It has been a busy summer for many West University neighborhood residents. Members of the neighborhood association, the West University Neighbors, have met throughout the last few months to discuss ideas for reopening a park that has been closed for about 10 years.
Shortly after a July 29 meeting at which Eugene Police Department Officer Randy Ellis said that the same criminal activity that initially closed the park will remain a big issue facing the neighborhood if it is reopened, a new proposal landed on the table that has since become, for some, a promising solution to WUN’s efforts.
Property owner Bob Quinney and his wife Leslie recently decided to rebuild the housing on the corner of 14th Avenue and Hilyard Street, which sits right next to the half-block deep West University Neighborhood Park.
The Quinneys, working with developer and designer Gordon Anslow of Anslow and DeGeneault, a design and construction firm in Eugene, proposed a land swap that will eliminate the visibility issues that made the park attract criminals and caused the park’s closure.
Members of the neighborhood association have already written a document in support of the land swap to submit to City Council when members consider the proposition, but not everyone agrees with the plan.
Local activist Zach Vishanoff voiced his concern that the city has not adequately informed the residents about the plan. He said that making an informed decision is based on public input, and that it is important to schedule public meetings when enough of the West University residents, about 60 percent of whom are University students, are back in town.
“I encourage you to put it on ice for a while,” Vishanoff said at a meeting on Aug. 25, stating his discontent with both the timing of the plan and the duration of time it is taking for the proposal to be processed.
Robin Hostick of the City of Eugene Parks Department said the land swap proposition will likely be voted on during the last week of September. He assured the approximately 35 people in attendance at the meeting that “the books are never really closed,” and that their input is encouraged.
“I sent out about 2,300 postcards to the service area” to inform neighbors about the public meeting, Hostick said.
“What we want you to do is write comments and put things in your words. I will transcribe them and present it to the city council, and they will decide on it,” Hostick said.
The owner of the property on the opposite side of the alley directly behind the park, William Olsen, said he was not informed of the public meeting to hear this proposal.
“I didn’t get a postcard,” Olsen said.
Hostick replied, “Now that you mention it, we did not send any postcards to owners, but I will make sure that all the property owners get notified. This is not a closed deal.”
Olsen was still opposed to the idea.
“This is only for the Quinneys, and he’s the worst property owner in the neighborhood,” Olsen said.
Olsen added that the city paid for the alley using taxpayer money, “and now the owners will get it for nothing. We are not supportive of this at all.”
Because of increased interest rates, inflation and heavy maintenance, the Quinneys will go through with their plan to tear down their current property regardless of whether the land swap works out, but helping open the park benefits both the Quinneys and the neighborhood.
“It’s a definite that we are developing the corner property, but if the land swap doesn’t happen, we will develop anyway,” Bob Quinney said. He later added, “we just think it’s a win-win.”

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