While Oregon’s football team gears up for what it hopes is a fortunate beginning to the season on Sept. 2 against Nevada, administration officials seeking an amendment to Eugene’s parking code have received their own favorable roll of the dice.
The city’s Planning Commission voted unanimously Monday to forward the University’s revised Transportation Demand Management Plan to the City Council for review and a Sept. 25 public hearing.
The TDM Plan, several months in the making, is designed to prove to city planners and city council members that Autzen Stadium can be expanded without the need for additional on-site parking. Currently, Chapter 9 of the Land Use Code requires one parking space for each 4.4 seats in the stadium. Under proposed stadium expansion plans to increase seating capacity by 12,100 fans — scheduled to begin no earlier than late November — the University would be required to find 1,375 additional spaces on stadium property. If the City Council eventually passes the amendment, however, that prerequisite would be negated.
Alternatives to more parking spaces include increasing the usage of public transit, expanding bicycle valet service to encourage more two-wheeled arrivals and using approximately 800-1,000 on-campus parking spaces that are not utilized on game days.
“We’re very pleased with the Planning Commission’s action,” said Steve McBride, assistant athletic director of internal operations. “A lot of people, city staff, University staff and consultants have spent a lot of time working on [the TDM Plan] … We’re glad that this step is behind us now and we’re ready to work with the City Council to get the code amendment passed.”
The University submitted a revised TDM Plan to the Planning Commission on July 14, then city officials took public comment until July 24.
Despite the stadium expansion’s timetable thrown into somewhat of a cloud because of Nike CEO Phil Knight’s withdrawal of a $30 million pledge in April, University officials went forward with the amendment request.
“It is important to note that by its nature the TDM plan is a living documnet that will adapt to changing circumstances,” Vice President for Administration Dan Williams wrote in a letter to the Planning Commission dated July 21. “For example, it will be several years before the stadium is altered and able to contain the full complement of spectators for which the TDM plan is designed. This allows for plenty of time to fine-tune the elements of the plan to ensure their effectiveness.”
One potential controversial aspect of the plan is where to situate a bus passenger area, which will be used to drop off fans before the games and pick them up post-game. Three options are outlined in the plan, but the University’s preferred choice would make use of the parking lot on Willamette Science and Technology Center grounds. The other two are along Leo Harris Parkway and an existing parking area on the northeast side of the stadium.

WISTEC currently sells season passes to football fans for parking privileges at the center, which is located southwest from Autzen, across Leo Harris Parkway. McBride said that he and other administrators have to work through the complexities of overlapping agreements between the University, WISTEC and the city, which owns the parking area, before they can sit down and hash out a restructured arrangement with WISTEC.
“We would prefer to see the staging area built on University property because that makes the most sense to WISTEC,” said Meg Trendler, executive director for WISTEC. Trendler added that her organization is not opposed to the Autzen Stadium expansion nor the passage of the parking code amendment.
City Manager Jim Johnson spoke briefly at Monday’s meeting and addressed the bus staging issue. He said that he has had “good meetings” with both WISTEC and University officials, but the discussions are on-going. No date has been set for resolution, although McBride said he would like something in place before next month’s season-opener.
According to Planning Commission President Peter Bartel, he has concerns in regard to how the loss of that parking lot income would impact WISTEC.
“The success of the athletic program at the University has caused that site to develop rather intensively with extremely large buildings and drawing large numbers of people,” he said. “Those two things — WISTEC and its constituency and the Athletic Department and its constituency — appear to be on sort of a collision course.
“In this [potential] agreement, I think it behooves everyone to think very seriously [and] to have a plan about where WISTEC will be and what will happen to them, because these dollars that they get are very important to them.”
Other opposition to the code amendment is expected to come from the East Alton Baker Park Citizen Planning Committee, which is an city-appointed group of 15 Eugene and Springfield citizens in charge of maintaining the park.
“My main concern is … how the infusion of several thousand more fans walking to and from Autzen Stadium will affect [the park],” said David Sonnichsen, vice chair of the EABPCPC. “I’m not convinced that the University’s increased attention to the park at this time really addressed the future continuing health of the park.”
Bartel said that he believes everyone involved in the process has been sensitive to the environmental and logistical concerns brought up during the plethora of meetings and work sessions.
“It will be doing a good thing for a broad cross-section of the community to have this be successful and success is defined by how gentle a footprint they’re going to put on the landscape,” he said. “It’s [also] going to be defined by how cooperative people are and being sensitive to problems that will exist just because it’s a new thing that we’re doing.
“We have a chance to establish a paradigm in our community that says you can have major events that do not require you getting in your car and driving there yourself.”