The Eugene Planning Commission decided on Tuesday to approve the University’s conditional use permit to build its proposed East Campus Children’s Center.
The Planning Commission held a public meeting in the Sloat Room of the Atrium Building at 99 W. 10th Ave. to make some changes to the hearings official’s original approval documentation.
Toby Grant and Jeff Osanka, residents of the Fairmount neighborhood in the east campus area where the University plans to build, filed an appeal on Sept. 30 against the hearings official’s original decision to grant the permit.
“We want to work collaboratively with the University,” Fairmount Neighborhood Association member and former president Osanka said in a Nov. 11 press release. “We again ask the University to return to the process by which they involve the Fairmount Neighborhood as an equal partner in design and planning,” he said.
Area residents have 21 days to appeal the decision on a state level to the Land Use Board of Appeals after it has been mailed by the commission.
“Together, we can create a child care center that works,” Osanka added.
Some believe the current design is fine and are satisfied with the Planning Commission’s final decision.
“We’re very pleased that the Planning Commission has upheld the hearings official’s decision,” EMU Director of Student Activities Gregg Lobisser said.
Lobisser said he feels confident about beginning construction because the University’s permit application has been approved by both the hearings official and the Planning Commission.
However, since the site was proposed, area residents have contested the permit that will allow the University to begin building.
The site the University chose for the structure, at the corner of East 17th Avenue and Moss Street, is a residential area, and in order to obtain a permit, the University must comply with certain criteria.
These criteria involve specific standards for the building’s appearance, mostly that it fit in with the surrounding neighborhood, Associate City Planner Kent Kullby told the Emerald on July 9.
The Fairmount neighborhood is a medium-density area, so the University’s plans for the building must blend in with the overall small building size.
Some of the neighbors said that the proposed structure did not meet these stipulations.
“I think it’s institutional, and it doesn’t fit the character (of the neighborhood) very well,” Osanka told the Emerald on Aug. 6.
The University still must apply for site approval and construction permits in order to progress with other aspects of the project.
“We’ve gotten this far,” University planning consultant and applicant representative Terri Harding said. “It’s just taking the steps in the process one bit at a time.”
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