The public Land Use Hearing for the Len Casanova Center Expansion and associated projects will be held on Wednesday, March 16 at 5 p.m. at the Eugene Hearings Official at 99 W. 10th Ave. in downtown.
Last November, the University’s Department of Intercollegiate Athletics announced plans to expand the football operations center located next to Autzen Stadium, in addition to building a new facility for the school’s women’s soccer and lacrosse programs. The six-story Casanova expansion and creation of the sports fields will be entirely funded by private donations from Phil and Penny Knight and, in the words of University President Richard Lariviere, will likely cost “tens of millions of dollars.”
According to an athletic department’s press release, the growth of Ducks’ athletics in recent years has necessitated the expansion of the 20-year-old center, as well as the development of a world-class operations center for the University’s football team.
Construction of the six-story, 130,000-square-foot football facility would use no public, state or general University dollars, according to the athletic department. The facility’s blueprints call for a 25,000-square-foot weight room adjacent to three new grass and synthetic turf practice fields. The ground floor would host a lobby and reception area and a full-service dining facility available to all University athletes, students and staff. At its heart, a centralized football operations center would include separate offensive and defensive strategy meeting rooms, two video theaters and a large conference suite for the entire coaching staff, all flanked by a player’s lounge and office, and locker facilities for coaches.
Both new buildings would be constructed more than 2,000 feet away from the Willamette Riverfront, and create a net loss of 422 parking spaces on or within 1,000 feet of the site, bringing the total parking availability near Autzen Stadium to 5,097.
Bill Almquist, an assistant planner with the City of Eugene’s Planning Division, confirmed that the record for public comment is open for both projects. If the record is closed at the hearing, the City’s Hearings Official has 15 days to issue a decision regarding the building permit, after which a 12-day appeal window will commence. An appeal of the Hearing Official’s decision costs 50 percent of the original fee for a Willamette Greenway Permit, or approximately $3,209 per project.
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