Item 5: Public Hearing on Ordinance Establishing Chambers Special Area Zone

Home Browse Search

Please support Chambers Special Area Zone Page 1 of2 LOWE Allen 0 From: NELSON Jeff (SUB) Sent: Friday, November 04, 2005 9:03 AM To: *Eugene Mayor and City Council Cc: LOWE Allen D Subject: Please support Chambers Special Area Zone November 4, 2005 Dear Mayor and City Councilors, I am writing this e-mail to strongly urge you to support the Chambers Special Area Zone as supported by the Planning Commission, City staff and the Chambers Area Families for Healthy Neighborhoods (CAFHN). I do not live within the Chambers Special Area Zone "CSAZ", but am very interested in a successful outcome for the CSAZ. I have followed this issue, provided testimony to the record, and had contact with Allen Lowe and Paul Conte (of CAFHN). Success, to me, is a framework that meets the needs of neighborhoods by providing protection to existing neighborhoods and also meets the needs of the state and city policies regarding traffic mitigation and the provision of sufficient space within the city to meet future residential, commercial, and industrial growth. These can be competing interests and care must be taken to strike an appropriate balance - as has been developed in the Chambers Special Area Zone. Having worked on the Walnut Node (and current Walnut MUC process) and the zoning enhancements for the East Campus process, I appreciate that complex compromises that must be struck to arrive at a successful outcome. It is difficult to percieve how Mixed Use Centers (MUC) such as the CSAZ can be the ONLY tool used to meet future growth needs as there would be too much pressure on existing neighborhoods to achieve all growth and transportation goals only through zoning changes in the existing urban growth boundary. We may be able to do so in the future, but we are not there yet and we need to measure success not as a "one-size-fits-all" universal solution, but as a series of individual Mixed Use Center designations that we can build upon. The Chambers Special Area Zone allows for over a 50% increase in existing density while establishing land use patterns and zoning that will guide appropriate infill for the Chambers neighborhood. While markets will ultimately drive development, the city can (through zones such as the CSAZ) guide development appropriate to individual neighborhoods. Without increased density, the city will be under constant pressure to increase annexations, expand the UGB, and expand city services and infrastructure that are more efficiently provided to more compact neighborhoods. Without code and zoning protections, there is no mitigation to the neighborhood for future development. The Chambers Special Area Zone is a win-win solution that I am hopeful the City Council will adopt. After all, healthy neighborhoods make a healthy Eugene. Respectfully Submitted, 111712005