Some Eugene property owners unhappy with proposed MovingAhead street changes
EUGENE, Ore. — Some big changes could be coming to Eugene's busiest streets and impacted property owners are speaking out.
MovingAhead is a partnership between the City of Eugene, Lane Transit District and others to make it easier and safer to get around in Eugene.
It's a long-term plan that hopes to implement changes over the next 5 to 10 years to 5 major corridors in Eugene: River Road, Highway 99, Coburg Road, Martin Luther King Boulevard and 30th Avenue to Lane Community College.
The parking lots of businesses could soon be annexed for an EmX build-out, but property owners say they weren't notified of these plans.
"Stop your plans, reconsider, tell us where we are economically and then include all of us," says Charlie Rojas, a homeowner on River Road.
Property owners are not happy with the prospect of the City making infrastructure changes that could lead to partial loss of their property.
"We're going to fight this and we're going to let people know about this," says Mark Osterloh, who has collected signatures.
It's part of a major effort to make 5 Eugene roads safer.
On River Road, recommendations include adding protective bike lanes, crosswalks and an LTD EmX system similar to that on W. 11th.
"It’s a much lighter touch than what you see on West 11th, so a lot fewer impacts to properties and businesses," says Transportation Planning Manager Rob Inerfeld with the City of Eugene.
The River Road Community Organization supports the plans, saying they will improve transit access and road safety.
But other residents disagree
"I can’t see any need,” Rojas says. “I ride the EmX. It should be called the ‘EmptyX’ because it’s just not utilized."
"The congestion’s going to be a monster,” adds Osterloh. “Try getting on and off of Beltline; it's gonna be a monster."
Inerfeld says the plan would remove a lane of traffic for River Road south of Maxwell.
"Our traffic modelling shows that, having one lane each way, the traffic will flow," says Inerfeld.
The opposition has collected 464 signatures against the project.
"Signed primarily by people that do have interest directly on the corridors and all strenuously objecting to this going forward," says Meta Maxwell, a property owner on Coburg Road.
They are also upset by what they say is a lack of transparency.
"I knocked on all the businesses and homeowners on there and I found that well over 95% of the people who are going to be directly affected knew nothing whatsoever about this," says Osterloh.
"We’ve tried as hard as we can to reach out to business owners across the corridor and we're sorry if they’re folks that feel like they didn’t hear from us, but we definitely want to have an open line of communication with them," says Inerfeld.
Early-stage plans for all 5 corridors will be presented to LTD and the city council on Monday while residents try to stop the project from moving ahead.
Inerfeld estimates the projects will cost tens of millions of dollars and expects most of the funding to come from the federal government as well as some local sources.
He does not anticipate the project will raise taxes.
As for the other 4 roads, Inerfeld says Hwy 99, Coburg Road and MLK are looking at an enhanced bus build-out, while 30th Avenue is looking at no build-out.
On March 14, the city council will have the option to take action on those plans.
For more information on MovingAhead, visit here.
The full plans can be found here.
