• Lane County commissioners and public safety officials are brewing up another
try at an income tax to support the Sheriff’s Office, jails, drug treatment and
other public safety needs, and we hear animal control will be included this time
for several reasons: Animal control is a responsibility of county government, it
sort of falls under public safety and it’s a popular program bound to garner some
votes. Adequate funding of animal control could lead to better investigation of ani-
mal abuse cases, more spaying and neutering and a no-kill policy for adoptable
animals. What would make a new tax even more attractive, however, would be an
increase in the share of funding that goes to crime prevention and intervention
and a lower overall tax than was on the ballot last November. Another challenge
facing the county in passing this tax is the double majority rule. Except in general
elections, money measures require a 50 percent voter turnout in addition to a
majority of votes. The 2007 state Legislature is expected to address this problem
one more time, but don’t hold your breath.
• So what happens now that the best laid plans have gone astray for the public-
private partnership that would have built a Whole Foods Market on East
Broadway? The commercial site near the new U.S. Courthouse is prime property,
and we predict something good will eventually be built there. Whole Foods is
reportedly looking at building somewhere else in Eugene on a less expensive site,
but that doesn’t make much sense to us. Downtown is destined to get a big influx
of housing and commercial development, and city subsidies are available there
and not on the outskirts. Where else would Whole Foods build? Market of Choice
is already meeting the demand for gourmet food shopping in north, south and
east Eugene, Trader Joe’s is a hot spot in the Ferry Street Bridge area, and the
chain groceries are filling in the gaps for neighborhood shopping. We love the lit-
tle corner groceries downtown. Maybe all that Eugene’s growing downtown popu-
lation needs is just another locally owned Kiva-style store on East Broadway —
sharing a building with restaurants and apartments.
• The cancellation of Whole Foods downtown puts the proposed adjacent city
parking garage on hold, and that’s fine with us. We can debate all day whether or
not the garage would have been a subsidy for Whole Foods. One thing for certain:
We can find a better use for the $7 million to $10 million earmarked for that con-
crete bunker. What would better serve downtown and the people of Eugene? Send
your suggestions for how to better spend $10 million to editor@eugeneweekly.com
• Our cover story this week examines the potential devastation of Measure 37
claims, most of which are outside of urban growth boundaries. These claims vio-
late the spirit, if not the letter, of Oregon’s land use laws and directly impact our
state’s liveability. Meanwhile, growing pains are evident in neighborhoods in
Eugene that abut forests and farmlands. Even without Measure 37 claims, we are
encroaching on our urban growth boundary, and in the process residents are see-
ing their neighborhoods change for the worse. Quiet paths through woods and
meadows are being bulldozed for expensive housing developments. We hear
Churchill Area Neighbors will be meeting this week to talk about the paving over
of forest land and a natural meadow at the top of Hawkins.
• Looking for a new career in sustainable energy? Become a plumber’s apprentice!
We hear there’s a big demand for qualified solar water heating installers in the
valley. We also hear Springfield and Eugene could become manufacturing centers
for for solar water heating systems. A lot of information on solar energy and other
sustainable technology and practices can be found at the Good Earth Home,
Garden & Living Show this weekend at the Fairgrounds. This is going to be a
remarkable and fun show and we encourage everyone to check it out. Website is
www.EugeneHomeShow.com
• People come and go at Eugene Weekly, as reflected in changes in the “Who You
Gonna Blame?” box in the Letters section. We only write about these changes
when the person leaving is well known, such Lois Wadsworth, who retired last year
as our arts editor. But we’re getting calls and emails asking what happened to our
reporter Kera Abraham. We were sad to see her leave in mid-January. She was
recruited by a larger alternative newsweekly in California. Kera is a rising star in
environmental investigative journalism and has gained a national reputation
based on her work for EW the past two and a half years. Don’t be surprised to see
her at the Eugene Celebration, Oregon Country Fair and the Public Interest
Environmental Law Conference. She says she loves Eugene and plans to return as
often as she can.
SLANT includes short opinion pieces, observations and rumor-chasing notes compiled by the EW staff. Heard
any good rumors lately? Contact Ted Taylor at 484-0519, editor@eugeneweekly.com
8 JANUARY 25, 2007
news
briefs
TEETERING
ON SPRAWL
The Eugene City Council teetered on
the verge of urban sprawl last week.
The council on Jan. 17 split 4-4 on
whether to launch a land supply study that
would be the first step toward expanding
the urban growth boundary. Such an ex-
pansion is a long-sought goal of local de-
velopers and land speculators who would
make a windfall turning farm and forest
land into cul-de-sacs.
Mayor Kitty Piercy broke the tie vote in
favor of delaying the inventory. Her vote
supported the votes of Councilors Bonny
Bettman, Betty Taylor, Andrea Ortiz and
Alan Zelenka. Councilors Mike Clark,
Jennifer Solomon, George Poling and
Chris Pryor voted to speed up the survey.
At issue was whether the city update its
land supply survey years before required to
do so by state law. State law requires cities
to periodically perform a study showing
they have an adequate supply of land for
housing, commercial and industrial devel-
opment. Eugene’s next residential land
study isn’t due until 2015, and the com-
mercial and residential land studies aren’t
due until 2010, according to city attorney
Emily Jerome.
The city estimates that it currently has a
“generous surplus of commercial and in-
dustrial land,” 122 and 2,404 acres respec-
tively, and a “modest surplus,” 350 acres,
supply of residential land remaining.
But developers and their conservative
allies on the council hotly dispute those
numbers and argue that the city should do
detailed continuous studies to make its
land supply numbers more accurate.
“It’s essential to know how current and
accurate” the land supply numbers are, ar-
gued Pryor.
But progressive councilors said con-
stantly updating the land supply studies,
which often take years to complete and
adopt, would be too expensive, time con-
suming and unworkable and would cir-
cumvent the long established state process.
“As soon as you do a study, that one’s
dated,” Zelenka said. The city couldn’t
have a totally up-to-date study “without
spending an enormous amount of money.”
“This would be a total shift in the way
we go about looking at things,” Piercy
said. Cities throughout Oregon follow the
state rules that it’s “reasonable” to update
the land studies every 20 years, she said.
A decade ago, Eugene residents over-
whelmingly supported holding the urban
growth boundary in city surveys, which led
to the council adopting a growth manage-
ment policy to “support the existing Eugene
urban growth boundary by taking actions to
increase density.” Since 1950, Eugene’s
population density has declined 29 percent
due to urban sprawl. — Alan Pittman
MARCH ON
WASHINGTON
SATURDAY
A peace march predicted to be the
largest since the Iraq War began is planned
for Saturday, Jan. 27, in Washington, D.C.,
and a contingency from Lane County is on
its way there, along with confirmed groups
from 30 states and 111 cities.
The purpose of the protest, organized
by United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ), is
to urge Congress to stand up to President
Bush’s war escalation plans, and to begin
bringing U.S. troops home now.
MoveOn.org has called upon its 3.2
million members to join UFPJ, describing
the march as potentially a “turning point
for the war” comparable to how “Martin
Luther King Jr.’s March on Washington in
1963 was a turning point in the fight for
equality and civil rights,” according to the
MoveOn website.