Roosevelt
Blvd.is a better connector between Beltline and 99, it
serves northwest Eugene neighborhoods better than WEP could. Some
local traffic would use Roosevelt, regional through traffic would bypass
on Belt Line.
transfer WEP money to finish Beltline,
fix Roosevelt / 99 intersection two options for completing Beltline: (1) if Peak Oil is here,
(2) if Peak Oil is not yet here. The larger option could convert
Beltline to an interstate highway - perhaps I-605?
transfer ODOT / City lands for WEP to BLM's
West Eugene Wetlands Project
new roads:
First - 99 - Second Connector, Barger Road Extended & Trainsong
Connector (to NW Expressway)
fix West
11th intersections (would cost about $2 million, the cost
to complete WEP study), other road repairs
bicycle paths and lanes, pedestrian safety enhanced by road test for
drivers license renewals
land use shifts to coordinate transit and development, mixed use centers,
co-housing neighborhoods
"Saving Oil in a Hurry" - practical steps
toward coping with sudden energy shortages, road safety, speed limits
upgrade Amtrak to enable high speed trains to Seattle
Second and Garfield: ideal location for Eugene's
new hospital (central
& accessible)
Peak Oil and climate change are "new circumstances" that requires reopening
the NEPA process
City of Eugene Adopted Growth Management Policies
violated by WEP
Endangered
Species Act: a "license to kill" - Road Kill: Fender's
Blue Butterfly and Car Fenders
controlled burning for wet prairie restoration incompatible with WEP
environmental
justice: WEP traffic dumped onto 6th and 7th would severely impact
Whiteaker neighborhood
plants of the West Eugene Wetlands - photos by Linda Swisher
Endangered
Species Act: a "license to kill" - Road Kill: Fender's
Blue Butterfly and Car Fenders
controlled burning for wet prairie restoration incompatible with WEP
Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglass
- a letter that protected a
park from a parkway
sand
and gravel - impacts of an elevated WEP in the wetlands
No Build: promised in June 2001, again July 2006 implemented March 2007
WEP Alternative
would be built now if Charette "No Build" consensus had
been adopted
Mayor Jim Torrey, County Commissioner Bobby Green and Oregon Transportation Commissioner Randy Pape (brother of then City Councilor Gary Pape) were part of the West Eugene Charette consensus decision of June 2001 to cancel the WEP because it was too illegal and too expensive. But despite this agreement, Torrey, Green and Pape kept promoting the WEP for years, encouraging ODOT to spend millions of dollars "studying" a failed project even after they knew it could not be built. If these politicians had agreed to the intergovernmental consensus of June 2001, the money spent on these studies could have been used to fix West 11th intersections and other efforts to mitigate traffic flow problems in west Eugene.
ODOT's decision in June 2001 to select “No Build”
and move to implement fixes to existing roads in the area would cost much
less and not wreck the West Eugene Wetlands nature preserve.
The ODOT NO BUILD promise came as a surprise to WEP opponents,
but when ODOT officials were asked if this would translate into a transfer
of funds from the WEP toward the completion of Belt Line and transfer
of the ODOT lands for the WEP to the BLM there were not any firm answers
– and the decision was not implemented.
This informal but public decision was ignored by the Eugene
City Council, despite their presence at the "West Eugene Charette"
(Mayor Torrey was part of the Charette consensus for "no build").
ODOT resumed work on the WEP after a 51 to 49 vote of the Eugene voters
in November 2001 – even though the WEP is a Federal Highway Administration
decision whether it can be built or not.
If ODOT's decision in June 2001 for “No Build”
had been implemented then, we could have already transferred the money
for WEP toward alternative projects: finishing Belt Line and repairing
99, fixing West 11th intersections (at $2 million, that would be half
the money already spent to STUDY the WEP), and other, sensible parts of
the WEP Alternative.
Four years would be plenty of time to transfer the money,
publish a revised Environmental Assessment (needed for the redesigned
completion of Belt Line) and to build the road parts of the alternative.
In other words, if the Pape brothers, Mayor Torrey,
and their developer backers hadn't blocked ODOT's decision in 2001, the
road part of the alternative would be built by now.
If we had campaign finance reform in Oregon, the WEP debate
would have been settled years ago, and the WEP would be part of a long
list of dead highways:
I-105 through south Eugene (the “Washington-Jefferson”
bridge was not originally planned to end at 6th and 7th Avenues -- the
initial design would have decimated neighborhoods in south Eugene to
Amazon Park)
the Skinner Butte Freeway (a proposed expressway along the river
through downtown Eugene to the University of Oregon)
the Belt Line through the South Hills of Eugene (two different routes
were planned, the larger version would have passed next to Spencer Butte
and end at Lane Community College)
the Mt. Hood Freeway through southeast Portland (the MAX light rail
system from Pioneer Square to Gresham was built as a substitute project)
freeways through Golden Gate Park in San Francisco (several highways
would have torn up countless historic neighborhoods)
I-40 through Overton Park in Memphis (perhaps the most famous legal
case regarding highways, Overton Park was protected by the Supreme Court
in 1971 when they upheld the legality of “Section 4(f),”
a law that prohibits federal aid highways through parks)
The June
2001 Consensus to Cancel the WEP
(City, County, State and Federal
governments)
ODOT
1. It cannot commit to keep the $17 Million allocated to the WEP Unit
1 in West Eugene or even in Lane County. It will need to reallocate this
money by October [2001], unless an acceptable project is developed for
this area.
2. Proceed with preserving the function of West 11th Avenue (OR 126) as
an expressway west of Belt Line.
3. Finish Belt Line Phase 3 improvements to West
11th Avenue.
4. Close out West Eugene Parkway Environmental Impact Statement with “No-Build”
as the preferred solution.
– “Report on the Outcomes of the West Eugene Area Transportation
Charette,” June 18-19, 2001, St. Mary’s Conference
Center, Eugene, Oregon, prepared by CH2M Hill, 23 June 2001
(this was a decision agreed to by the City of Eugene, Lane County, State
and Federal agencies -- but never implemented)
scan of part of summary report about Charette
M I N U T E S Eugene City Council Work Session
July 25, 2001 ...
Mr. Farr said he had begun to resign himself
to the fact the parkway was gone. There was no political will on the
part of the council or community to move forward. The result was continued
degradation of West 11th Avenue that would soon begin to affect residential
neighborhoods unless something was done. He said that a
potential solution was to route traffic off West 11th Avenue to Belt
Line to Roosevelt Boulevard out to Highway 99, but that would require
reconstruction of several intersections. He asked what would
happen if the City came up with such a solution: could the engineering
be done by October in time for submittal to ODOT? Mr. Reinhard thought
it would take more study than could be done by October. Mr. Farr asked
what chance the City had to get funding from the State for those projects.
Mr. Pirrie responded that the money reallocated from the parkway would
go to other State projects. ODOT had no authority to spend those dollars
on right-of-way outside the State system, unless it was associated with
a major State project.
The intersection work proposed for Belt Line / Roosevelt
and Highway 99 / Roosevelt would be State responsibilities and would qualify
for ODOT funding.
Intersection repairs along West 11th east of Belt Line
should also receive State assistance, because 126 has been informally
routed along this major arterial for many years. ODOT’s road budget
is much larger than the City’s and it would be appropriate compensation
to the City for not building the WEP. Some ODOT staff have privately agreed
this would be fair, but that is not a formal commitment.
