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EPILOGUE: MAKING IT HAPPEN <br /> <br />Our downtown is a regional center, and a walkable collection of special places and <br />special times. It is also everybody's neighborhood, with events and services for the entire <br />city. Downtown is what is "Eugene" about Eugene - a synergistic, creative, accessible <br />place, a downtown of short distances and friendly faces. The character of downtown has <br />changed over the past twenty years, as Eugene has grown in population and area. <br />Downtown is and will remain the center of Eugene, giving an identity and character to <br />the city, and a coming together place for the entire community. <br /> <br />The policies and ideas in the Downtown Plan promote a vision for a strong, active, <br />distinctive urban center. For this plan to be meaningful, it has to result in actions and <br />investment that bring about the desired transformation of downtown that this community <br />envisions. The plan reinforces our commitment to a strategic, proactive, collaborative <br />approach, creating partnerships, working with private developers, and using the financial <br />resources available to the City. <br /> <br />The plan will help the City make choices for the future. The plan is specific in terms of <br />outcomes, promoting the use of economic tools to leverage desired development, and <br />giving priority to Great Streets and special places. The plan encourages additional <br />housing in and around downtown, but notes the primacy of commercial office space <br />downtown to provide jobs and to support housing and retail opportunities. The plan <br />requires a master plan for the EWEB waterfront property, and lays out principles for that <br />effort. The plan is flexible to provide direction for decisions without overly prescribing <br />actions or projects. <br /> <br />In the future, new opportunities and priorities will emerge. The construction of a new <br />hospital or Federal courthouse was not anticipated even a few years ago. The city will <br />change and grow in ways that cannot be predicted. But our vision for downtown as the <br />center of our community will hold true. <br /> <br />Based on the framework of the plan, and a little Eugene serendipity, we will strengthen <br />the economic vitality and the special character of our downtown. We will recognize and <br />create opportunities to bring our collective vision for downtown to life. <br /> <br /> 42 <br /> <br /> <br />