Downtown urban renewal was high on the agenda Monday night in the Eugene City Council’s bi-monthly work session.
The stated mission of the council’s downtown initiative, adopted in 2007, is to “facilitate significant revitalization of the downtown core.”
All eight of the city manager’s budgetary proposals Monday night were passed by the council, six of which related directly to allocating funds for downtown renewal.
The most expensive motion passed allocated 8 million public dollars for Lane Community College’s expected downtown development, a portion of which would facilitate the construction of a public plaza, as well as a police station.
Councilor George Brown raised concerns about the popularity of a public safety sub station on LCC campus. City Manager Jon Ruiz said officials at the school were open to all aspects of the proposal, with stipulations.
“Part of what we are hearing from (LCC) is that they want a strong presence there,” Ruiz said. “A public safety station, while they would be open to it, it’s not the first thing they want people to think of when they look for the school, so that’s a design element.”
Other motions passed included $500,000 to improve the park blocks with the intention of enhancing the Eugene farmers’ market, $2.2 million for beefing up police presence in downtown and the installation of electric vehicle charging stations.
Betty Taylor, vice president of the council, spoke on several occasions about her unwillingness to fund downtown renewal projects that were too vaguely defined in their use of public funds.
“I think we are trying to do too much at once,” Taylor said. “There are things I’d be happy to support, but it’s all tied together with urban renewal.”
Mayor Kitty Piercy addressed this concern, saying the work session had intentionally been aimed at urban renewal and structured to cover a lot of ground.
“In the past, we tried to do one piece. Tonight, we’re trying to do three major pieces — public safety, social services and development, all moving at the same time, and hopefully lift this downtown in a way we never have before,” she said. “It’s not just throwing things in the basket, it is carefully putting together soup to make it the way you want it in the end — tasty.”
George Cole, a 73-year resident of Eugene, said he’s not so optimistic about the council’s motions to renew downtown.
“Ever since I’ve been out of high school they’ve said they were gonna fix downtown,” Cole said. “They put so many restrictions on parking and everything else, that you know businesses can’t survive.
People in my generation are uncomfortable downtown because if you go by the library, there are all the punks down there. It’s foreign to us. If people have no reason to go downtown, why throw more money at it?”
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