The Lane County Fair Board declined to make a decision Tuesday on a Eugene Family YMCA proposal to turn an underused livestock building into an active sports center and office building.
The YMCA offered to lease the Lane Events Center’s livestock building, now used to house animals and livestock during the Lane County Fair, convert part of it into offices and build three indoor soccer fields.
Dave Perez, executive director of the Eugene YMCA, said at the meeting that if the YMCA were allowed to lease the building, it would maintain it and take over all the operating costs.
The fields would generate about $110,000 in revenue per year while attracting youth and adult leagues for games and tournaments,
Perez said.
But Fair Board President Bob Zagorin said the board wasn’t ready to make a decision on the YMCA’s proposal and that more time was needed to consult with people who use the current facility as well as the Lane County Board of Commissioners, which would
ultimately need to approve any changes.
Some board members expressed concern about where livestock and animals would be housed for future fairs if the renovations occurred.
The board heard proposals from Larry Gilbert of CMG & S Landscape Architects and Bill Seider of Pivot
Architecture on the costs of building a new area for the animals. One proposed building that would allow the fair to keep animals year-round and provide the necessary facilities for fair visitors cost an estimated $13 million. Warren Wong, managing director of the Lane Events Center, said he agreed that the proposals sounded exciting, but the center’s financial constraints and the problem with finding a place to move the animals were problematic.
“We can see that we don’t have enough property to play with here,” Wong said. “The question really comes down to: What is the viability of the fairgrounds here,
and what should we do in several years?”
The fairgrounds’ size and aging facilities, and its loss of revenue in previous years, has been a continuing source of concern. The Lane County Board of Commissioners rejected proposals in 2003 and 2005 to sell the fairgrounds.
“I don’t see how you can continue to operate unless you make changes to produce revenue,” Perez said.
Wong said that the board needed to focus on creating a long-term plan for the fairgrounds, but that it would never turn a profit as long as the Board of Commissioners kept the site a public facility.
Zagorin said the next board meeting would be scheduled within the next few months.