News & Updates

Here is a PDF of the information that was brought to our General Meeting by Sonya Carlson, EWEB Board President, Wards 6&7 and Frank Lawson, EWEB CEO and General Manager.

At noon on Tuesday, Aug 15, classes in the pool were cancelled re smoke. Please give a call to the rec center to confirm your class is happening during these extreme smoke conditions. Phone: (541) 461-7777. Website https://www.rrpark.org/ today at 1:40 said:

8/15

Due to the poor air quality, the Park District is taking the following measures.

• The Aquatics facility is closed.
• Community Center and Annex Adult Recreation classes after 12 PM are cancelled.
• Community Center Summer Camps will close @ 4 PM.
• Gymnastics NW is operating as usual.

8/16

• Community Center and Annex Adult Recreation classes are cancelled.
• Gymnastics NW will re-evaluate and notify participants.

8/17

• Live Music Concert cancelled. 

Please check our website or call us for updates and questions. Be safe!!

Sign up for SPOKEN WORD – read your own words, tell a favorite story, read a favorite book aloud. https://forms.gle/DzbubX4aXt5eLk4b9

1055 River Rd. or Online
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87348605633?pwd=NGowZG5OTEZqOWIzNzc0VEpJaitSQT09 
Meeting ID: 873 4860 5633 Passcode: 1055RRCO

At our annual check in with elected officials we are focusing on the City council and EWEB so there is time for deeper discussion.

Lyndsie Leech will fill us in on the pressing issues she is dealing with on City Council including new rules for homeless camping, potential funding of a baseball stadium, new state land use mandates and the issues that you bring to the discussion.

Sonya Carlson, our EWEB Commissioner  and the Chair of the EWEB Board, along with a staff member will share their strategic planning for maintaining sufficient electricity and water in a changing environment of demand and supply.  Hint: there will be significant changes are coming and your utility bill will likely be higher. Also, Mike Gerot, Chair of the River Road Water District, will explain how they ensure that unannexed residents receive Fire/EMS, water, and street light services.We realize that our recent hybrid meetings haven’t been optimal for those who join us via Zoom so we continue to try to fix our audio problems.  Fingers crossed that we will be better heard this month but if you want to ensure you hear from Lyndsie, Sonya, and Mike come join us in person at the RR Park Annex at 1055 River Road..

River Road Community Organization Board is reaching out to renters who live in the River Road area.  We are teaming up to canvas and invite  Renters to the Sept. 9 River Celebration and invite them to our monthly RRCO General Meetings, the second Monday of each month at 7 pm. 

Canvasing will be

Thurs Aug 24, from 6-8

Sat Aug 26 from  4-6

Thurs Aug 31 from 6-8

Sat Sept 2 from 4-6

Please use this sign up link to help us reach out: 

https://forms.gle/jJmnWgwiUxHEnesr9

Are You Ready for the River Celebration? On Saturday, September 9 the whole neighborhood is invited to celebrate our favorite landmark and the many talents and assets of our community. Walk or ride your bike to the west bank path between the duck pond at  Merry and Rasor park between noon and 4 pm. There are over 24 activities confirmed so far.
Got apples?  Bring them and a jar for cider for the apple press.
Too many zucchinis?  Bring them to the garden trade table.
Got poems or stories? Share them at the spoken work circle
Got songs?  Join the song circle.
Want to learn about native plants, honey bees, permaculture, and the seed library?
Bring your drum for the drum circle and get ready to dance with the trees.

After five years and thousands of hours of neighbor’s collaboration, the Draft Neighborhood Plan is ready to move to the next step. The RRCO Executive Board has unanimously agreed on our feedback on the Draft Plan, Action Plan & Proposed Code Amendments to the Neighborhood Plan Community Advisory Committee (CAC). In summary we support the Plan documents, but we list three areas of concern that have been eliminated from the draft documents.  

