COURTHOUSE HURDLES
INCLUDE ACCESS ISSUES
The General Services Administration re-
cently put the new federal courthouse pro-
ject on hold, expressing concerns about the
city’s commitment to solving pedestrian ac-
cess problems to the courthouse neighbor-
hood.
The GSA’s concerns may be well
founded. City plans for the former Agripac
Cannery site were heavily criticized for
creating an isolated island surrounded by
two rivers of impassable traffic that cut the
area off from downtown and the river
front.
The city plans to split Franklin
Boulevard to flow around the site on either
side by adding a new highway along the
railroad tracks. City planners argue that the
split will make it easier for pedestrians to
cross the now impassable Franklin from
downtown.
But when the plans went out for public
hearings in 2001, critics said the solution
would only make the problem worse. Scott
Wylie, a local designer, compared Franklin
to a “Mississippi River of traffic.” If split, it
will “become like two Columbia Rivers of
traffic” and an even greater barrier, he said.
“We’re creating more than one barrier,”
Planning Commissioner Art Farley agreed.
“It’s absolutely horrible,” said Councilor
Betty Taylor of the plan to add another high-
way “too close to the river.”
City planners have argued that adding
the new highway could allow the city to
eventually remove traffic lanes on Franklin
to make the street less of a barrier. But
there’s no firm commitment to do so.
Highway traffic often expands to meet
available capacity and state transportation
officials would likely veto any move to
make Franklin smaller.
A solid council majority did vote to ap-
prove the plan for two highways around the
courthouse, but the highway project likely
lacks broad public support. A similar
“Franklin Option” proposal as part of a
Ferry Street Bridge corridor widening pro-
ject failed at the polls in 1994 by a wide
margin.
If the GSA uses the threat of canceling
the project to extort more local taxpayer
subsidies for the courthouse project, it will
also likely meet public resistance. Urban re-
newal funding has been heavily criticized
for diverting tax revenue from already
struggling city and county services and state
schools. Pressure is building for the city and
county to use any available road fund
money on street maintenance rather than
trying to stick locals with higher taxes.
Diverting scarce local funds or increas-
ing local taxes for a bond measure for infra-
structure to serve the lavishly designed
courthouse could also meet major opposi-
tion. — Alan Pittman
COUNCIL VOTES ALLOW
SUBURBAN HOSPITAL
The Eugene City Council appeared to
back away from siting a new hospital near
downtown last week.
Last year a council majority moved to
use zoning laws to prohibit a hospital in far
north Eugene, but Sept. 24 the council voted
4-4 with Mayor Jim Torrey breaking the tie
in favor of a resolution to “welcome” a new
hospital nearly anywhere in the city. In an-
other vote, the council decided 5-3 to move
forward with a change in the city’s zoning
code to ease hospital siting.
BY PAUL NEEVEL
Mark Hansen
Since he moved to Eugene in 1979, Winston native Mark Hansen has become an enthu-
siast for wheelchair sports and a valued supporter of Mobility International USA. “I
played rugby in Eugene from ‘92 to ‘97,” he notes. “There’s no Eugene team any more,
so I go to Sunday practices in Salem.” Hansen still plays and coaches rugby during the
six months he spends with his sister in Tucson. He makes a circuit of tennis tourna-
ments and coaches a promising young player in Eugene. MIUSA was founded in 1981
and Hansen served on its board of directors from 1985 to 2000. For 20 years he has
played host to a multitude of foreign visitors, including guests from Cambodia and
Kyrgyztan currently here for the Women’s Institute on Leadership and Disability. A few
days ago, Hanson invited 25 friends to a “wrenching” BBQ — a work party to assemble
wheelchairs from a pile of parts and garage-sale finds. Twenty newly rebuilt chairs will
be sent off with visitors from Third World countries. “A lot of people are happy to bring
a wheelchair back with them,” says Hanson, who began restoring chairs in 2001. “It
can be checked on the airline as baggage.”
8 OCTOBER 2, 2003
The hospital zoning vote went against
the recommendation of the city’s Planning
Commission. Eugene Planning Director
Tom
Coyle
said
McKenzie-
Willamette/Triad officials had indicated
that they favored the change in secret meet-
ings.
But Councilor David Kelly said it “both-
ers” him that the hospital hasn’t come to
councilors directly or in testimony to re-
quest the zoning change. “We don’t know
yet if it’s responsive to the hospital’s needs,
and it goes against the recommendation of
our own Planning Commission.”
The council votes make it easier for a
new McKenzie-Willamette/Triad hospital
to be built in far west or north Eugene, with
high city transportation and infrastructure
costs, leaving citizens with longer drives to
the hospital after Sacred Heart leaves for
Springfield.
The council did vote unanimously for a
resolution offering unspecified monetary
incentives and land assembly to help a hos-
pital choosing to locate in the central city,
south and west of the Willamette River and
as far west as Bertelsen Road.
But support for the incentives for a
downtown hospital did not appear strong.
Councilor George Polling unsuccessfully
urged the council to also give incentives
north of the river. Mayor Torrey unsuccess-
fully advocated giving incentives to smaller
health care operations, a definition that
could have led to the city giving money to
Sacred Heart for moving its hospital to
Springfield and leaving a clinic behind.
— AP
EUGENE ’BURBS SITE OF
PERMACULTURE GATHERING
Permaculture happens, whether it’s in
the country, the city or the suburbs, say or-
ganizers of this year’s North West Regional
Permaculture Gathering. The seventh an-
nual event took place Sept. 12-14 in the
River Road neighborhood rather than the
rural settings of previous years.
The site was a 3/4-acre property with a
large open-spaced studio as the focal point.
An outdoor kitchen was constructed along
with a straw bale amphitheater, open air liv-
ing room, display area and kids’ space.
Several residential locations in the neigh-
borhood were also extensions of the gather-
ing.
“For some people, permaculture is
mostly about growing food in an Earth-
friendly way,” says organizer Jan Spencer
of the Eugene Permaculture Guild. “For
others, permaculture is an umbrella term
that covers a diverse range of issues and
topics from food production to cooperative