Photo by Greg Gawtowski
Jim Johnston: “Eugene will certainly end up looking like Los Angeles if
we don't get together and cooperate with each other.’’
Eugene destined
to look like LA?
By DAN POSTREL
Of the Emerald
Eugene “will certainly end up
looking like Los Angeles if we
don’t get together and cooperate
with each other,” Jim Johnston,
city council candidate, told a
Rubicon Society meeting Thurs
day.
Johnston, the estimator and
design supervisor for the
University's Physical Plant, is
seeking the Ward 1 council seat.
He said, "Adversary roles are
emphasized and carried through"
in hearings on too many public is
sues.”
Planning disputes, for example,
are frequently handled by attor
neys for special interest groups,
and too often end up in court, he
told the luncheon meeting.
“It’s not going to work to have
special interest groups or city hall
implement changes people don't
even want,” he asserted, referring
to the city's current planning
strategy.
Reduction of lot size and front
age requirements, and overuse of
duplex and triplex housing all
threaten to overcrowd Eugene.
Johnston said.
' If one is not careful,' he
warned, “use of these techniques
without citizen knowledge could
make this city look like some of the
cities you've run away from."
A better approach to growth
management, Johnston said, is to
develop workshops and forums to
gather information on issues and
to bring “people with a wide vari
ety of views together."
Johnston pointed to the city's
Joint Housing Commission and to
the neighborhood organizations
as examples of his cooperative
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Oi egon Daily Emerald 4
approach to issues.
Abandonment of “adversary”
techniques and application of the
collective approach can work to
resolve issues other than growth,
Johnston said.
Eugene's unemployment prob
lem, for example, could be eased
by bringing together local re
sources and technical knowledge
to begin a plastics and electronics
industry, he suggested.
The local unemployment level
— which is above the national av
erage — will never drop if indus
tries located here continue to
bring in personnel from else
where, he added.
Education, energy conserva
tion, and problems of the elderly
also require attention, Johnston
said in closing, "and we can start
by creating a mayor's forum on the
next major issue that bothers us."
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Pace 13
Civic center complex
may be on ballot
By TOM JACKSON
Of the Emerald
The Eugene Civic Center Commission voted
unanimously Wednesday to ask the city council to
place a bond measure on the June 27 ballot to
fund an estimated $22 million downtown civic
center complex.
The project, if approved by the voters, will con
tain a large concert hall, a large theatre, a small
theatre, a convention center and meeting rooms.
The plans also call for a large hotel to be built on
the site, but the hotel would be built by private
funds.
The commission debated several funding al
ternatives for the project, including two proposals
to build the complex in three stages. The commis
sion, however, decided the building would be best
contructed as a complete project rather than in
segments. Funding for the structures will be
gathered from general obligation bonds.
One item debated was the convention center.
Commission member Brian Obie, who is also a
city council member and Arlen Swearingen,
Downtown Development Board member, urged
the commission to include the convention center.
Commission chairer Lester Anderson, former
Eugene mayor, said he preferred a plan to build
the concert hall and theatres first. The convention
center, under that proposal, would be built after
later bond measures.
“If we build the performing arts center, it means
we will eventually get the hotel and the convention
facility,” Anderson said. “I think that scenario has
the best chance for success.”
Obie argued that without the convention center,
the voters would not approve the bond measure.
Citing the failure of two performing arts center
bond measures in the past, Obie said the conven
tion facility would give the voters an added incen
tive to pass the measure.
“We can sell this proposal to the voters on the
basis of the community need for economic de
velopment,” Obie said, explaining a convention
center would attract business to the Eugene area.
“That’s important to a good segment of our popu
lation.”
Obie added if the city builds a convention facil
ity, a potential hotel builder will be more likely to
move into the site because the demand for hotel
rooms would be assured.
Dean Baumgartner, the civic center project de
velopment director, indicated both proposals
would include all of the proposed facilities. ‘‘We re
talking about different methods of financing the
different parts of the package, not about eliminat
ing part of it,” he said.
Baumgartner estimated — or “guestimated” as
he termed it — that the project would cost about
$22 million.
One reason the commission decided to re
commend the complex be built as a complete unit
— and that the issue be placed on the ballot as
soon as possible — is that the cost of the project
will increase an estimated $130,000 per month of
delay because of the rate of inflation, according to
Baumgartner.
Baumgartner also noted that the cost figures
are rough estimates and that more specific cost
analyses would be available for the commission’s
next meeting. However, he indicated the $22 mil
lion estimate allows for inflation, architect's fees,
consultant’s fees and the actual cost of placing
the measure itself on the ballot.
City Manager Charles Henry, who attended the
meeting but was not a member of the commis
sion, said the earliest time the measure could be
placed on the ballot would be June 27.
Another concern among the commission mem
bers was the measure might be jeopardized by
other bond and tax measures on the ballot.
Among the tax issues expected to come before
the voters soon are a levy for a new sewage
treatment plant, an increasing school tax and the
city’s 1978-79 budget.
“How many bond measures will the voter’s ap
prove?” queried Irving Fletcher, a Lane County
Labor Council representative to the Commission.
“We need to think about that.”
The commission will review the cost estimates
of the project proposal Monday and will likely pre
sent its findings to the council early in March.
The civic center, if approved by the voters, will
occupy a two-block area between Sixth and
Seventh Avenues.
The two sides of the civic center complex will be
connected by a pedestrian bridge over Willamette
St., and underground parking will be built under
neath both of the blocks.
If approved, the center will be constructed by
the Eugene architecture firm of Unthank, Seder,
Poticha and Associates. If built, the architect’s six
percent fee for the structures could be as much as
B1.34 million if the project costs $22 million.