Kim Toner’s piece “Development at Any Cost?” (Viewpoint, 9/2) makes many acute points about how the Capital Hill project of Tom and Cynthia Dreyer is making our neighborhood unsafe and unlivable. I’d like to expand on one of Toner’s comments, and add a further perspective of my own.

Toner speaks of how EWEB judged that the current water infrastructure would be inadequate, with a new water facility needed to serve the development. This is very important for the safety, health and functionality of the neighborhood. There must be an adequate plan for the water facility, and compliance with the plan must be strictly monitored and enforced. 

My second point has to do with the whole idea of how the land could best be used, while preserving the rights of the owners to the value of their property. My understanding is that there were generous benefactors ready to purchase the land from the Dreyers at fair market value, and donate it as an addition to adjacent Hendricks Park. This would be a wonderful capstone to Eugene’s oldest park, a unique opportunity for new acreage to serve Eugene’s growing population. Perhaps it is not too late even now to consider the idea of an addition to Hendricks Park. 

Mike Kellman

Eugene