The exemplary public involvement that started our River Road/Santa Clara Neighborhood Plan unfortunately ground to a halt with the arrival of the Covid Pandemic. None the less, City and County Staff have continued to work with the River Road/Santa Clara Community Advisory Committee (CAC) to refine the draft plan all along.
Now it is time to get your feedback on the proposal. City Staff and Committee Members have agreed to use a Plan Toolkit to guide group and individual information and get feedback through a Community Feedback Form. You can utilize them on your own, but we are providing several opportunities for folks to gather in person or by Zoom to utilize these tools and learn about the current proposal and how to provide feedback.
1) RRCO general meeting May 8 In Person
2) ZOOM sessions May 17 and 18 combined with online tools (see links below)
3) RRCO/SCCO combined community meeting May 25th 5:30 to 7:30 at North Eugene High School.
The current process is that you have these opportunities to review and comment on the draft plan The RRCO and SCCO boards will utilize your feedback to make recommendations to the CAC. The CAC will submit their recommendation to the Eugene and Lane County Planning Commission and then on to the Eugene City Council and Lane County Commission.
Though some issues remain unresolved, such as managing parking (see parking article below) the three groups have agreed to submit the Draft Plan to the Community for your feedback. The most significant change is the City’s Planning Staff proposal to replace the Special Area Zone for the River Road Corridor and Willamette Greenway with zoning changes such as lowering the maximum allowed height of the majority of commercially zoned properties from 120 ft. to 60 ft.
While we worked on the plan, the State passed HB 2001 (Middle Housing) and is in the process of implementing Climate Friendly and Equitable Community Standards. These significantly changed how land use is implemented throughout the State including our ability to implement our original vision for our Neighborhoods.
The first opportunity for River Road residents is to attend the May 8th General Meeting (7-8:30 PM) at the River Road Annex (155 River Road). We will have an information session and then break out into tables for each topic areas with Community Advisory Committee members and Staff to review the plan and action items and to answer your questions. You will have an opportunity to discuss your thoughts and use the feedback form to share your thoughts.
Unfortunately this format will not allow us to also have a Zoom Session this month but we will be back to hybrid meetings in June. To serve neighbors who prefer to meet by Zoom there will be two Zoom Virtual Information sessions: May 17 at 8 PM and May 18 from 12 to 1 PM. You must register to attend these meetings and to get zoom information by clicking on your preferred date.
And we are excited to return to North Eugene High School (200 Silver Lane) on May 25th for a Community Meeting from 5:30 to 7:30. The format will be similar to the 5/8 RRCO meeting.Help us plan by RSVPing here)!
More detailed information on the Draft Plan and all the meetings mentioned above can be found here: https://engage.eugene-or.gov/rrsc-neighborhood-plan
