The University Planning Committee announced Thursday it will move its proposed childcare center site two blocks east after hearing objections from members of the Fairmount Neighborhood Association.
The $2.6 million childcare center will move from 17th Avenue and Columbia Street to 17th Avenue and Moss Street.
If the office of University President Dave Frohnmayer approves the site, University planning will create structure plans for approval. If those are approved, the center could open as soon as January 2004.
The center will replace the EMU’s childcare center and two off-campus childcare facilities. The committee’s decision comes after members of the Fairmount Neighborhood Association told the University that the 17th and Columbia location violates a growth management plan between the University and the neighborhood. The University’s planning department began searching for an alternative site and decided on the new location, University planner Christine Thompson said.
University spokeswoman Jan Oliver said the neighborhood’s concerns were a “major factor” in moving the center, and emphasized the importance of creating new growth policies agreeable to University neighbors.
She also said the University’s growth policy is outdated and “may not be in line with (the University’s) needs, so we need to talk about it” with the neighborhood association and possibly make changes. Kate Workman, a University student who lives in a rental house on the 17th and Moss site, said the center “could put the University of Oregon at forefront of choices for student parents.”
The University owns four rental houses on the newly proposed site, and would either demolish or remove them.
Bill Bradshaw, a Fairmount area resident and University biology professor, said he finds it “very gratifying to see the University re-affirm its commitment” to the agreement.
Thompson said she hopes the University has satisfied neighborhood trepidations.
The change “certainly responds to their concerns,” she said.
The Fairmount Neighborhood Association, the University and the city of Eugene created a contract agreement in the early 1980s to manage University growth east of campus. The plan establishes guidelines for where and how the University can expand.
University and neighborhood association members said tension about center’s original site started after the University overlooked some of the management policies in the agreement. University Planning Director Chris Ramey said he and his staff accept responsibility for the misinterpretation.
“We should have been more fully aware of University policies,” he said.
Ramey said the need for a site change “clearly shows those policies need to be updated.”
The site proposal is only a recommendation to Frohnmayer’s office, which will disregard it only if some major flaw in the planning commission’s proposal is discovered. As the commission is the University entity responsible for reviewing building proposals, its proposals are rarely rejected.
The University has used off-campus houses for childcare since June 1970, and childcare directors requested a new facility as far back as 1985.