Eugene weekly., August 14, 2003, Page 12, Image 12

D
evelopers and land spec.ulators
are pushing to explode Eugene 's
urban growth boundary (UGB)
to cash in on urban sprawl.
"The top agenda item for the local and
state right wing is ~xpanding the urban
growth boundary ," says Eugene City
Councilor Bonny Bettman .
Last month, the developer bulldozer for
sprawl gained traction when the Eugene
city council majority voted to meet with the
Lane Metro Partnership business group to
discuss allowing. city development to spill
into rural areas.
Jack Roberts, who has lobbied for UGB
expansion as director of the Metro
Partnership, urged the City Council on July
14 to move to expand the UGB by conduct-
ing a stu4y of the need for more land for
development. Roberts cited a pair of 200 I
Eugene Chamber of Commerce studies and
lobbying by local housing developers as
evidence of the need for moving to expand
the growth boundary .· "This is something
that should be done ," he said.
The Chamber study of industrial lands
concluded that the city needed to add up to
2,000 acres of industrial land to the urban
growth boundary within the next 20 years .
That 's enough land for more than 1,500
football fields.
A companion Chamber study concluded°
that the city needed° to add up to 80~ more
acres of commercial lands to the UGB. That
would sprawl strip mall and box store
development over the equivalent of about ·
another 600 football fields ofrural farm and
forest land.
Lauri · Segel, Lane County planning
advocate for I 000 Friends of Oregon, says
the Chamber studies' calls for huge UGB
expansions are laughably biased . "It's just
hilarious."
"They ' re embellished ," Segel says .
"Those types of 'numbers are -not based on
the needs analysis that state law requires."
Bettman agrees the studies are "biased"
and were "arbitrary" in not considering the
12 AUGUST
14, 2003 eugene
weeKlV
many develop able or redevelopable sites
with the · existing UGB . 1.f the growth
boundary is expanded based on the
Chamber studies, "there 's no incentive to
redevelop the existing property within the
urban growth boundary," she says. "That's
the exact recipe for sprawl."
Councilor David Kelly also voiced
skepticism of the Chamber studies. "I'm
very far from convinced."
Coyp.cilors pointed out that the need for
expanding the UGB is usually considered
by taking into account the land supply in
the entire · metropolitan area, including
. "There 's ·no established basis currently
for saying we don 't have enough industrial ,
commercial or residential land," Segel says.
Historically , Eugene has had a fairly
loose UGB because planners in the 1970s
set the boundary far out, anticipating that
rapid growth in the 1970s would continue.
Instead, the 1980s recession in ~e area left
much of the land undeveloped. Today,
many large industrial sites listed by plan-
new in 1989 remain vacant, including the
Greenhill Industrial Park and sites on Chad
Drive in north Eugene.
The difficulty in selling such vacant
for a new study ofUG B expan sion. A study
funded and designed by a special interest
group "is not going to have any legal
basis ," Segel says.
Bettman says, "it's up to the city to fund
a study that is neutral as opposed to gener-
ated by political entities."
Segel says the city has already fallen
behind in meeting state requirements that it
update env ironmental studies and a study of
natural resource land for possible protec-
tion. State law doesn't require that the city
update it's UGB studies for another 10 to 15
years, she says. "It would be horrendous" to
fund the developer studies while continuing
to delay environmental protection studies,
she says.
Kelly says that the city has also fallen
behind on land use code updates and nodal
development planning work, and questions
whether the developers should take top pri-
ority for the city 's dwindling planning staff
and money. "The broader question is what
are our pianning and development priori-
ties?"
Given the city's lack of money and plan-
ners, private financing of the UGB studies
''would be a way to go," Kelly says. But he
says it's a "serious question" how the study
industrial lands has lead to complaints from
Springfield , rather than just one city. "I
could then maintain its independence. "I
developers ii! The Register-Guard that
thought we were one UGB," said Councilor
don't think an update of the Chamber study
adding yet"more land to the UGB would
Gary Pape at the council meeting last
is going to do it."
devalue their existing industrial sites.
month .
Although state law doesn't require that
·
''There's a lack of demand for some of
Eugene update its UGB studies now, that
the industrial land, even the shovel ready
could change. Gov. Ted Kulongoski has
industrial land," J:3ettman says, citing the
The Chamber studies are a dramatic
argued that the state needs more "shovel
recently
vacated
Sony factory
departure from previous city studies of.the ·
m
ready" industrial land to lure big companies
need for more developableland.
Springfield.
and create jobs . A taskforce the governor
But the Chamber and Roberts insist that
In 1993, the city found that the supply of
appointed, Jack Roberts is a member, has
industrial land within the UGB exceeded
the earlier studies still need to be updated.
drafted a recommendation that the state
the projected 20-year demand by between
Roberts told the City Council that "gener-
require Eugene and other cities to update
cms use" could be made of the Chamber
650 and 1, 172 acres.
.
their land supply studies to expand UGBs
In 1992, the city found that the commer-
studies to save money and that his group
every five years . _
could raise private money to contract for
cial land supply would exceeded the 2010
"It's an unfunded mandate," Bettman
and help fund studies that would meet state -
demand by 170 acres.
says.
A more recent 1998 study found that the ~ requirements for growth boundary expan-
In addition to having to pay for the cost-
20 year supply of residential land within the
sions.
ly studies , Bettman . says city taxpayers
Segel says it would be "egregious" to
urba !1 growth boundary , still exceeded
would have to fund <;:xpensive roads , sew-
demand by 1,415 acres .
use the biased Chamber studies as the basis
Lauri Segel, Lane County Planning
Advocate for 1000 Friends of Oregon,
says the Chamber studies' calls for huge
UGB expansions
are laughably biased.
'It's just hilarious.'
DRAMATIC
DEPARTURE
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