The CAC will meet on July 27^th to review the feedback from both the River Road and the Santa Clara Community Organizations and craft their response to the Eugene and Lane County Planning Commissions.  
 

Those Commissions will then deliberate to review the proposed documents and forwarded River Road / Santa Clara recommendation and prepare their joint recommendation to be presented at a public hearing sometime in the Fall. Once they review that public feedback, they will produce a recommendation to the City Council and County Commission who will also hold a public hearing and eventually produce an ordinance implementing a new River Road /Santa Clara Neighborhood Plan, Code Amendments and an Action Plan to guide our Neighborhoods’ development over the next 30 years. And to think it only took six years!

Following the RRCO charter, the general membership of RRCO will have an opportunity to vote on the Board’s letter of approval. We will have time for  questions, discussion, and potential membership action on substantive issues at the beginning of Monday’s General Meeting.

Here is the RRCO Board letter to the Plan Community Advisory Committee:

Dear Mayor Vinis and Members of the City,

We, the members of the River Road Community Organization Board, are writing in support of the Draft River Road/Santa Clara Neighborhood Plan being submitted by the Eugene Planning staff, in conjunction with the Community Advisory Committee, and the River Road and Santa Clara Community Organizations. 

For the past 6 years, our community and board members have engaged in this effort with enthusiasm and with the needs of our unique and fast-growing neighborhood in mind.  The plan does not address all of the requirements outlined as part of the Envision Eugene initiative; however, we have heard from our community via a variety of vehicles and believe that the current draft should proceed through the adoption process, moving us forward from the refinement plan of 1986 that currently guides the development for our area.  We are ready to partner with the City and County to move the draft plan forward and are willing to accept some of the shortcomings of the document in order to proceed. 

While the new plan will define much of the direction for the neighborhood, we have identified three core areas of opportunity that were eliminated from the plan. As these three areas of opportunity are core to the desires of our community, we are committed as a board to continue to advocate for resolution of these issues to meet the needs of River Road residents.  These are:

1. No Parking Resolution for County Streets:  Lane County controls 76% of River Road Local Streets (58% of Santa Clara) and they have negligible capacity to enforce on-street parking standards. The reduction in on-site parking requirements through the middle housing code amendments and other State standards means that our experience with parking overflow near ECCO housing will just become more intense.  Many of the County Local streets in our neighborhoods aren’t developed to urban standards and have limited capacity to accommodate the overflow parking almost certain to occur with new properties lacking minimum on-site parking requirements.   Without some way to regulate on-street parking on a significant majority of our streets, further densification will lead to more unsafe streets in our neighborhoods. One potential resolution would be for the City Manager to include deliberation on how to address the issue as part of the Climate Friendly and Equitable Community Parking Reform process.

• Potential Loss of Commercial Properties:  When we asked our neighbors to set goals for the Neighborhood Plan, they placed strong emphasis on having more commercial opportunities, especially restaurants, gathering spots & groceries. They also called for 20 Minute Neighborhoods– businesses they could easily walk or bike to.  However, the staff decision to eliminate the proposed Corridor Mixed Use zone leaves the majority of our current Commercial properties in the C-2 Community Commercial Zone.  This zone allows 100% of the properties in the zone to be residential with no commercial at all.  The eliminated Corridor Mixed Use zone would have required commercial use on the ground floor.

The economic study included in Sera Architect’s River Road Corridor Study showed that economic demand for housing is high and commercial use is low.  Without regulation requiring it or some kind of incentive to encourage it, the commercial facilities we currently have may well be replaced by multifamily housing that ironically will create an even greater need for the commercial properties they replace. We encourage the City to conduct a feasibility study to determine how to encourage more commercial services in the River Road/Santa Clara area.

•  Need for Neighborhood Specific Regulations for the River Road Corridor: We continue to believe that we need neighborhood-specific regulations to guide the development of the River Road corridor.  We appreciate the C2 code changes proposed instead of a special area zone but recommend that you reconsider a one-size-fits-all ordinance for all seven corridors, as proposed to be enacted in 2026. 

