Imagine going to work, catching a movie, grabbing a bite to eat, shopping at some favorite retail stores and lounging in a public park – all less than a quarter-mile from apartment buildings and just a short bus ride from downtown.
This neighborhood would leave the gas-guzzling cars in the garage as residents stroll various walkways designed with people, not cars, in mind. The concept, called “mixed-use” development, encourages bringing residential and commercial structures together with open space and nearby transportation, all with an over-arching emphasis on a pedestrian-friendly environment.
The idea has been spreading from coast to coast in recent years, and it could eventually come to Eugene.
City planning officials, an urban design firm and some University students have been hard at work refining the design of what could change the “Walnut Station” area forever.
Walnut Station is primarily centered on Franklin Boulevard.
To the north, it encompasses Garden Avenue all the way to the Willamette River. To the south, it runs to East 19th Avenue and includes Walnut, Orchard and Villard Streets, but excludes the Fairmount neighborhood.
Senior City Planner Allen Lowe said although the prospects of mixed-use are exciting, people need to keep in mind that Eugene will have to wait before seeing actual change.
“Even on a fast-track process, there’s a minimum of five years and probably longer than that before you’d ever see anyconstruction,” he said. “We’re talking about a 40- to 50-year redevelopment plan.”
Lowe, who has been the city’s principal planner for the potential mixed-use development, said Franklin Boulevard is the major obstacle in designing the redevelopment of the area.
“The question of how Franklin Boulevard will be designed is the central question,” he said. “Everything hinges on that.”
Alternative visions
The Walnut Station became the local test bed for possible mixed-use development several years ago when a regional transportation plan, known as Transplan, identified the area as a potential site for such development.
According to a city newsletter, the report prompted the Eugene Planning Department to develop the area for mixed use.
The interest was also spurred by factors that pointed to imminent change in the area: the area’s proximity to the new EmX bus rapid transit system, the University, the potential site of a new University basketball arena and the possibility of an interchange linking I-5 with Franklin Boulevard.
Planners cited several goals in the newsletter in accordance with the ideals of mixed use, including transit stops within one-fourth mile of anywhere in the area, development that leads to a variety of services, activities and destinations, public and private open spaces along with public facilities that can be reached without driving and a mix of housing types with a total housing density of 12 dwelling units per net acre. The project also was split into two phases.
Phase One, primarily an information- and perspective-gathering process, began last spring and developed a vision and planning framework.
From May 2005 to February 2006, city planners spoke to the area’s stakeholders byconducting five public workshops, personal interviews with nearby property owners, “Issues Group” meetings that tackled groups with specific concerns about the proposed development and interviews with the project Steering Committee, composed of the area’s stakeholders.
The city also consulted the public, business owners, property owners, the Fairmount Neighborhood Association, the University and local utilities and service providers, according to the city’s May 2006 report.
The result was “three alternatives,” or scenarios, by which the mixed-use development could proceed. The city presented the results at a Feb. 9 workshop. The public was asked to choose aspects of the three alternatives they supported so that a “preferred alternative” could be chosen and presented to the Steering Committee and, eventually, the Eugene Planning Commission.
The public input was not as helpful as expected, Lowe said. The numerous voices and interests in the area proved too varied, and the Planning Commission rejected the phrase “preferred alternative,” citing a lack of true consensus.
Planners renamed the design “Emerging Vision” to underscore its flexibility and conceptual nature.
It presents “a set of design elements on which there is considerable agreement, tempered with unresolved questions,” according to the Phase One report.
Lowe said there were elements of the mixed-use development that all sides enthusiastically endorsed. This included increasing housing, creating an area used for multiple purposes, using Franklin Boulevard as the eastern “gateway” to the city and improving the walkability of the neighborhood.
Other than that, Lowe said, there are as many disputed issues as there are viewpoints.
“On broad principles, people are in agreement,” he said. “It breaks down when you talk about different implementation strategies.”
University voices into the mix
Phase One was not the sole responsibility of city planners. Urbsworks, Inc., a Portland-based urban design firm that specializes in community plans, was hired as a project consultant, and students at the University have also put their own impression on the project.
The city has been getting new ideas from a University architecture studio. Mark Gillem, professor of architecture and head of the involved studio, said Lowe offered him the chance to let students examine the design after the planners failed to reach true consensus.
“The idea was that the studio could take a fresh look at the consultant’s proposals … and the concerns of the various stakeholders and put together how we could get to win-win,” Gillem said.
Gillem said the studio’s involvement was positive because it allowed students to get involved in real-world issues and provided city planners with different ideas and alternative plans.
“The purpose of the studio is an education environment, working on a real-world problem and looking at real-world issues,” he said. “We try and show how alternatives can address concerns from all the various players.”
Students have been specifically examining how different densities of housing could shape the feel and function of the possible mixed-use area. According to market research city planners conducted during Phase One, the estimated demand for new housing in Walnut Station ranges from 1,000 to 1,400 new units by 2025.
