Ordinance No. 20258 - Laserfiche WebLink

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WEST EUGENE PARKWAY ~OD~F1ED PROJECT--CONSIS~NCy WiTH THE STATEW1DE PLANNING GOALS AND TRANSPORTAT~ PLANNING RULE Construction and occupancy of buildings in the Green Hill Technology Park has already begun. In 1998 and 1999, Rosen Products completed their first phase of development, and by September 1999 employed over 200 workersfi0 Based on a rough total build estimate by Russ Royer, Real Property Officer with the City of Eugene, total buildout of the park by the time of acquisition could add about $30 million to the costs in today's dollars. No similar cost increase would occur with either the Approved Design or the Modified Project because those affected areas are not identified for industrial development. Consideration of increased right-of-way costs over time is relevant and appropriate because the WEP will be constructed in phases and right-of-way for the area west of Beltline Highway may not be purchased for several years. Moreover, in an era where the need for transportation improvements is ever growing, but funding to pay for those improvements is constrained, spending many $1 Os of millions extra to locate a needed transportation facility across an established industrial park is not reasonable, particularly when the alternative requiring goal exceptions removes no land from the commercial agricultural base and has no adverse impacts on commercial agricultural enterprises. There are also additional hidden costs. Development and implementation of the V/EV/? involved substantial public and private expense, including significant funding flor planning. The I, FE[YP resulted in the designation of the Green Hill Technology Park and surrounding areas for industrial development. With the Southern alternatives, substantial additional public funds would need to be spent to replan industrial development in this area. Besides being unreasonable in terms by compromising the integrity of the IYEIt/p, the Southern alternatives also would be unreasonable by requiring the City and affected agencies to expend public monies to start over in planning for industrial development in this area and achieving new compromises with wetlands protection. Taken cumulatively, alt of the above-described impacts support the conclusion that the Southern and Southern Modified alternatives cannot reasonably accommodate the identified transportation need for the ~p. Approved Design In 1986 Lane Count), adopted goal exceptions authorizing the Approved Design. The Approved Design was confirmed in the federal FEIS and is an element of both the City's and the County's acknowledged comprehensive plans. Because the Approved Design does not require a new goal exception, it reasonably belongs in the category of facilities addressed under OAR 660-012-0070(5). However, because (1) the principal reason for rejecting the Approved Design is environmental, (2) there is value in comparing the adverse environmental impacts of the Approved Design with the Modified Project, and (3) environmental comparisons between alternatives are required under OAR 660-012-0070(7), this alternative is analyzed in the section addressing alternatives requiring exceptions. That analysis is incorporated herein by this reference, and for the reasons therein stated, this alternative cannot reasonably accommodate the identified transportation need. Green Hi~ F~yovor Alternative The Green Hill Flyover Alternative, described in more detail below, was designed to move the alignment north of the Central Oregon and Pacific railroad tracks west of Terry Street within the UGB, then cross back to the area covered by the existing Approved Design goal exceptions west of Green Hill Road. The intent was to develop an alternative that would avoid most of the natural resource impacts of the Approved Design but not require new goal exceptions. Because the Green 60 The e×~sting infrastruc(ure and development ~ just phase 1 of the technology park. The same deve{oper owns ~ar)ds to the north and wes~ ~haf[ are p~anned ~o be developed in la~er phases, EXHiE)FF C~i - FiNDiNGS 40