{"id":180045,"date":"2022-06-14T17:22:31","date_gmt":"2022-06-15T00:22:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eugeneweekly.com\/?p=186876"},"modified":"2022-06-14T17:22:31","modified_gmt":"2022-06-15T00:22:31","slug":"eugene-begins-downtown-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/2022\/06\/14\/eugene-begins-downtown-plans\/","title":{"rendered":"Eugene Begins Downtown Plans"},"content":{"rendered":"

Immediately after celebrating the opening of two major projects, Riverfront Park and the Farmer\u2019s Market Pavilion, the Eugene City Council voted unanimously at a June 13 hybrid in-person and virtual work session to direct the city manager to develop a \u201cdowntown action plan,\u201d setting an agenda of funding future projects there.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The state of Eugene\u2019s downtown has changed over the years, city of Eugene staff said during the meeting, and it\u2019s time to reevaluate how it\u2019ll invest in projects that will make the city\u2019s downtown relevant to today\u2019s needs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf it\u2019s to be an attractive center that draws people of all ages to its theaters and restaurants, we need to continually invest in its streets and sidewalks and encourage the reinvention of old buildings into new uses,\u201d said city of Eugene Economic Strategies Manager Anne Fifield.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0A downtown action plan, Fifield said, is a simpler plan rather than updating the city\u2019s downtown plan, which is a longer process. \u201cIt\u2019s just the individual projects that get us there that need to be updated,\u201d she added.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Eugene has used urban renewal money to fund large downtown projects, such as implementing high speed fiber, renovating the Park Blocks and redeveloping the old Lane Community College building on 1059 Willamette into mixed-income housing. The council can use that money for the upcoming project list, but it would require a process that includes public outreach and would take about four to six months, according to meeting material documents.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Urban renewal comes from tax increment revenue, which is property value increases since the downtown district was created. But urban renewal money may need future action from the council to increase how much the city can collect downtown redevelopment because it\u2019s about to end. According to meeting materials, the city receives about $2.6 million a year through it. If the City Council doesn\u2019t renew the tax program, the general fund would receive $1.3 million a year in property taxes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c2022 is an opportune time to update the project list for downtown,\u201d Fifield said. \u201cA lot of our sidewalks have deteriorated, there\u2018s buildings that could improve and be put to better use, the public spaces have aged and could see improvements.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition, she said, downtown is changing, with a number of brick and mortar stores suffering from loss of revenue to online retailers and due to commercial spaces with fewer occupants as work from home is still a policy for many businesses. A list of downtown projects to prioritize should keep these changes in mind, she added, and a new plan can also identify ways to encourage more residential development.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Fifield said that one project she would like to see is redeveloping commercial buildings into housing by reducing the costs to build affordable housing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Councilor Claire Syrett said Eugene\u2019s downtown needs a pharmacy. \u201cWe want this neighborhood and all the people we want to live here to consider it well served,\u201d she said. \u201cA pharmacist from Bi-Mart could open one in Veneta, so we could open one here.\u201d Syrett was referencing how former Bi-Mart pharmacists opened a pharmacy after the Bi-Mart pharmacy in Veneta closed when the retail chain sold its pharmacies to Walgreens.<\/span><\/p>\n

She added that if council considered funding a multi-purpose building with urban renewal money, the city would be lobbied heavily to build a convention center downtown. Urban renewal money was once used for the Eugene Community Conference.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Councilor Emily Semple said she would like to see downtown development occur, including better sidewalks, but didn\u2019t want to use urban renewal money. \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s fair,\u201d she said. \u201cIt seems to me that we don\u2019t have to use it. If it doesn\u2019t go into urban renewal, it goes into the general fund. And then we can decide to spend it on a City Hall or something else. That seems so much more straightforward and honest to me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

At the meeting, Eugene Community Development Co-director Will Dowdy said city staff would conduct outreach and research projects and provide it to council, who can then prioritize the project list and decide whether to use urban renewal money \u2014 or find funding elsewhere.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis should look like a familiar list,\u201d Dowdy said. \u201cThat\u2019s something you can work with or choose to disregard or ask us for different ways to get there besides urban renewal.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Immediately after celebrating the opening of two major projects, Riverfront Park and the Farmer\u2019s Market Pavilion, the Eugene City Council voted unanimously at a June \u2026 Continue reading\u00a0\u2192<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,101,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-180045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-ew-extra","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180045\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}