Eugene city planners are preparing to analyze, refine and develop ideas for a major redevelopment on Franklin Boulevard with an “emerging vision” for the future.
The Walnut Station Mixed Use Development Plan, which was initiated by the city in May 2005 in partnership with the University and the state of Oregon, seeks to develop and encourage mixed-use urban growth and development near the University.
The area identified for development covers 73 acres from Eugene’s eastern entrance along Franklin Boulevard west past Agate Street, and south from the Willamette River to 15th Avenue. The area is “a key mixed-use center for Eugene,” according to design plans, and was described as an “epicenter” to stimulate redevelopment.
Phase One of the project was intended to create consensus on a vision and conceptual plan for the area. City and development officials held several meetings and interviews with stakeholders, residents and business owners and with a steering committee composed of local stakeholders, including representatives from the University and property and business owners during the first phase to allow for public input and ideas for the project.
Three alternative plans for the area were drawn up with the intention of creating a preferred plan for the project based on community ideas and input. A preferred alternative plan drawn up in March 2006 showed a mixture of medium and high intensity development along Franklin Boulevard and Garden Avenue, with development spreading toward the Fairmount neighborhood and Eugene Millrace.
However, the Eugene Planning Commission recommended that the conceptual plan that emerged should instead be classified as “an emerging vision,” according to Senior Transportation Planner Lisa Gardner. She said a preferred alternative plan creates a sense of certainty with the project, while an emerging vision is more conceptual.
Gardner said either in a few weeks or by summer the plan will enter Phase Two, which will look at developing and implementing the plan in relation to transportation in the area, and is anticipated to take up to one year.
Accommodating traffic is a significant component of the plan, as related documents point out, planned expansion in the area through such projects as the proposed University arena, construction of off-ramps from Interstate 5 onto Franklin Boulevard and future stations on the Bus Rapid Transit Line, which would connect downtown Eugene with downtown Springfield.
The Preferred Alternative Plan designs envisioned two travel lanes in each direction along Franklin Boulevard, with a parking lane on both sides and two lanes for Rapid Transit buses and a tree-lined median. Other local streets were drawn as having on-street parking and one travel lane in each direction, with a landscaped median. Gardner said part of Phase Two would be to look at how to accommodate projected traffic flow and how to improve pedestrian access.
“(Phase Two) is trying to get a sense of how proposed land uses will affect transportation uses,” Gardner said.
She said meetings with a steering committee would continue to provide advisory input to the staff. She said additional public workshops would also be held with the community.
“We’re doing a very comprehensive public involvement process,” Gardner said. “So far we’ve had very broad and very robust involvement from the community.”
Gardner said the completion of Phase Two would hopefully provide recommendations for implementing strategies for Walnut Station plans, which would then be forwarded to the Eugene City Council for consideration and possible action.
“The ideas for land use are still very conceptual at this point,” Gardner said. “It would be premature now to say what the area would look like.”
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