A group of Eugene residents in the Moss Street area are concerned about what they believe is an increasing University presence in their neighborhood, and some neighbors have expressed concern over the consequences of possible future development projects in the area.
Zach Vishanoff, a Eugene resident and former University student who calls himself the “Moss Street Defender,” said he believes University Housing will convert property in the area into a housing development.
“It’s clear to me,” Vishanoff said. “My instincts tell me it will be a new mega-complex.”
But University Housing Director Michael Eyster said his department has no plans for future development in the area. He said the city of Eugene holds public hearings more than a year in advance of any new development projects so residents can express their concerns.
Eyster said that a few houses were removed from the area because of their poor physical condition, which made it economically infeasible for the University to maintain them.
“We’re constantly weighing whether it’s to the cost benefit of students to repair those houses,” he said, adding that University Housing has no current plans to remove or demolish any other houses in the east campus area.
Katherine Wilson, owner of the company transplanting the houses, said the project will preserve and restore the homes and that she plans to move the houses to other locations in Eugene and restore them to their original condition. She said she is protecting pieces of the city and is not concerned with turning a profit.
Eyster said University Housing currently rents more than 100 houses in the Moss Street area to students with families.
“We own a lot of that neighborhood,” he said.
A plan emerged in the 1980s to turn the area into residence halls, but the plan was scrapped before it was put into action, Eyster said.
University Planning Office Director Chris Ramey said his department also has no plans for development east of Moss Street.
Moss Street resident Bryan Boggs said he has noticed the removal of houses in the area over the past year.
“My concern is that it continues to be used for housing students,” he said.
Despite the absence of University development plans, Vishanoff said he’s convinced the Moss Street neighborhood will soon be converted into high-density housing.
Vishanoff said the houses are left unattended only to be used by “transients and raccoons,” and that he believes the University allows houses to fall into poor physical condition to justify their removal.
But Eyster counters that University Housing leaves homes empty only in transition between tenants.
“Our first intention is always to keep houses rented,” he said, adding that his department currently has one empty home in the Moss Street area. “It’s not rentable and the cost to renovate it would be too much,” he said.
One option that the University could take advantage of to finance the renovation and upkeep of the houses is through the University’s historic preservation program and the work study program, Vishanoff said.
Vishanoff held a meeting Saturday in the front yard of one of the houses slated to be transplanted to discuss University Housing’s actions in the neighborhood. During that meeting, he patrolled the sidewalk with a sign that read, “Save affordable family housing.”
Ron “Misha” Seymour, an area resident who attended the meeting, said his concerns are “to have affordable family housing and to have things that look beautiful, to protect the history we have here.”
Concerned about what he thinks is a lack of communication and dialogue between University Housing and neighborhood homeowners, Vishanoff expressed displeasure with the public input process.
“They’ve been excluded from the process,” he said. “The housing department hasn’t been consulting with them for the last three years.”
But Laura Marriott, president of the Fairmount Neighbors, a neighborhood association that includes the Moss Street area,said the University does inform the neighborhood in advance of developments.
Toby Grant, who lives across Villard Street from the University and leases several properties in the area, said he wants to open a dialogue between neighborhood residents and University Housing.
Grant has lived in the area for 14 years and said he is also concerned with the installation of parking regulation signs, as well as what he believes is the dilapidation of University-owned properties in the area.
Both Grant and Vishanoff said they are concerned about the possibility of future development projects in the area.
Grant also expressed concern about the presence of the University Department of Public Safety in the neighborhood.
“They are an expression of the encroachment of the University on the eastern side of Villard [Street],” he said.
Grant was arrested on a disorderly conduct charge at his house at 1914 E. 17th Ave. after the meeting Saturday. He said a DPS officer drove past several times before calling the Eugene Police Department.
“What gives them the right to extend their jurisdiction beyond the University?” he asked. He said he believed the DPS officer disturbed his right to “lawful assembly.”