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ATTACHMENT C Harlow Neighbors Association Terry Froemming (HNA-Chair) 2886 Bailey Lane Eugene, OR 97401 Eugene City Council City of Eugene Planning Dept 777 Pearl Street Eugene Oregon March 31, 2005 Re: Chase Garden Node Work Session - April 11, 2005 Eugene City Planning Department has determined City code applicable to the commercial area of the Chase Garden Node does not require significant retail commercial businesses. It seems a minor, unintentional, deficiency in current code language is risking the loss of the very spirit and purpose of the Chase Garden Node. The Chase Node, originally slated to become one of Eugene's first successfully completed "commercial nodes", the end result of over twenty years of efforts by both the City and residents, is about to be lost to a proposed development that will be little more than a large regional medical complex. This proposal does not, will not, encourage alternative forms of transportation nor will it in any way create a resident-friendly neighborhood center compatible with surrounding residential uses. W&G Properties, has discovered the deficiency in City code and chosen to disregard, in total, the "Purpose and Spirit" of nodal design and proposed a 150,000 square foot "Medical Complex". While this proposal has been determined a permitted use, by our Planning Department, it is NOT consistent with the purpose of a "commercial node." At the HNA March general meeting a lengthy discussion was conducted regarding our "node", in the presence of three W&G Properties principals, wherein Harlow Neighbors voted positions supporting a grocery store and opposing the 150,000 square foot medical complex. HNA believes a grocery store necessary to save any semblance of a node. All the efforts, studies, citizen involvement, MetroPlan finding of fact, as well as the Willakenzie Refinement Plan have long recognized a grocery store as a "key element" to our nodal design. Absent of a grocery store the Chase Garden Commercial Node fails to meet most, if not all, of the intended goals of a neighborhood centered commercial Node. Harlow Neighbors have had conversations with a W&P Properties representative expressing our desire for a grocery store, their position is that a medium sized store, one offering fresh meat and produce, is not "economically feasible" even though a previous developer's plan included a 50,000 sq. ft. store. We suggest even if profitability is a question, and we do not necessarily agree, there is no requirement that the City is