The City of Eugene today announced the purchase of 39.9 acres of land in south Eugene, commonly referred to as the Green property, for $1.6 million.   

The owner of the property, Green Valley Glen, previously offered the property to the City for $3.8 million.  The City declined to exercise an option to purchase the land at that price and renegotiated the transaction for $1.6 million.

The City will use three funding sources for the purchase: the parks system development charge (SDC) fund, the stormwater fund, and funds from the 2006 Parks and Open Space Bond Measure.  Each fund will cover roughly one-third of the cost, with a maximum of $500,000 to come from the parks bond fund.

“My two objectives all along have been to preserve this piece of the Amazon Creek headwaters property for future generations, and to do so while honoring the voters’ intent for all the uses of the Parks Bond funds,” said Mayor Kitty Piercy. “This acquisition achieves both of those purposes.  I greatly appreciate the ad hoc advisory committee for helping to clarify the issues, and also the staff’s work as good stewards of public resources in successfully negotiating this purchase.”