NEWS BRIEFS
CONTINUED FROM P.8 P.10
Wobblies) asking people to drop off coats,
hats and gloves or come take the warm
clothing if needed. And Friday night, the
Occupy Eugene campsite became a stop
on the Whiteaker’s Last Friday Art Walk.
The Dec. 15 expiration date for the
Occupiers’ permission to camp at
Washington-Jefferson Park is drawing
near, and so far Eugene has managed to
avoid the pepper spraying and other
violence that has marked the removal of
Occupy camps in other cities.
In a Nov. 23 email to colleagues,
Eugene City Manager Jon Ruiz writes, “I
am pleased that the city of Eugene’s
approach has been successful so far in
avoiding many of the problems we are
seeing in other communities.” He
continues, “We are working to do this
while striving to minimize community
disruption and impact to public
resources.”
Ruiz says in the email that the city has
been accused in emails and via letters to
the editor of not equally enforcing written
complaints against West 11th EmX signs
and OE signs. He writes, “City staff have
discussed those violations with OE
representatives. Some of the signs have
been removed. City staff will continue to
work with OE to obtain full compliance,
just as we would for other sign code
violations.” Complains of building code
violations have also been addressed, Ruiz
writes, and he adds that Occupy Eugene
plans to reimburse the city for the $2,000
temporary chain-link fence put up along
7th Avenue to keep pedestrians safely out
of the street.
— Camilla Mortensen
LUBA RULES
ON GRAVEL
Lane County can’t issue a permit that
would allow gravel trucks to speed
through a quiet rural neighborhood
without allowing the affected neighbors
some input on the issue, according to
Oregon’s Land Use Board of Appeals.
A group of neighbors living near a
proposed gravel mine off of Quaglia
Road in Cottage Grove are hoping that
thanks to the Nov. 22 LUBA ruling, the
quarry proposed by Donald Overholser
(now deceased) and Rodney Matthews
might have limits that would make the
enterprise a little more tolerable for those
nearby.
According to the LUBA decision, the
case is remanded to Lane County and the
neighbors cannot be barred from
participating.
When the mine applied for a permit to
operate in Lane County, it needed to go
through a site review process. Families
for a Quarry-Free Neighborhood were
fine with the restrictions that were put on
the mine through the site review,
according to their attorney Dan Stotter.
The restrictions included a limited the
number of truckloads, limited truck
speeds, and called for the gravel road to
be upgraded, add safety pull-outs and to
have intersections made safer. Since the
quarry would use dynamite, restrictions
also included limiting how often rock
could be blasted.
Nearby families, some with properties
bordering the proposed mine, were
worried about the effects of the noise on
their animals, dust on farms, homes and
wildlife, the possibility of declining
property values and the fact that the road,
which would be filled with gravel trucks,
is shared with school buses and children.
According to Stotter, the permit that
Lane County originally issued addressed
these concerns. So the families didn’t
appeal the permit when it was issued to
the mine operators because the families
were satisfied with the restrictions.
The mine operators were not satisfied
with the restrictions, arguing they were
not responsible for all the impacts to the
road, which has also been used by logging
trucks. The mine operators appealed the
permit and the process moved to another
IT’S ABOUT TIME
BY DAVID WAGNER
E
ntering another La Niña season has
meant a long, mild introduction to our
winter. We have had no hard freeze before
Thanksgiving in Eugene, quite unusual. Common
lore has it that frosty nights are needed for the best
fall colors but the glorious gold on the bigleaf maples
this year is the best color we’ve seen in a long time.
The urban trees have been no less delightful. Great fall
leaf color does mean having to rake leaves up when the
show is over. Adding to the leaf piles are incense cedar cones, INCENSE
CEDAR
thousands of little duckbills with long tongues. Each one
CONES
produced four seeds before falling to the ground.
Mild weather — rainy and cool — makes the mosses and
lichens happy. Their growth has been dramatic everywhere, even in sidewalk
cracks and on concrete walls. A good moss year means a good weed year, too, as
the winter annuals are already robust. Anybody who likes to keep the little
goddaminies from blooming in their garden had better start pulling them right away.
Winter residents fill our backyards with cheerful chirps. Keep the bird feeders full.
With the humidity of the rainy season, feeders are particularly vulnerable to mildew.
Cleaning the feeders weekly before refilling is important. Keeping water available now
is not critical except when it does freeze, if it does freeze. The 70th anniversary of
Lane County Audubon Society’s Christmas Bird Count will be New Year’s Day. Call 485-
BIRD to participate; it’s really fun.
David Wagner is a botanist who has worked in Eugene for more than 30 years. Every year he makes the Wil-
lamette Valley Nature Calendar, available this month at Down to Earth and the UO Museum of Natural and
Cultural History. Reach him at fernzenmosses@me.com.
He adds, “An unlimited number of
dump trucks of unlimited size, no speed
limits and no pullouts is clearly dangerous
and highly impacts any local residents
living on Quaglia Road.”
At this point Stotter says that the Lane
County or the mine operators could take
the case to the Oregon Court of Appeals,
or let it got back to the county. He says
the Lane County Board of Commissioners
could make a decision, or it could send it
back one more level to the hearings
officials. “My clients hope the Lane
County board will address this directly,”
he says.
Lane County spokeswoman Amber
Fossen says the county declines to
comment on the case “as is our policy on
pending litigation.”
Stotter says the sad thing is rather than
just complaining about the mine, Families
for a Quarry-Free Neighborbood “did the
responsible thing in participating in the
stage of hearings. But because the
neighbors didn’t protest the permit, the
county said that they were not allowed to
participate. Lane County then issued the
permit to the quarry without the
restrictions.
Families
for
a
Quarry-Free
Neighborhood appealed to LUBA, which
remanded the case to Lane County. Stotter
says that the remand specifically says the
county needs to include the neighbors in
the process. He points out that the ruling
quotes the Lane County planning
director’s findings: “It is the director’s
opinion and finding that the proposed use
will be compatible with the surrounding
vicinity only if the required conditions of
this approval are implemented by the
applicant.”
Stotter says, “Our position is that
those conditions are absolutely necessary
to make this proposal even remotely
compatible.”
THE UNIVERSE IS
Winter Sale begins Saturday, Dec. 3
E X PA ND ING
Urban cycling for the Holidays
NOW THERE ARE THREE PLANETS ORBITING THE SOUTH
‘Tis the season to simplify lives. Choose from our deep selection of packs,
baskets, bright lights, reflectives, bells, mirrors, fenders and bike tools. Gloves,
caps, jackets, pants and Ibex wool layers to keep all of Eugene warm and dry.
Open Tuesdays in December!
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7/ Ê££qÇ]Ê->ÌÊ£äqÈ]Ê-ÕÊ£Óqx
UÊ Õ}iiÉ-«À}wi`ÊEÊ>iÊ °ÊLiÊ>«ÃÊUÊ
OPEN
11 AM – 10 PM
EVERYDAY
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Wher
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when the EW’s New Year’s Page
coming 12/22 & 12/29
To advertise your event call 541-484-0519
WWW.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM • BLOGS.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM
EUGENE WEEKLY DECEMBER 1, 2011 9