Weeks of designing and getting neighborhood input for a redesign for the West University Neighborhood Park paid off Thursday, when residents at the West University Neighbors meeting were able to see the two resulting park designs.
The two park designs combined ideas and proposals from previous design sessions where University architecture students brainstormed with neighborhood residents to come up with a final design for the park.
The park has been closed since 1995 because of crime and drug use and because of its poor location bordering an alley between 14th and 15th streets. The opportunity to reopen and redesign the park came in 2006, when property owner Bob Quinney swapped land with the city to build new apartment blocks along the alley, moving the corner park to run alongside East 14th Avenue.
The first park design proposed putting in space for a park vendor and tables, a water sculpture in the corner of the park, two berms and dense trees along the street. The second design proposed putting in a central water sculpture and a corner berm with rocks. Both designs proposed putting in a long path, park benches and flower beds throughout the park.
Graduate architecture student Nora Diver, whose student group Design Bridge helped create the designs, said she will submit the two proposals to the city parks division.
There was still interest in making Wi-Fi for Internet access available in the park, but WUN member Steven Baker said the cheapest method would be to partner with Quinney and install the equipment in his apartment building by Monday.
Neighborhood Services Manager Beth Bridges said she asked the city to consider paying for the monthly Wi-Fi fees through the telecom fee, which provide Wi-Fi access at the airport and the libraries.
In order to finance park construction, the WUN applied for a Neighborhood Matching Grant, where the city of Eugene supplies half of the project’s money to be matched in value by labor, supplies and money from the neighborhood.
WUN chairwoman Deborah Healey said the group applied for a $34,000 grant for the project and that she would find out if the city approved or denied the request on Friday. If the grant is approved and the city agrees to contribute its $17,000 part of the grant, the next step would be to work on a final design for the project and to get neighborhood help on the project, she said.
“We’ve tried to do the designs in such a way that we shouldn’t hear any objections from the police or anyone else,” Healey said. “Seeing a full-color design (for the park) is so cool that people will want to help with this.”
Also discussed at the meeting, the Eugene Police implemented a bicycle registration system in order to help with the recovery of stolen bicycles, said Debbie Janecek, a coordinator for the West University Public Safety Station.
Students and residents can bring their bicycles to any police station to have their bicycles registered, she said. The police also offer to record the serial numbers for possessions such as laptops and televisions on a CD, so that in case the possessions are stolen, people can bring in the CD to the police so that they have a serial number to trace.
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