the UGB is."
ers, schools, fire stations and other infra-
One such speculator is John Musumeci,
structure and services to serve the resulting
urban sprawl. Taxpayers are forced to either
the land dealer who made millions off mov-
ing PeaceHealth from downtown Eugene to
pay more to cover the costs of sprawl or
suffer reduced city services and infrastruc-
the northern edge of Springfield . Musumeci
ture as limited city resources are diverted _ recently acquired more than 1,000 acres of
from the central city to serve growth on the
forest land just outside the UGB in the LCC
basin and has recently been advocating on
edge, Bettman says. "The reason sprawl is
local TV and radio for
bad is it's extremely expensive ."
expansion of the
That expense and opposition to the ugli-
growth boundary that would allow his land
ness, traffic congestion, pollution, environ-
to be developed.
mental damage and loss of livability and
Musumeci played a key role in founding
farm and forest land that sprawl creates has
and funding the Gang of 9 that ran months
made expanding the growth boundary
of $1,000-a-day cartoons in The Register-
unpopular in Eugene. A comprehensive
Guard attacking anti-sprawl city councilors
1996 Growth - Management Study -found
two years ago. _
overwhelming opposition to sprawl and cit-
Roberts has allied with Musumeci's
izens in favor of a "Recycle Eugene" sce-
Gang in the past praising the anonymous
nario that focused growth within the UGB.
attacks in a R-G opinion piece and in a let-
ter posted on the Gang's web site. "From
In r(?Sponse to public opinion, the council
the beginning, I have appreciiued the job
adopted a set of official city growth man-
you are doing," Roberts wrofe in the letter.
agement policies. Policy 1 states : "Support
Bettman says Roberts and the partner-
the existing Eugene urban growth boundary
ship are funded mostly through local gov-
by taking actions to increase density and
ernment money and shouldn 't be involved
use existing vacant land and under-used
in political lobbying. "I have some very
land within the boundary more efficiently."
serious concerns about the role of the Metro
Partnership," Bettman says. "I believe this
is advocating policy."
Whil~ sprawl is expensive for taxpayers ,
The cities of Eugene and Springfield
it's highly profitable for developers ,
give the partnership $50,000 a year each
Bettman says. "You can make a lot of
and the county contributes $170 ,000 . At the
money if you can externalize the costs of
council meeting, Roberts said that the part-
infrastructure on to taxpayers," she says.
nership expects about $100 ,000 in private
"There are land speculators out there that
donations next year but has received less
will profit obscenely depending on where
an
OBSCENE
PROFITS
-
~ J
consolidate parcels or cleanup old industri-
than that amount this year.
al sites so they can be redeveloped . Kelly
Bettman says city staff didn't respond to
her request for a legal opinion on the legal-
faults the Chamber studies f~r not fully
ity of the city contributing to a group that
considering redevelopment opportunities
within the existing UGB.
uses the money to tum around and lobby
The Chamber studies argue that redevel-
the city on legislative matters. "I was very
opment . can't provide much more land
disappointed."
Kelly, who sits on ,the Metro Partnership
because land buyers view the sites as unde-
sirable in location , appearance and cost to
board, says it's legitimate for the group to
argue for an expanded UGB. "I have no
clean up.
problem with them telling the local govern- -
Councilor Scott Meisner also said at the
ments that, hey, you don't have enough
meeting that he is interested in such brown-
industrial land."
field redevelopment. He said it was unfor-
On its 2002 non-profit tax return, the
tunate that the council recently voted to
partnership states that it is not involved in
give Hynix millions of dollars more in tax
lobbying or influencing public opinion on
breaks rather than using the money to fund
legislative matters.
clean-ups of old industrial sites for new
industry.
Bettman says lobbying for more land to
serve homebuilders and commercial devel-
Meisner said that while the council is
opment also goes beyond the partnership's
requiring higher density commercial and
supposed mission of promoting local indus-
residential development, it should also
require industry to build more densly with
trial job creation and retention .
less ~urface parking . "Are we squandering
the resource?" Meisner asked. "I'm not
interested in doing a [land] inventory in iso-
Before the city opens up more land to
development, it should make sure land - lation ."
Another alternative approach would be
already within the UGB is being used,
to prevent the ong6ing rezoning of industri-
according to Kelly.
al land to commercial and residential uses .
Bettman agrees , saying "There's a lot of
"It's inappropriate use of industrial land
alternatives to consider before we consider
that is the issue not unavailability," Segel
opening up the U<1B and bringing in 2,500
says: "We're seeing a whole slew of con-
acres."
version s throughout the metropolitan area."
"There is a significant amount of under-
Meisner also says the city has to be care-
utilized industrial land;" Kelly says. He
ful with rezoning industrial land. "I don 't
says the city could use urban renewal to
BROWNFIELDS
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