We wish to recognize the efforts of the Eugene Planning staff, the RRCO and SCCO boards, the Community Advisory Committee, and all of the members of our joint communities who have engaged with us over these past 6 years to reach this milestone.  It is our hope that we will continue to collaborate over the coming years as we work to implement the Action Plan and resolve our parking, commercial, and corridor issues.

With kindest regards,

River Road Community Organization Board Members

Fuel tank farms provide gasoline, diesel and jet fuel to people in Oregon. However, many tanks in Oregon may be vulnerable to earthquakes, which means they present a risk to the local communities and the environment.  

Under the rules created in this process, facilities will develop plans that include actions to protect public health, life safety, and environmental safety within the facility, in areas adjacent to the facility and in other areas that may be affected as a result of damages to the facility. The plans must consider the impacts of a magnitude 9.0 Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake, the potential consequences of that event and the resources needed to respond.  

DEQ will accept comments by email, postal mail or verbally at the public hearings. Anyone can submit comments and questions about this rulemaking.

The virtual public comment hearings will be held on 3 dates, see below email for full details and to register.

• 7 p.m., Thursday, June 15, 2023 
• 2 p.m., Saturday, June 17, 2023 
• 12 p.m., Tuesday, June 20, 2023

Thank you,

Charlsey Cartwright and Joel Robe

HERE are the details from the DEQ

DEQ Rulemaking – Fuel Tank Seismic Stability — DEQ is Asking for Public Comment on the Proposed Rules

Summary

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality is in the process of creating rules to implement the fuel tanks seismic stability requirements enacted in Senate Bill 1567. The bill requires operators of large capacity fuel handling facilities to assess their facility’s ability to withstand a magnitude 9 Cascadia earthquake event and propose mitigation to minimize risk.

Public comment

The Department of Environmental Quality is seeking public comment on the proposed rules More information on this rulemaking, including the draft rules, can be found on the Fuel Tank Seismic Stability webpage.

How to comment: DEQ will accept comments by email, postal mail or verbally at the public hearing. Anyone can submit comments and questions about this rulemaking.

• Email: Send comments by email to SeismicStability.2023@DEQ.oregon.gov 
• Postal mail: Oregon DEQ, Attn: Fuel Tank Seismic Stability Team, 700 NE Multnomah Street, Suite 600, Portland, Oregon 97232-4100 
• At a public hearing (see below):

•  7 p.m., Thursday, June 15, 2023 
•  2 p.m., Saturday, June 17, 2023 
•  12 p.m., Tuesday, June 20, 2023 

DEQ will only consider comments on the proposed rules that DEQ receives by 4 p.m., on June 21, 2023.

Rulemaking Hearing: DEQ will hold three public hearings, with registration details below:

Hearing 1 
June 15, 2023, 7 p.m. PT 
Register via Zoom 

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. 

Hearing 2 
June 17, 2023, 2 p.m. PT 
Register via Zoom

Hearing 3 
June 20, 2023, 12 p.m. PT 
Register via Zoom

Note for public university students: 

ORS 192.345(29) allows Oregon public university and OHSU students to protect their university email addresses from disclosure under Oregon’s public records law. If you are an Oregon public university or OHSU student, notify DEQ that you wish to keep your email address confidential.

Additional Information

To view copies of the notice documents, learn more about this rulemaking, and how to submit comments, you can view the rulemaking web page at: Fuel Tank Seismic Stability webpage.

If you want to receive future email notices about this rulemaking, you must sign up at: Fuel Tank Seismic Stability GovDelivery

You can also obtain more information about this rulemaking by contacting:

Svetlana Lazarev 
Svetlana.lazarev@deq.oregon.gov

Here is a link Videos for staying up to date on our local Emergency Preparedness.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChyvm3RpwB4uRgsc4u2b6jQ