have quit or retired since
Bylund took office. Bain urged in
creased use of computer technol
ogy saying "the intelligent use of
machines is essential. It's not
sensible to jerk programs be
cause you don't trust machines.”
Bain referred to a Residential
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Computer Program, which was
discontinued after what Bain said
was a $90,000 investment.
Bain favors “management by
setting objectives at the personal
levelHe said he would like to see
training and cross-training for jobs
so there would not be “only one
guy who knows how to use the
computer.”
The total oil entering coastal
waters reached 32,000 gallons,
according to Coast Guard officials
in Seattle.
Two spills accounted for nearly
half of the total oil spilled last year.
A truck tank accident near Brook
ings spilled 4,100 gallons of air
craft fuel into a tributary off the
Chetco River, and 9,000 gallons
leaked from a diesel oil storage
tank into a drainage ditch in
Raymond, Wash.
The Western Environmental
Trade Association and the
Oregon Farm Bureau will present
“a unique look at the demand side
of the energy equation" at a con
ference Tuesday in Portland, at
the Sheraton Hotel.
Gov. Bob Straub and Fred Mil
ler, the director of Oregon’s De
partment of Energy, will speak at
the re-scheduled seminar,
“Energy and the Consumer.”
Registration will begin at 7:30
a.m. Tuesday. Further information
is available at the Western En
vironmental Trade Association of
fice, Suite 200, 2400 S.W. 4th
Ave. in Portland, phone 221-0357.
the increasing demand is in the
downtown area," he said.
Whitelaw said the city will have to
either increase the density of its
housing or expand its borders.
"Something’s got to give,”
Whitelaw said. "The city will get
more requests to make these
kinds of trade-offs.”
“The situation could be com
pounded if we don’t have in
creases in large investments in
higher density housing in the
metro area,” Whitelaw predicted.
He added it is unlikely that the
large oversupply of single-family
houses will materialize, because
builders and developers won’t
build houses unless the demand
is present in the market.
Whitelaw added that some
other factors, such as the possible
increase in the cost of fuel, may
affect housing trends. As fuel be
comes more scarce and more ex
pensive, he reasoned, people will
tend to live in multi-family dwel
lings near the center of the city.
Betty Niven, city housing
specialist, said the “picture may
be even blacker” than Whitelaw’s
study indicates.
Niven said 68 per cent of the
available vacant lots of land within
the city’s urban service boundary
are smaller than one-half acre
(21,780 square feet). Of those,
she said. 74 percent are zoned
for single-family buildings.
She added that of the land par
cels of 10 acres or larger, 96 per
cent are zoned for single-family
use. She said the current housing
trends are 64 percent single
family use and 36 percent multi
family use — a trend she said may
have to change to meet the in
creasing demand for multi-family
use buildings predicted in
Whitelaw’s report.
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