Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 4, 2003)
G REATER G OODS BY TED TAYLOR 515 HIGH EUGENE 541.485.4224 Growth Policies Take a Vacation S ome eyebrows were raised in late November when plaques outlining the City Council’s Growth Management Policies disap- peared from the west wall of the McNutt Room at City Hall. Some councilors report- edly wondered aloud if the missing policies had anything to do with them being ignored in recent years. But as it turns out, the plaques were not torn down and sacrificially burned, but were only stored away and will be returned, according to a note to councilors by Mary Walston of the City Managers Office. Walston wrote that the display was “re- moved temporarily to make room for the award to the city from Nature Conservancy.” She notes that many awards are displayed in the council office, but few are seen in public spaces. “Over the winter break we are going to place these awards in the display case in the southwest corner of the Council Chamber,” she says, and then the policies display will be returned. So why were some councilors concerned? The 19 Growth Management Policies were adopted in the fall of 1998 after two and a half years of community forums, surveys and workshops. Since that time, implementation of the policies has met resistance. The policies include supporting the exist- ing urban growth boundary (UGB), increasing density, using existing vacant land, encourag- ing infill, mixed-use, redevelopment, and en- couraging a mix of business and residential uses downtown. “They have relevance, and current valid- ity, but it’s always been easier for both council and community to value the policies but not their implementation,” says Councilor Scott Meisner. “Everybody spoke for holding the UGB through infill and redevelopment (densi- fication of the existing UGB), but I don’t think there has yet been an infill or redevelopment that didn’t raise the hackles, and ‘fear of change,’ of neighbors and some councilors.” Councilor Bonny Bettman agrees that im- plementation of the policies has been a chronic problem. “Even the few very modest provisions we have gotten in the land use code the homebuilders and the Chamber of Commerce have been dismantling with the help of the city, the planning department and the majority on council. And it seems that every plan or document or rule that is in place H oliday H ours:Daily 10-6 & ThFriSat 10-7 is dispensable. If a developer comes in with a proposal and they want to build it, they just come to council and the ma- jority of the council just changes the rules for them.” Bettman says sprawl is “extraordinarily expen- sive” in terms of providing services outside the urban core. “We’re developing in the city pretty much on a ’70s tract,” she says. “We are mak- ing decisions by looking in the rearview mirror instead of looking at the road ahead. We’re building the same kind of farm and forest land-consuming sprawling subdivisions of the ’60s and ’70s with big shopping centers completely dependent upon the automobile. The whole idea of the Growth Management Policies was to put us in a direc- tion where we could have a built environment that was more urban livable … on the scale of an urban village.” Policy 5 is specific in its call to work “co- operatively with metro area partners (Springfield and Lane County) and other nearby cities to avoid urban sprawl and pre- serve the rural character in areas outside the urban growth boundaries.” However, Jack Roberts, the executive director of the Lane Metro Partnership, recently called for expand- ing local UGBs to provide more land for in- dustrial sites and other purposes. Policy 17 calls for the city to “Protect and improve air and water quality and protect nat- ural areas of good habitat value through a vari- ety of means such as better enforcement of ex- isting regulations, new or revised regulations, or other practices.” But the council recently voted to reduce the inventory of urban natural resource areas slated for protection under statewide planning Goal 5. And city staff last week recommended developing more ball- fields in natural areas of Amazon Park. A seemingly unrelated Policy 19 calls for the council to “expand city efforts to achieve community-based policing,” but city coun- cilors were not allowed any involvement in the selection of the new top candidate for po- lice chief, Robert Lehner. Eugene’s City Charter specifically forbids councilors from participating in city personnel decisions, leav- ing hiring, firing and management exclusively to the city manager. However, community policing issues were reportedly a high priority in interviews with applicants for the top cop job. ew ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ GIFT CERTIFICATES CANDLEMAKING CLASSES SPECIAL ORDERS CANDLEMAKING SUPPLIES FACTORY DIRECT PRICES GREENHILL ROAD NORTH make a world of difference support fair trade this holiday www.greatergoodsonline.com 115 W. 6th Avenue Eugene, OR 97401 Call us at 541.687.7859 When she deserves 99 WAY HIGH CASCADE CANDLE CO. AIRPORT ROAD Your gift choices can JERRY’S AD RO E LIN LT E B 2 9 36 5 A IR PO R T R OA D, EU G EN E • 46 1 - 9 86 1 • W W W .C A SC AD EC A N DL E . C OM the moon and the stars, start with the moon! QUALITY MADE FOR A LIFETIME OPEN: MON-FRI 10-6, SAT 10-5, SUN 12-5 Free parking behind the store! M ON D AY -F R ID A Y 1 0 AM -5 PM • S AT U R D AY - SU ND AY 1 0 AM - 4 PM www.eugeneweekly.com EUGENE WEEKLY DECEMBER 4, 2003 11
