The University’s east campus neighbors have expressed concern recently about a new childcare center’s location, while the University has pledged to work with its neighbors before developing more of its 100-plus single-family houses in the area.
Several people in the Fairmount Neighborhood Association said the University’s new childcare center, sited for 17th Avenue and Columbia Street directly east of campus, violates a 20-year-old growth management plan both sides recently agreed is still valid.
Members complain that a childcare center will significantly alter the neighborhood and could create traffic congestion. Members point to an agreement that gives them consultation power.
“(The agreement) is our format,” said association member Christina Bradshaw, who helped create the agreement. “This is what we use to determine our future.”
Jan Oliver, a University associate vice president, said the University has always worked with the neighborhood, and would “continue to work with them as partners.”
The University, the neighborhood association and the city of Eugene created the plan 20 years ago. It lays down guidelines for University growth. Among other things, it says that the University should provide notice of planned projects at neighborhood association meetings, and that the University should develop properties closer to campus before ones farther away.
University Planning Director Chris Ramey said he would meet with the association at one of its public meetings to discuss the childcare center and any new construction projects. He would not say if there was any circumstance or argument the association could present that would change the center’s location.
“We won’t know anything more until we meet with them,” Ramey said.
Ramey also said that the University would present future construction plans for the east campus area at neighborhood association meetings before finalizing plans.
With University enrollment expected to reach 20,000 soon and many housing facilities becoming outdated, many members of the neighborhood association are concerned about University expansion and want to limit the “University sprawl,” according to former neighborhood association president and board member Jeff Osanka.
The University would like to consider updating the agreement, and work could soon begin in earnest.
Ramey said “the problem is that the plan has not been reviewed in 20 years.”
Both sides have pledged to cooperate in determining how the University will develop its property. Neither side is legally bound to follow the other’s recommendations, however.
The neighborhood association’s governing board would have to ratify proposals from the University, and could reject University recommendations. The University could also go before the city planning commission and propose new construction without neighborhood consent.