Major Impacts

The City Council deftly headed off a major confrontation with residents of the South Willamette area by voting Oct. 21 to not rezone single-family homes in the area. It was the council’s first opportunity to provide guidance to city planners on the highly controversial South Willamette Special Area Zone.  Continue reading 

Incompatible Infill

Will proposed residential code updates do the job?

The city of Eugene is proposing new rules for the residential R-1 single-family areas of Eugene that would lift the ban on building alley-access houses and add some controls over secondary dwelling units. Both of these changes are intended to address some of the grievous developments that have been occurring in residential neighborhoods all over town, inflicting pain and suffering on surrounding neighbors. The city’s stated goal is to allow “compatible infill” in existing neighborhoods and to provide more housing options. Continue reading 

The Civic Solution

Growing south Eugene needs more park facilities

There seems to be an excellent option for the 10-acre Civic Stadium property: Use it to help expand the city of Eugene’s park system. We have witnessed unprecedented residential development in the greater south Eugene area with an astonishing number of new multifamily and student housing units springing up. This pace of construction is resulting in a rapidly expanding local population. Unfortunately, public facilities and services are failing to keep up. Continue reading