Alternative Accredited High School
·
Wellsprings Friends School
Open House Wednesday
6:30-8:30 p.111.
August 21st & 27th
based on unconditional acceptance • experiential learning emphasized
small classes, supportive community • problem-solving approach to social & academic issues
valuing non-violence, diversity, & living in the Quaker spirit of mutual respect
'~ Culture of Affirmation.''
3590 w. 18th Avenue
Eugene-. 686~1223
FRIENDS SCHOOL
Your
McKenzie
River
ADVENTURE
SOURCE
RAFT
RENTALS
WHITEWATER
TRIPS
RIVER
CENTER FISHING
TRIPS
KAYAK
CLASSES
& GEAR
II
want to just say the supply is 2,000 acres
short, add that land, and lose it."
The governor's task force draft report
also recognized the problem ofland owners
seeking to rezone their industrial land to
make more money. "R_esidential and com-
mercial land sells for two to 20 times indus-
trial land," the study noted.
The Register-Gua_rd company, which is
one of the region's largest developers , is
now seeking to ~hange zoning rules to
allow it to make more money by allowing
medical offices on its 4 7 acres of industrial
land along Chad Drive.
The City Council is now moving forward
with new zoning rules to allow hospitals to
be built on industrial land, Segel points out.
The city needs to tighten its zoning and
protect existing industrial sites instead of
allowing commercial development "pretty
much wherever anybody wants it,"
Bettman says. "It's destructive."
SHIVEL
READY
Sprawl supporters say opening up the
growth boundary will create jobs when big
industry is attracted to build in new "shov-
el ready" greenfield sites.
But Bettman says that what sprawl sup-
porters are shoveling doesn't smell like
jobs. The state and city have pursued a
strategy of attracting big industry for the
ple want to live here, want to do business
here; and are attracted here."
Urbllll sprawl creates high costs for tax-
payers, often low-wage big-box and strip
mall jobs and isn't good for the local econ-
omy, Bettman says.
Segel says sprawl takes away resource
lands that are a key part of the st~te and
local economy. "We have an industry in •
Oregon, it's called farming and forestry"
"There's 1;10 data connecting the expan-
sion of the urban growth boundary with
creating jobs, " Bettman says.
But a few wobbling council votes may
be all that stands in th'e .way of developers
~ashing in on sprawl at.taxpayer expense.
· A council majority (Meisner, George
Poling, Gary Pape, Jennifer Solomon and
mayor Jirn Torrey) voted to take scarce
meeting time for the Metro Partnership's
presentation . last month~on . growth
bound-
.
ary expansion.
Kelly, as a member of the partnership
board, voted for the business group's letter
urging the council to study expansion.
Kelly said he favors a broad study that
includes redevelopment alternatives, but
not necessarily UGB expansion. " If the let-
ter had said expand the UGB period , I
wouldn't have voted for it."
City planning staff often provide key
guidance to councilors on such decisions.
~
Located
on the McKenzie
River,
next to Mom's
Pies
FREE
RAFT
DELIVERY
& PICK UP!
Adventure
River
Center
49701 McKenzie
Hwy, Blue River, Oregon
www.AdventureRiverCenter.com
• 822-3888
'There are land speculators out there
that will profit obscenely depending on
where the UGB is.'
- Bonny Bettman
REMEMBER
UPCOMING
ISSUES
WHEN
OUR TOWN
HAD~
COUNTRYSIDE
AUG 28
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UNIVE RS ITY
past decade and unemployment has gotten
worse, not better, Bettman says. "Those are
failed economic development strategies."
Kelly and Bettman say the city should
focus on existing small businesses. "The
vast majority of new jobs created in a com-
munity come from local businesses," Kelly
says. He points to a recent R-G story r~rt-
ing that in the local enterprise zones, "the
great majority of small tax-break recipients
. . . have prospered, while many of the big
tax-break recipients have closed plants or
cut jobs ."
Bettman says rather than giving away
big tax breaks and funding urban SJ?rawl,
' the city should fund good schools, parks
and other livable city services "so that peo-
But the city planning department recently
lost its planning director and another veter- .
an planner to retirements and has yet to
weigh in on the issue.
City planner Kurt Yeiter says launching
a UGB expansion study now, "seems just a
little premature." An ongoing city natural
resource inventory and parks acquisition
program could effect the available land sup-
ply over the next six months, he said. "We
should wait for some of those to wind down
so we know what land it is we are measur-
ing."
Roberts told the council he has already
contacted a private consultant to do the
UGB expansion study which he wants to
IW
start next month .