Public Comment Submitted During First Open Record Period

' N1 ELL Heather From- dick ingrain <idesign@peak.org> Sent: Wednesday, September 30, 2015 11:07 AM To: O`DONNELL Heather M Subject- Please post this testimony re MA 15-00001 Robyn Ingram 50 year resident of Eugene 23+ year neighbor of "Wiper's Woods" Daily walker of that land 4370 Willamette Street Eugene, Oregon 97405 541-345-4764 Sept. 29, 2015 To The Eugene City Council Re: Rest Haven request for Land Use Designation and Zoning Changes I support the testimonies of Robert Wilkes, Michelle and all the articulate neighbors who are in opposition to this proposed Land Use Designation change and re-zoning request. We, all of us who live in Eugene, in the South Hills, in Oregon, came to here, and to this neighborhood because we love the Northwest. We love the hills. We love the trees. They offered us the quality of life we sought, and they continue to gives us the life we love. Altering the zoning, and thereby the overall intention of what the South Hills were intended to be, is a bit like saying, well lets just change this little corner of our Constitution.... it won't matter much. So much of the "undeveloped" (talk to Mother Nature about that!) part of the Wiper property has been damaged and impacted to date, it is quite tragic. But imagine the impact of 250 houses (Low density: 50 acres @ 5 houses/acre) and their potential 500 vehicles traveling Willamette Street and our neighborhood roads, a couple of times each day! Imagine the amount of water EWEB will have to source, and then pump up hill and then down to supply all those houses And imagine.... having taken down all the trees, which provide us with oxygen, water retention, shade and cooling all those residences will require air-conditioning!.... because the trees can no longer provide the shade, which is really the most sustainable and comfortable form of air conditioning, anyway. And in the absence of trees to retain soil moisture, the aquifer will continue to disappear (EWEB's ongoing draining of it will exacerbate that) And then, imagine the amount of C02 producing coal, gas and oil burning facilities that will be required to generate the power to run those air conditioners! Further imagine all the extra C02 those 500 cars, twice a day, will be emitting as they travel out to the South end of town. C02, which will be both trapped in our end of the valley and further contribute to our current global warming crisis. Zoning, land use designation change and residential development are not the way to go, in this situation. Maintenance of the property as Park and Open Space is the thing to do. Join that, with a reforestation project, in conjunction with the 4J School District's environmental studies program, and we'd have made a contribution to solving our global warming crisis rather than making it worse. A couple of facts worth noting: Rest Haven has never paid property taxes on its land, only on the improvements and business holdings of the current cemetery operation (buildings etc.), due to its consideration, by the powers that be, that it IS open to the public.....it is a Park and Open Space. The rest of us, who own "unimproved" lots, with trees and wild life, DO pay property taxes. Further, Rest Haven has never been regulated by any of the State's Forestry Practices rules, nor those of the City regarding care and provisions for clear cuts, tree removal on un-built lots etc. It has lived in a comfortable no man's land, regulatory wise. In that regard the most tragic circumstance that has arisen on this land, due to absence of regulation, ignorance or intent, is the ongoing killing of the trees in the copses and buffer zones that were decreed by the currently existing conditional use permit. Well over 100 trees in those areas have been destroyed in the past several years, and now, more and more are dying, nearly weekly, due to their weakened state and this severe drought.