Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 13, 2025)
ACTIVIST ALERT BY CHRISTIAN WIHTOL elected and administration leaders, said speaker Stan Taylor. “The need for the public to weigh in is not at the back end, but at the front end,” Taylor told the council. “There has been no opportunity really for public input at the front end.” CONTRARY TO VISION The parcel-delivery warehouse project clearly fl ies in the face of the city’s written vision for the new special industrial area around the airport, speakers said. That vision calls for high-quality innovative and sustainable manufacturing and similar industry, they said. The scant city-mandated public-alert process raises questions about how city residents will fi nd out if more big corporations plan major construction on the 650 acres of privately owned farmland around the airport that the council has opened to industrial development. The council in 2018 expanded Eugene’s urban growth boundary with the specifi c goal of turning those 650 rural acres into a sprawling complex of major industrial manufacturing facilities, with as many as 6,000 new jobs. It’s called the Clear Lake Industrial area. City leaders tout it as the centerpiece of Eugene’s job-growth strat- egy. The purported Amazon warehouse wants to be its fi rst occupant. But in the boundary expansion process, city lead- ers bypassed any idea that residents city-wide should be alerted well in advance to any major development proposals. The warehouse project’s consultants still need to complete building and wetlands-fi ll permits. It’s unclear when construction will start. AN ALLOWABLE USE Some city councilors are satisfi ed with the public process thus far. Council President Greg Evans, whose ward includes the airport area, says he’s heard from many residents who are “anxious” about the project. “We have all seen our email boxes be fi lled up with this,” he tells Eugene Weekly. But, he says, “In general, I’m supportive of the devel- opment.” The warehouse is an allowable use for the site and appears to comply with all applicable rules, he says. The warehouse is projected to employ a few hundred work- ers sorting packages and driving a fl eet of hundreds of trucks to deliver them to Lane County area homes and businesses. The facility will bring “entry-level jobs that a lot of our students that are graduating from Willamette [high school] and North Eugene [high school] will be able to move into fairly quickly,” Evans says. “We need the employment, we need the [property] tax revenue,” he adds. Critics are welcome to speak up at council meetings, he says. But city councilors “really don’t have a stake in facilitating a community discussion” around this proj- ect, he adds. “I would leave that to nonprofi ts and other [activist groups] that have a heightened interest in this.” MORE PUBLIC INPUT The details about the Dec. 17 meeting come from a 16-page report the consultant, The Satre Group, sent to the PROTESTS, ACTIVISM AND MORE AROUND LANE COUNTY A VIGIL AT COINER PARK IN COTTAGE GROVE SUPPORTING LOCAL IMMIGRANTS. city to prove it had held the meeting. Eugene Weekly obtained the report via a public records request. Public ire this year has soared as residents learned more about the project. “Bringing an Amazon facility into Eugene is some- thing that many citizens would object to, and I think this should have been recognized by the mayor and city manager,” says Eugene resident Stephen Keese. The project should have been publicized “to all city wards and neighborhood associations,” he says. This summer, more than 400 residents sent emails and letters to the Lane Regional Air Protection Agency opposing an air pollution permit the project needs — and LRAPA granted — for the warehouse’s fl eet of up to 1,000 trucks. An Amazon spokesperson won’t confi rm or deny to Eugene Weekly if it is an Amazon project, and the proj- ect’s consultants won’t comment. “The secrecy of the development serves as an example of larger problems of transparency within our community. We still do not have 100 percent confi rmation that it is Amazon, and to me, that is absolutely unacceptable,” says Hannah Diebert, a University of Oregon undergraduate student and member of an anti-Amazon group at the UO. NARROW RULES Rules the council adopted in 2017 for the Clear Lake