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This work includes comprehensive area planning, code changes to allow live-work arrangements in industrial zones, provision <br />of high quality transit along key corridors, code changes and rezonings to encourage mixed-use development in commercial <br />areas and near transit stops, and carefully targeted incentives. <br />The work also includes anticipating coming market pressures on existing neighborhoods that could result in poorly designed <br />infill projects. Better planning for student housing, stronger infill compatibility standards, and an opportunity siting process that <br />empowers affected neighbors are important pieces of the planning puzzle. <br />Eugene’s neighbors recognize the benefits of expanded housing choices. Springfield and Albany are planning for only 52 and <br />47 percent detached single-family homes, respectively, despite current mixes of more than 60 percent. Corvallis is planning for <br />only 50 percent single-family home construction. These forward-looking cities will not be caught flat-footed, unprepared for <br />the coming shifts in demography and preferences. <br />Like it or not, we are entering unfamiliar waters. Instead of trying to re-create the past, Eugene should embrace the inevitable <br />changes of the 21st century, and step boldly forward with planning activities that fully prepare our community to meet the <br />coming demand for a wide range of housing types. <br />Mia Nelson, the Willamette Valley advocate for 1000 Friends of Oregon, is a Realtor, a residential subdivision developer, and a <br />member of the Community Resource, Technical Resource and Partially Vacant groups of the Envision Eugene process. <br />Copyright © 2011 — The Register-Guard, Eugene, Oregon, USA <br />