Item 1: Key Urban Services/Jurisdictional Authority

Home Browse Search

The Metro Plan was successful in setting the stage for many public and private developments in this area over the past 27 years. The regional wastewater plant, an improved airport, a transit system and conservation of agricultural and forest land. The Metro Plan also facilitated the Gateway Mall, fire service by Willakenzie in South Springfield, precluded a new city in Santa Clara, and led to development of new higher tech industrial parks that had been the center of controversy in the late 1970's. It took us into a new century. G. CURRENT CHALLENGES When the Metro Plan was first adopted the population within the UGB was approximately 184,000 (1977). During the last 30 years, the population within the Metro UGB has grown approximately 48,000 to 232,000. Twenty-five years from now, the most recently prepared population projection (2005) for the Metro UGB population is 314,000, an increase of 82,000 by the year 2030. The Metro Plan partners have finished Periodic Review (2004), but we are now subject to another state-mandated process: Implementation of HB 3337. HB3337 requires Eugene and Springfield to evaluate their respective buildable lands inventories for a new 20-year planning period and, based on that evaluation, establish separate urban growth boundaries. The effect of this action will be the creation of “refinement plans” of the Metro Plan for Eugene and Springfield that will [likely] eliminate a number of existing plan provisions that are based on the presence of a metro-wide land use inventory and a single metropolitan urban growth boundary. The implementation of HB 3337 provides a timely opportunity to assess the continuing effectiveness of many of the assumptions that have guided metropolitan planning, growth and development for the past 50 years. Many of these assumptions have been the subject of past joint elected officials’ discussions stretching back to the mid-1990’s while more recent discussions have revealed a new set of challenges. Staff is requesting direction from the elected officials regarding a strategy to resolve these issues including whether this effort should be coordinated with the ongoing work to implement HB 3337. The challenge is planning for future generations in a meaningful way and providing for stable st government services within the financial constraints of the 21 Century in the aftermath of Measures 5, 47, and 50. Eugene/Springfield Metro Plan Issues 1.Plan Architecture/Structure – 1 Metro Plan or Separate Plans? 2.Urbanizable Land (inside UGB, outside City Limits) Administration to and Representation of citizens inside UGB, outside City Limits. 3.Statutory Coordination Role - LCOG or Lane County? 4.Fundamental Principles. 5. Compact Urban Growth. 6. Rural Reserves / Urban Reserves. 5