industrial area mandated the Dec. 17, 2024, “neighbor- hood meeting.” But the rules are narrow. They don’t spell out where signs must be posted. Satre placed them along quiet stretches of Greenhill Road and Awbrey Lane, rather than along heavily trav- elled Highway 99, which fronts the purported Amazon site. A Satre offi cial did not respond to Eugene Weekly. The code required Satre to invite the airport area’s offi cial city neighborhood group. That’s the Industrial Corridor Community Organization. But that group is inactive and leaderless. So there was no one for Satre to contact. Few people live in the geographic area desig- nated for that group. It’s just businesses. By contrast, many other offi cial Eugene neighborhood groups have active leaders and residents. Plus, the code doesn’t require a developer to change its plans in response to public comment. The mega-warehouse is an allowed use in the Clear Lake zone. But it’s a far cry from what council members and planning staff have envisioned. In public presentations from 2016 to 2018, they said the zone would focus on attracting manufacturers such as high-tech, bio-tech, food and other companies that have higher-wage jobs. No one from the city ever explained that the code language would also permit a giant local parcel-delivery warehouse staff ed mainly by entry-level delivery drivers. Bricks $ Mortar is a column anchored by Christian Wihtol, who worked as an editor and writer at The Register-Guard in Eugene 1990- 2018, much of the time focused on real estate, economic development and business. Reach him at Christian@EugeneWeekly.com. SUPPORT LOCAL & VOCAL JOURNALISM SUPPORT.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM support.eugeneweekly.com BY CAMILLA MORTENSEN Photo by Eve Weston “The world is in greater peril from those who tolerate or encourage evil than from those who actually commit it.” — Albert Einstein Upcoming Protests, Rallies, Marches, Talks, Gatherings and More >> “What might the future look like for Pales- tine?” Jonathan Kuttab, 3 pm Sunday, Nov. 16, First United Methodist Church, 1376 Olive Street, and 6 pm, Monday, Nov. 17, Eugene Public Library, Bascom-Tykeson room, People for Peace and Justice in Palestine. >> Advocate for Oregon to establish publicly funded universal health care, Nov. 22-23, Nov. 28-30, Holiday Market Health Care for All Oregon booth at the Holiday Market. Hcao.org/chapters/ lane-county. Ongoing >> Resist! Persist! Repeat! Weekly Protest, 10 am to 11 am, Mondays, corners of 29th and Willa- mette Street and 11 am to noon, Mondays corner of Coburg and Harlow roads. >> Protest ICE: Last Tuesday Mobilization Response, 10 am on the last Tuesday of each month, ICE offi ce, 211 East 7th Avenue. More info at Linktr.ee/psleugene. Be available for rapid response if there is an arrest via Tinyurl.com/Immigrant- DefenseSignal. >> Singing for our Lives, noon, Tuesdays, 7th and Pearl, the BeLonging Space and Interfaith Alliance with Migrants. >> Silent Protest to Support Our Immigrant Neighbors, 1 pm Tuesdays, ICE offi ce, 7th and Pearl. Signs provided, wear white or black. Indi- visible Eugene/Springfi eld. >> Weekly Vigils Against the Genocide in Gaza, 4 pm to 5:30 pm, Wednesdays, Planet Versus Penta- gon, old federal building, corner of 7th & Pearl. >> Sister District Postcarding, 6 pm to 10 pm, Wednesdays, Claim 52 Brewing, 232 Lincoln Street. >> Weekly Get-Out-the-Vote Postcarding, 1 pm to 3 pm, Thursdays, Gryff ’s Pub, 2101 Bailey Hill Road. Get-out-the-vote for Aftyn Behn in Tennes- see. For more info Pandi96743@yahoo.com. >> Replace the Mainstream Parties with a Party Of, By, And For The People, We the People Party Lane County meet every other Friday 11:30 am to 1:30 pm at Tall Firs Cafe & Events, 1488 18th Street, Springfi eld. wtplane.org and wethepeople- lanecounty@proton.me. >> Stop the Cuts, noon Fridays, Eugene Veterans Clinic, 3355 Chad Drive. >> Stand in Solidarity with Food Not Bombs Feeding the Community, 4 pm Fridays, Food Not Bombs, Downtown Park Blocks, 8th and Oak, Instagram.com/foodnotbombs_eugene. Email Editor@EugeneWeekly.com with “Activist Alert” in the subject line to add protests to this listing, and subscribe to the Activist Alert newsletter at EugeneWeekly.com/newsletter to get this information in your inbox on Wednesdays! November 13, 2025 5
