LET TERS
REAL ISSUES
What a relief to have the election cycle
end. Now the EW’s letters column can return
to real issues instead of boosting candidates.
D.H. Bucher wants to repel wealthy
Californians from entering our state. Keep
Eugene weird! And let’s hold onto our
homeless. They aren’t messing things up by
voting to raise taxes for infrastructure.
Arlen Markus has spotted the secret
control of the Koch coal barons right
here in our river city at KLCC. I haven’t
heard Tennessee Ernie Ford’s famous coal
miner song “Sixteen Tons” played on the
folksong shows “Friends & Neighbors”
and “Front Porch” lately. Dan Plaster and
Kobi Lucas must be stuffing their pockets
with that Koch cash.
Edward Newland alerts us to “mother
cows” thanking us if we just switch to
“delicious, healthful, cruelty-free nut or
soy-based milk, cheese, yogurt and ice
cream.” Though he doesn’t seem to notice
that almond farms use an extraordinary
amount of water in drought-stricken
California and Midwestern soybean fields
VIEWPOINT
murder huge numbers of field mice when
plowed.
Of course we could go protest at City
Hall … but wait! There isn’t one anymore.
All those cronies are probably dining
on ossobuco at Marché with California
almond farmers while laying plans to
change EWEB to coal fuel.
Let’s march on Marché!
Chuck Kleinhans
Eugene
HEALTHY FORESTS
As a science teacher, mother, forestland
owner, organic orchardist and farmer, I
have concerns for how our forests are
managed. Notifying parents of children
that may be affected by toxic spray is
certainly a good start — I think we need
and can do more.
If
lumber
companies
notifying
neighboring properties of exact dates
(as opposed to the 12-month window
announcement currently practiced) for
aerial spraying of clearcut areas, would this
notification address adjacent properties,
including crops, pets and farm animals such
as livestock or bees? Would a person be able
to move these things on the appointed day?
Even if they could do this at a moment's
notice, then what about the fish in the
neighboring watersheds? Miniscule parts
per million of herbicide chemicals can
disrupt a salmon’s ability to migrate to
their spawning grounds?
The federal government made laws to
govern use of its forests in 1976. I used to
be a botany tech for BLM Medford district
in the late 1980s. I had the privilege to join
a timber cruising crew for a few weeks to
survey timber stands as well as monitor
other crews whose job it was to reduce
competition for the desired Douglas fir tree
stand by handcutting.
In fact, as I learned from BLM
foresters, BLM’s own research teams had
accumulated data that mixed forests were
healthier than monocrop stands.
Why does Oregon allow these practices
for state and private timberlands? It
doesn’t make sense. Why does the Oregon
Forestry Practices Act allow industries
to aerial spray known toxic substances
anywhere near or in an area of children,
animals, food crops and other species?
Let’s work on the larger picture to make
Oregon a leader with sane, healthy and
responsible forest practices.
Antonia Blum
Walton
INNOVATION HUB
I support the Innovation Hub proposal
component of the urban renewal projects
currently being considered for downtown.
An Innovation Hub downtown in the old
LCC building is key to the success of our
emerging innovation district by providing
affordable workspace to the many small
businesses in the core of downtown.
CodeChops Coworking Space opened
five years ago in the Broadway Commerce
Center with this same goal. As rents
increase in the downtown core, it becomes
increasingly difficult to maintain low desk
fees for our remote workers, freelancers and
small businesses that have chosen to make
Eugene their home and place of business.
BY ALVIN URQUH A R T
All Vision, No Follow Through
THE CITY OF EUGENE NEEDS PUBLIC, LONG-RANGE PLANNING
W
ith heated discussions about
rezoning in South Eugene, disputes
about Kesey Square, confusion
about what offices should be in the
proposed City Hall and questions
about the placing of an expanded farmers market, it
has become obvious that planning in Eugene is not
functioning well.
Instead of considered decisions based on well-
established and officially adopted planning documents,
issues such as those mentioned above are brought
forward for official action by City Manager Jon Ruiz,
Mayor Kitty Piercy or a member of the City Council
on an ad hoc basis.
Long-range plans, which should provide context
for these issues, have not been discussed in official
hearings nor adopted by the City Council. It is simply
not enough to base decisions about these issues on draft
plans or on proposals from specially interested parties.
Let me illustrate the problems of not adopting
long-range plans by reference to the Special Zoning
regulations for the South Willamette Street Area.
They were justified on the bases of the Draft Envision
Eugene Plan and the Draft South Willamette Street
Concept Plan. Neither has been adopted by the City
Council nor discussed in formal public hearings before
the council, although both plans have been in progress
for more than five years.
Many, maybe even most, of the ideas in these plans
may be excellent; however, they are not officially
adopted policies of the elected city officials of Eugene
and deserve to be discussed in public hearings before
being used as a basis for council action.
The rezoning process of the South Willamette
4
May 26, 2016 • eugeneweekly.com
Street area should not have been brought before the
City Council because it does not even follow the
implementation section of the Draft South Willamette
Concept Plan, which states that a new “single family
options (SFO) zone” should first be adopted and then
a “special action plan,” (SAP) including such things as
rezoning, would follow.
But the South Willamette Concept Plan was
not publicly discussed, let alone adopted, and its
implementation strategies were ignored. I can only ask,
“Why did the city manager or mayor even allow the
rezoning issue to be placed on the agenda?”
The result of not discussing, modifying and adopting
these plans has resulted in unnecessary great neighborhood
unrest and general mistrust of city officials.
The Planning Department and the Planning
Commission did their job in presenting the city
manager with a plan for the South Willamette Area.
However, their plan was merely “presented” to the City
Council, which did not feel the need to hold hearings
and adopt the plan. Nor did the city manager suggest
its adoption.
Without being adopted, the plan has no teeth, and
city business went on without the benefit of a long-
term plan for the area. A deliberative process was
avoided and the city continued to do business as usual
— ad hoc discussions of individual issues as they arise
without the context of adopted long-term plans.
Similarly, the plans for a new City Hall lack the
context of longer-term planning in that both the degree
of earthquake readiness and the presence of councilors’
offices only became apparent years after the decision
to destroy the old City Hall was made.
Likewise, not having an existing plan for the core
of the downtown — including Kesey Square, a farmers
market and the Park Blocks and other open space
improvements — except as part of consideration for
continuing the use of an Urban Renewal District shows
the lack of adequate longer-term planning in the city.
Over the years, I can’t count the number of “vision”
statements the city has made without adequate plans for
their implementation. Visions must be accompanied by
long-range implementation plans.
Not having adopted long-term plans means that 1)
citizens are left out of the planning process at crucial
moments; 2) the city manager and the mayor may
disregard even existing, proposed long-range plans
in setting the City Council agenda and 3) short-term
decisions about land usage lack well thought out
contexts.
Can the core of Eugene stand the loss of more public
buildings — the Federal Courthouse, the Eugene Police
Department, the Municipal Courts, the major hospital,
possibly the post office — the scattering of city and
other public functions, and be made even uglier by such
projects as the 13th and Olive Street student housing,
let alone the disruption of neighborhoods?
As long as the mayor and part-time city councilors
do not have a direct responsibility of managing the city,
long-range planning for social, economic and land-use
will remain in the hands of the city manager, who is
unelected. And at present, the city manager largely
ignores even the long-term planning proposals of the
Planning Commission and Planning Department.
Alvin Urquhart has lived in Eugene since 1960 and has followed long-term
planning in both the city and the university for most of the past 50 years. He
is a retired professor of geography and former director of the environmental
studies program at the University of Oregon.