Gillem’s studio is split into two groups: low-density housing and medium-density housing. The medium-density housing is operating with the city’s 1,400 units figure, while the low-density is working with about 800 units.
Lowe said students’ idea about lowering the estimated number of housing units was being considered by city planners.
“Some students are really seeing the residential densities being much lower,” Lowe said. “It’s just a different idea than what was on the table.”
But Lowe said Gillem’s studio, in general, provided another set of minds examining the current proposals rather than creating different alternatives.
“Mark’s studio is exploring how those ideas might play out,” he said. “I would characterize it as a refinement rather than an alternative.”
The studio, composed of 16 students, also looked at adding networks of open space into the consultant’s current proposals. In one instance, the consultants called for a park where Villard Street meets the Eugene Mill Race, which would require the removal of several “fairly new” buildings.
The studio’s plans called for the park to be shifted to an existing parking lot closer to Franklin Boulevard. Only one building would have to be removed.
“We’ve been looking at ways to minimize cost to the city and maximize benefits to the community,” Gillem said.
Molly Dobbs, a senior architecture student in the studio’s medium-density gr
oup, said the focus on open space has improved on the consultant’s original conceptions.
“Too often architects look at their buildings as objects,” she said. “This isn’t Portland, and it’s really important to understand the city you’re designing in.”
Just as the city had, Gillem recognized the project hinged on the redevelopment of Franklin Boulevard.
“There is a clear desire to make Franklin a real boulevard,” he said. “It’s really in the details about how to work it out.”
Dobbs said the studio has provided valuable experience for its students.
“It’s been great,” she said. “Mark’s studios are nice because they’re so embedded in reality.”
In connection with their work, the studio received several grants from groups such as the city of Eugene, the Lane Transit District and the Oregon Department of Transportation.
Gillem’s studio has used portions of these funds to host the City Design Lecture Series. During the spring, the series will bring three speakers to the University to discuss topics such as urban design, transportation planning and, of course, mixed-use development.
Gillem said this series shows the strong relationship the University and the city have made during Phase One of the project.
“I think that’s how this is a long-term relationship with the University,” he said. “We’re really starting to see a lot of opportunity.”
Phase Two, consensus and the future
With Phase One and the Emerging Vision plan completed in May, the second and final phase will begin in late June.
Phase Two was originally intended to “develop an implementation plan” for the area, Lowe said, but since stakeholders never reached a consensus the next phase will continue planners’ efforts to find community agreement.
The city will again hire a consultant in coming weeks to work on the project, but Phase Two will still involve “endless public involvement, contacts with property owners … and I’m sure we’ll continue to work with Mark (Gillem) in the fall,” Lowe said.
There are still many important decisions yet to be finalized, he said.
“We have a bunch of the pieces, but there are some significant parts missing,” Lowe said. “One of them is Franklin Boulevard.”
Lowe said the design of Franklin Boulevard is central to achieving a walkable neighborhood. City planners face the daunting challenge of how to encourage pedestrians to cross a major arterial street that will fit in with the pedestrian-friendly environment of mixed-use areas.
“If we can’t show a way that that will happen … then I think we really need to examine whether we’re going to do a mixed-use area,” Lowe said.
One option is redesigning Franklin Boulevard to make cars move slower and improve pedestrian’s comfort and perception of safety as they walk across and near the boulevard.
Urbsworks’ design calls for a “multi-way” boulevard, Lowe said. This type of street attempts to address driving, parking and pedestrian concerns by using medians to isolate different traffic types.
Franklin Boulevard might include two EmX bus lanes in the center of the street surrounded by medians, two lanes of through traffic on each side, two more medians, two “access lanes” with single, one-way low speed lanes and on-street parking next to sidewalks.
“It will require redesign to make (Franklin) a walkable street,” Lowe said, “and it will cost money to do that.”
The goal remains to continue to build consensus and gather information, he said.
“That’s the objective right now: to really understand physically, economically, functionally what the result of these ideas are,” he said.
Many factors will have to fall in place in order for Phase One to move beyond the mixed-use concept to become reality in Walnut Station, Lowe said.
“In a perfect world, all of the political forces would come together and agree that the ideas in that plan are ideas we want to pursue,” he said.
Nevertheless, the project will face a long journey to approval.
Planners and consultants will deliver their information to the Planning Commission this fall with the hopes of being able to present the first concrete plan of mixed-use development to the public, the Planning Commission and the City Council by the fall of 2007.
“Then it’s up to them,” Lowe said of the plan’s would-be evaluators. “Redevelopment is happening as we speak, but whether it is guided by a redevelopment plan is another question.”
Lowe said this is no different than any other planning process. The City Council will vote on whether the plan will be adopted, and if it passes it will be voted on during Lane County’s Capital Improvement Program, a five-year, annually updated financial plan for capital improvement to Lane County’s transportation network.
Assuming the program gains the county support, a series of engineering tests will occur before any preliminary construction begins. Again, Lowe emphasized the development is still a long way off.
“For any major public infrastructure project you think of, it’s many, many years before the public becomes aware of it,” he said.