March 5, 2024 <br /> <br />Mayor Vinis, City Council, City Manager, and County Commissioners: <br /> <br />We are the Citizen Advisory Committee for the River Road/Santa Clara neighborhood plan <br />(CAC). The CAC is made up of 11 residents from our two neighborhoods, 6 from each plus one <br />person who represents neighbors residing outside Eugene’s UGB but within our neighborhood <br />boundaries. Since the fall of 2017 we, along with Lane County planning and City of Eugene <br />planning, have been collaboratively engaging our neighbors about their vision for the future of <br />our area and working with them to create a plan that implements that vision. <br /> <br />We would like to thank you for directing staff to work with us on this undertaking-a plan more <br />comprehensive than any to date, a robust public outreach process, and a collaboration unlike <br />any other in our two neighborhoods. We listened to your work session on our plan and have <br />concerns about your reticence to adopt the recommended code changes. <br /> <br />Leading up to the beginning of the planning process we knew code changes would be a <br />necessary part of the package and City of Eugene planning staff agreed. Our plan would need <br />to have “teeth”, be enforceable and move us toward the vision of our future. Code changes <br />concurrent with plan adoption were a condition of our participation. We would not invest all <br />our social capital and years of effort in a process that resulted in a lovely vision with no way to <br />achieve it. To that end, we executed a project charter that laid out the responsibilities of all <br />participants (Lane County, City of Eugene, RRCO and SCCO) and the agreed upon deliverables. <br />Code amendments related to new development standards and a detailed approach along River <br />Road were specifically called out to be adopted concurrently with the plan. <br /> The final portion of the neighborhood plan scope are zone changes and code <br />amendments that support the community vision. While some code amendments <br />and zone changes in the Action Plan will take place after plan adoption, other <br />zone changes and code amendments (i.e., new development standards) will be <br />adopted concurrently with the neighborhood plan, including (1) priority <br />amendments that could affect the broad geographic area of both communities that <br />will be identified by the CAC and project staff and vetted with the community and <br />decision-makers and (2) a more detailed approach along the River Road corridor, <br />as informed by the related Federal Transit Authority’s Transit Oriented Design <br />grantfunded project. <br /> <br />The slate of recommended code amendments is less comprehensive than our original work <br />which had far more detailed (lot specific) work on increased density, improved commercial <br />business locations, transitions between intensity of uses, and incorporated planning for future <br />transit along the corridor and major arterials. Our work has been whittled down to the few <br />most impactful amendments and is necessary to lay the basic framework for development <br />along our corridor. These code amendments are stoutly supported by neighborhood feedback <br />throughout the planning process and are aligned with The Envision Eugene plan for vibrant <br />pedestrian friendly corridors that accommodate greatly increased housing density. <br />25