{"id":180298,"date":"2023-02-14T15:31:31","date_gmt":"2023-02-14T23:31:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eugeneweekly.com\/?p=189083"},"modified":"2023-02-14T15:31:31","modified_gmt":"2023-02-14T23:31:31","slug":"a-tall-tale-at-skinner-butte","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/2023\/02\/14\/a-tall-tale-at-skinner-butte\/","title":{"rendered":"A Tall Tale at Skinner Butte"},"content":{"rendered":"

Buildings near Skinner Butte can now be a little bit taller.<\/span><\/p>\n

At a Feb. 13 Eugene City Council meeting, councilors voted 4-2 to increase the height limitations on properties near Skinner Butte from 70 feet to 100 feet.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Supporters of the height limitation increase, which Obie Companies requested and the city says is part of a goal to connect downtown with the Willamette River, cited the need to encourage developers to build up, especially if the city won\u2019t expand its urban growth boundaries. The opponents of the decision \u2014 Councilors Emily Semple and Matt Keating \u2014 cited environmental concerns.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The last time that the Eugene City Council increased the height limitation for buildings near Skinner Butte was in 2018, Dylan Huber-Heidorn, a development analyst with the city, said at the meeting. But the city\u2019s height restriction was initially implemented in 1968, around the time that Ya-Po-Ah Terrace was built near Skinner Butte, which at 212 feet is the tallest building in Eugene.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The decision allows taller buildings on plots of land between 5th and 6th avenues and Oak and Pearl streets, as well as 4th and 5th avenues and Willamette and Pearl streets. Much of this area has property owned by Brian Obie, including his 5th Street Public Market and nearby housing and hotels. Members of the public spoke out about Obie benefiting from the regulation change at a Jan. 17 public forum on the decision.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The request to increase the height limit comes as Obie Companies has proposed to construct two apartment developments near the 5th Street Market Expansion. The developments will be similar to Obie\u2019s Gordon Lofts luxury apartments, according to meeting materials. These buildings will be seven stories \u2014 about 100 feet tall, with about 313 housing units built above ground-floor retail.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Feb. 13 meeting materials, increasing the height limitation near Skinner Butte also fits with a few goals set forth by the city, such as stimulating housing development, facilitating development between downtown core and the Willamette River, and emphasizing \u201c5th Avenue as a Great Street, especially now that it connects to the river.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The city isn\u2019t necessarily calling 5th Avenue a \u201cgreat street,\u201d rather it\u2019s referring to a state funding program that focuses on adding safety improvements and increasing access to walking, biking and transit, <\/span>according to an Oregon Department of Transportation webpage<\/span><\/a>. The program, which has $50 million from the Biden administration\u2019s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, focuses on \u201cmain streets\u201d in communities throughout the state.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a motion that causes me great distress,\u201d Semple said. \u201cI see both sides. Housing is critical; an extra 100 units is pretty critical. However, I don\u2019t think this is the only place we could put another 100 units, and I\u2019m really concerned about any blocking of the butte. The butte belongs to all of us, and we\u2019re putting a lot of expensive apartments along the butte and the river.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She added that allowing taller buildings near Skinner Butte would be a slippery slope that would spread throughout the city. \u201cI don\u2019t think this is the right thing to do,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Councilor Keating said that he\u2019s \u201c100 percent in favor of growing up, not out, especially around transit corridors.\u201d But because he hadn\u2019t received responses from city officials about his environmental concerns with increasing the height limitation, he was voting no.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At the earlier Jan. 17 public forum, Keating had asked city staff to look into the impact taller buildings could have on migratory birds.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At that meeting, three councilors \u2014 Councilors Randy Groves, Lyndsie Leech and Greg Evans \u2014 disclosed that they had met with a representative from Obie\u2019s development firm, who supports allowing taller buildings near Skinner Butte.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Before voting on changing the height limitations near Skinner Butte on Feb. 13, Groves said the city has to do something about encouraging housing if it\u2019s not going to expand its urban growth boundaries or allow development in its wetlands. Allowing taller buildings near the butte won\u2019t affect the scenery but instead views of nearby smaller buildings, he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe need housing, we need housing, we need housing,\u201d Groves said. \u201cWe have a 1.8 percent vacancy rate, which is very low compared to the national average, which runs around 6 to 8 percent.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Buildings near Skinner Butte can now be a little bit taller. At a Feb. 13 Eugene City Council meeting, councilors voted 4-2 to increase the \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":[195],"class_list":["post-180298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-ew-extra","category-news","tag-brian-obie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180298","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=180298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180298\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}