NEWS
Recommendations Presented to Planning Commission
We are excited to announce that the Opportunity Siting Task Team recommendations will be presented to the Planning Commission on June 8, 2009! The recommendations will be posted to the Planning Commission page (www.eugene-or.gov/pc) on June 4.

Update from OS Task Team Co-chair Ann Vaughan
In February, Focus Group Meetings were held with  local developers to obtain their input on issues around opportunity sites, primarily perceived barriers and possible incentives.  The meetings were well attended and the participants actively engaged in discussion. Valuable information and insights were shared.
 
The OS Task Team met on March 5th and April 2nd. The team has one more meeting, on May 7th, to wrap up recommendations to be presented to the Planning Commission in early June. The Implementation Subgroup continues to meet in the interim to refine proposals for task team consideration. 
The implementation process has taken on a diagram form which considers various ways in which sites can be suggested. Approval mechanisms, roles of neighborhoods and potential incentives are being discussed.

The OS Task Team will hold a neighborhood focus group, on April 30, to get additional feedback on what the task team is thinking in terms of neighborhood involvement in the process. The team would like to invite a representative from each neighborhood to attend. Topics at the focus group meeting would include: 

• Education about the project
• How the project can help neighborhoods
• What the task team is thinking in terms of what the neighborhood and site identification process would look like. 

OVERVIEW

Opportunity Siting is a strategic planning tool aimed at facilitating the construction of dense housing that is compatible with existing development in the surrounding neighborhood. The process will identify specific sites and provide incentives, such as financial, regulatory, or procedural incentives, to encourage development according to design standards that result in compatibility with, and support from, the surrounding neighborhood. 

The City Council and the community of Eugene at large have identified compact development within the existing urban growth boundary as a growth management goal. Ongoing projects such as mixed-use center planning and the establishment of a Bus Rapid Transit system aid progress toward that goal. Many challenges remain, however, some of which actions of the City can alleviate.

An increase in residents’ concern about the negative impacts of infill development has occurred in the past few years, both in the close-in older neighborhoods and in urban transition areas farther out from downtown. Current land use code provisions have been implicated in hindering the construction of residential infill that is harmonious with existing neighborhoods. The problem is ensuring continued vitality in those neighborhoods while providing for a variety of housing options for a growing and increasingly concentrated population.

Growth Management Policies
The adopted Growth Management Policies (GMPs) direct the city to encourage infill development and increase housing density while maintaining the character and livability of individual neighborhoods. This project and the companion Infill Compatibility Standards project seek to implement the policy directives in the GMPs.

Citizen Interest
The Planning Division is experiencing a very high level of citizen interest in both the Infill Compatibility Standards and the Opportunity Siting projects. Over the last year, issues related to neighborhood character, neighborhood involvement, and residential compatibility have risen to the top of citizen concerns and desires for Planning Division work. Planning staff are committed to making these high-priority work tasks a success.