[WEC] Thoughts about land use

[jallcott at pol.net]

Good evening all

While I'm not Larry or Rick , I do favor us looking at these questions and coming
to agreement about these land use issues being in or out of the report and if
"in"  then our prioritization of importance. It is true that land use
creates the conditions for transportation needs and we ought to have a look at this.
I'd rather have us have a complete and competent report than skimpy when there are
fundamental issues needing to be addressed.This goes also for
other arenas that we've had on the plate but focused on as well. ..It
is hard to keep up a head of steam when we meet sporadically and have to spend hard
won time on getting our working relationship  working again. Course you
coordinating cmte members  have been at it alot and have got the moves
down...

I'd hope we if we'd tackle such issues that Rob raised and those
we've put aside without being fully vetted , that  we might try the "2
meetings separated by 2-3 days  once a month" trick to improve our working
together and output,.  We need to  get there with credible
proposals and we can do it.

John A
Sunday post  XLIII ( or whichever) 


On Sun, February 1, 2009 3:55 pm EST, Rob Zako wrote:




Dear WEC friends,


We have noted several times that our draft report is a bit thin on land use
issues, and have planned to discuss these issues for some time. At this late date, I
am not quite sure if or how we might do so, but I wanted to offer some food for
thought here.


We have two integrated clusters specifically related to land use that offer
general guidance:




    Intensify development appropriately: Land use designations
in the focus area should reflect which areas cannot be developed at all and
which areas can be developed at a higher density than their current
designation.




    Relocate some land uses: Some land uses in the focus area
may no longer be appropriate and should make way for other land uses. A
relocation strategy would make this possible.




At the end of our 2-day designstorming meeting almost a year ago, Chris
asserted that they key to the whole west Eugene area is the industrial
"critical trapezoid" bounded roughly by West 11th, Beltline, Roosevelt and
Highway 99/Garfield. Rick has identified this "critical trapezoid" as
containing many properties with low improvement values compared to land values. A
key question is if and how this area might redevelop in the coming decades.


The Land Use Subcommittee of the Analysis Committee drafted a memo that, among
other things, proposed applying an overlay zone to the "critical
trapezoid" modeled after the Southwest Whiteaker Special Zone. This overlay
zone allows for flexible development, and would allow the market to convert the area
to mixed-use over time, if that made economic sense.


Of course, if the "critical trapezoid" were to redevelop over time to
have fewer industrial uses and more commercial and residential uses, Jack and others
would want to know what other parts of Eugene could accommodate more industrial
uses.


And the idea of increasing the intensity of development in the "critical
trapezoid" (vaguely similar to the redevelopment of the Pearl District in
Portland) raising the question of the transportation infrastructure needed to
support more intense uses. Unfortunately, the "critical trapezoid"
currently lacks adequate east-west through streets, aside from Roosevelt, West 5th,
7th Place and 11th. A long-term redevelopment plan would need to be tied, I think,
to a plan to reclaim right-of-way over time.


More broadly, aside from talking about more intense mixed-use development along
a multiway boulevard, especially closer in to downtown, we as a group have not
really agreed to what kinds of development patterns we would like to see. To overly
simplify the choices, one could divide our area of interest into six zones:


    Along West 11th
    "Critical Trapezoid" east of Beltline and
north of West 11th
    Residential areas and east of Beltline
south of West 11th
    Upland and other areas west of Beltline and
south of West 11th
    Wetland and other areas west of Beltline and
north of West 11th
    Veneta and other areas west of Eugene



Each of these different zones raise questions, which we might or might not want
to address. For example, the question about the Royal Avenue node relates to the
larger northwest zone #5. Questions about the housing/jobs balance and commuter
traffic related to the western zone #6.


As we have pretty much run out of time, and as our report is more intended to
present transportation solutions than a land use vision, we might want to partially
punt on these important questions: not offer our consensus answers but rather simply
highlight the important questions and how they relate to transportation and the
environment.


All this said, I'd be very interested to hear thoughts from especially Larry
and Rick about land use issues.


Thanks,
Rob Z







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