More than a dozen local residents spoke in favor of limiting the proposed Walnut Street Station Node boundaries at a City Planning Commission public hearing Tuesday night. The proposed development would affect the neighborhood adjacent to the University running northeast from 17th Avenue and Villard Street.
Nodal developments are new to the Eugene area, but are an established tool of urban planners. The developments are self-sufficient neighborhoods that incorporate housing, pedestrian walkways and shopping centers. Ideally, these “urban villages” offer residents easy access to all of life’s necessities.
The Walnut Street Nodal Development is one of nine potential node sites in Eugene. The plans, if completed, would not constitute a node but instead would serve as a node “starter-kit” to be further developed at a later date, said Kent Kullby, a city planner with the Eugene Planning and Development Department.
Most speakers at the meeting opposed the node’s extension to 17th Avenue and favored one of two separate plans that would halt the development zone at 15th Avenue between Villard and Walnut streets.
“Our neighborhood is one of the few in Eugene that has preserved its pre-World War II character,” said Douglas Daniel, who lives within the boundaries of the potential node.
Daniel believes that, with the neighborhood close to the University, students would inevitably live in new apartment buildings built under node regulations. Daniel worries that property values would drop dramatically because of the new apartments. He added that the node could still support the possible apartments if it were to end at 15th Avenue.
“The University is expanding,” he said. “By keeping the boundary at 15th, you get what you need in a node without the possibility of destroying one of Eugene’s older neighborhoods.”
Daniel was not alone in his opposition to the 17th Avenue boundary.
“I don’t think (the contested area) serves any purpose for the node,” said Steve Gab, who owns both a home and a business near the node. Gab, along with many speakers at the meeting, favors a compromise solution that would include five properties south of 15th Avenue.
Other residents have opposed the expansion for statutory reasons.
“The Metro Plan … requires, for nodal development, that a transit stop … is within walking distance (generally one-quarter mile) of anywhere in the node,’” wrote David Wade in an e-mail that was submitted as evidence to the City Planning Commission. “I did not measure it, but I can estimate that one-half of the … area on Orchard Street is outside the quarter mile area. Apparently, the Walnut Node was drawn hastily without even doing distance measurements.”
The City Planning Commission did not take action on the proposal and will hold an additional meeting Monday, April 7.