UO Next Generation Housing Development Plan February 10, 2026 <br />Land Use Applications <br />Refinement Plan Amendments <br /> <br /> <br /> Page 9 <br />halls). An explanation of the process used to develop the University’s updated East Campus <br />Area Plan is contained in Section II. E of this Plan. <br /> <br />History of the Special Study Area <br /> <br />In 1861, William and Nancy Smith filed a Donation Land Claim of approximately 642 acres on lands <br />east of the present University campus, extending from the Willamette River to what is now the southern <br />edge of Laurelwood Golf Course, and from present Agate Street eastward nearly to the height of the <br />ridge that is Hendricks Parks. In 1890, 400 acres of the Smith Donation Land Claim was purchased by <br />George Melvin Miller and John Straub, who in 1890 and 1892 platted and recorded the town of <br />Fairmount. The special study area falls within that plat, which laid out street patterns and names that <br />are in use today. <br /> <br />Miller promoted Fairmount widely as a desirable place to live and as an ideal location for industry, but <br />his dream of a separate city ended in 1905, when Fairmount was annexed to the City of Eugene, to <br />which it was linked from 1910 to 1927 by an electric railway. In 1948, Fairmount was effectively divided <br />in two parts when the countrified two-lane road from Eugene to Springfield was rebuilt into the divided <br />four-lane highway that today is Franklin Boulevard. <br /> <br />In 1919, the University of Oregon had first expanded to abut Fairmount when the marsh at the western <br />boundary of the original Fairmount plat was drained and the stadium at Hayward Field was erected. In <br />1946, the University intruded into Fairmount itself when prefabricated buildings from the Vanport Island <br />temporary Federal housing project near Portland were erected immediately east of Agate Street to <br />serve as housing for married students. In the decade that followed, the needs of University expansion <br />were amply filled by incorporation into its campus lands between University and Agate streets, but by <br />the 1960’s, its requirements had overreached that area. <br /> <br />In the early 1960's, the University of Oregon administration and State Board of Higher Education <br />approved an east campus development plan, which authorized the University of Oregon Housing <br />Department to purchase and condemn properties within the approved campus boundaries. These <br />boundaries are shown on Map 5, and generally extend from Agate Street to Villard Street and from <br />about 14th Avenue to about 18th Avenue. In 1981, the University owned approximately 70 percent of <br />the dwelling units within the approved east campus boundaries. <br /> <br />Although Miller's dreams for Fairmount City becoming the hub of Lane County never materialized, the <br />Fairmount area continues to be an important residential area for the City of Eugene. <br /> <br />GOALS FOR THE FAIRMOUNT SPECIAL AREA STUDY