Item C - Chase Garden Node - Laserfiche WebLink

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Honorable Mayor Piercy and City Council April 1, 2005 Page 2 of 8 conceptual plan which proposed two 3-story medical clinic offices on the subject property. W&G Properties has been and continues to be sensitive to the neighborhood's desire to have retail use(s) on the subject site. W&G Properties continues to seek out potential viable retail tenants to co-occupy some of the first floor of the medical clinic buildings. · On behalf of W&G Properties, TBG approached Rick Wright with Market-of- Choice to determine his interest in developing a grocery store on the subject parcel. Mr. Wright turned down the opportunity because he believes that the site does not work for a large grocery store. He explained that the site is an isolated island located between I-5 and Coburg Road with insufficient access and exposure to generate the required user market for a grocery store. · In response to the neighborhood's concern about excessive parking and traffic impacts on their neighborhood due to the development of medical clinic offices, referencing the Institute of Transportation Engineers Manuals (ITE), it appears that the neighborhood's desired grocery store would generate close to 3 times more traffic than a medical clinic office. · It seems that there has been undue attention by the neighborhood on this particular property to meet their perceived specific commercial needs while there is an additional approximately 2 acres of vacant commercial property within the Chase Node. · Neighborhood commercial uses already exist within the Chase Node Special Area Zone on the commercial parcels located off of Commons Drive. The existing multitenant retail building includes a convenience store, beauty salon, bar and coffee shop. · Consistent with nodal development, medical clinic offices in the Chase Node provide employment opportunities to neighborhood residents. In addition, the subject property is located in an area close to downtown with good transit connections as well as an area with increasing and diverse housing opportunities for employees. · Upon submittal of a building permit, W&G Properties intends on proposing a development scheme that complies with the Eugene City Code and therefore the nodal development concept. · In light of the amount of effort and public funding already dedicated to the Chase Node Special Area Zone, we encourage you to trust the process and decisions made by the previous City Council. We encourage you to avoid the mistake of modifying planning documents and/or the Eugene Code before the potential results of those previous decisions are manifested in a built development. The potential outcome of this mistake would be to scare off yet another developer of this longstanding vacant property. Furthermore, frequently modifying planning