County sees potential for housing, recreation along Glenwood riverfront

County commissioners see the Glenwood riverfront as a destination for West Coast visitors. On Sept. 17:

Commissioner David Loveall: I remember when I was 10 years old going to the city dump, which was Alton Baker Park. Can you believe that? Right? Yeah, that was the city dump. And this was like the ‘Jewel of the Nile’ right here in between these two cities. And it’s just been 55 years of watching and waiting and planning and hoping.

[00:00:24] And I keep saying to myself, you know, Steve Moe, who’s a major property owner, he’s unofficially the mayor of Glenwood, I’m just hoping we can get something built before that guy’s eyes close for the final time because he has put so much effort into this. I’m hoping we can get something done.

[00:00:38] The mixed use per acre, 50 units per acre, is a really admirable goal and I think Springfield has that in their back pocket. That, I think, is only going to help us in our housing crisis countywide.

[00:00:48] I also want to say that because of the way all the players are putting forth that patience and perseverance and tenacity together, it reminds me of the statement that I heard on the radio just the other day, is that: ‘You don’t get a chicken by crushing the egg.’ And I think that’s a really great approach as to what Springfield’s doing.

[00:01:04] They’re implementing a lot of really good, thoughtful, positive, long-term, long-vision kinds of goals and strategic measures to make sure that they do this right, because you only get one chance. And if you do the chance, one chance right, then maybe my dream of building a surf wave underneath that bridge and having a canoe park and all that stuff along the river would be really great and we could get that dam that’s drowning people every summer out of there and moved and, you know, we could become a West Coast recreational mecca. Great job everyone over there across the river. Best city in Lane County.

[00:01:40] Commissioner Ryan Ceniga: I spent a couple weekends ago in Bend and you know, what a recreational area they’ve made there. It’s just phenomenal. And this has potential to be much larger than that. And it really isn’t utilized even, this section of the river. I mean, every now and then in the summer you see people, a couple rafters going down. But, I mean, if something like that was put in place. I mean that that could be huge for water sports around here. It’s exciting.

[00:02:09] Commissioner Pat Farr: What were you doing in 1998? I was the outgoing president of the Eugene City Council and we turned over the jurisdiction from Eugene to Springfield and I thought, you know, within a couple of years we’ll see some amazing stuff there. And I’m really excited about what Springfield is doing with Glenwood.

[00:02:24] Bill Morissette, the mayor of Springfield back then, he was a leader in making the vision happen. And of course, Steve Moe, the mayor of Glenwood, both of them back in the 90s were really pushing for this. And so, Bill Morissette, I’ve not talked to him for a while, but I just want everybody to appreciate the fact that Mayor Morissette was a pretty amazing individual.

[00:02:42] And I for one, I’m personally very, very excited about the double roundabout. I think that’s one of the most amazing traffic engineering feats in the entire West Coast of the United States. It’s easy to navigate, easy to negotiate. And I thank you for bringing this forward because this is important stuff.

[00:03:03] Allison Camp (Springfield economic development manager): Thank you for the note on the roundabout. When we make initial infrastructure investments like that, it allows things like this later to happen. Those hotels at the west side of Glenwood, huge impact to the tax base, brings people there, it opens their eyes to the promise that is that area. So all of these investments over time, it’s taken a long time, but it’s all moving towards that same goal.

[00:03:25] We have two urban renewal districts designated in Springfield, both the downtown and the Glenwood Urban Renewal District. Glenwood was established in 2004 and downtown in 2007. Both of these districts are getting to the point where they’re mature enough for us to have enough increment to make big swings and take big investment projects over the line.

[00:03:42] So that’s what we’re going to talk about now, a future master plan area: This is approximately a 30-acre area. We are going to stretch all the way from Roaring Rapids on the west to the bridge into downtown Springfield on the east.

[00:03:54] We need to consider everything from how big the park will be, what size the blocks are, where development is most likely to happen for residential, where development is most likely to happen for commercial. There’s a lot of considerations to take into account before putting lines on a map.

[00:04:09] During COVID, we saw that development took a very big impact due to rising costs, changing labor forces. For this future master plan area, we want to make sure that we’re making decisions that are future-proof or economically stable. It’s a new strategy for master planning.

[00:04:23] The master plan area is currently mixed-use commercial and mixed-use residential. We’re proposing some amendments so that both of those zones have more flexibility—more flexibility for standalone or mixed-use commercial, more flexibility for additional housing units.

[00:04:38] The mixed-use residential has a capacity for 50 units per acre. We do anticipate having a lot of housing units in this area. It’s suitable for it. Close to transit, close to downtown, it’ll be a nice walkable area with these blocks and access to the river and community amenities. Folks want to be reconnected to the river. So that is driving a lot of our decisions—focused on housing and mixed-use commercial, the connection to the river, the bicycle and pedestrian amenities.

[00:05:03] We have hired landscape architecture firm Walker Macy and architecture firm Rowell Brokaw to help us with this preliminary master planning effort… In 2021, the Springfield Economic Development Agency selected two master developers to help inform these early land use decisions so that we are making sure we’re making smart decisions the first time prior to approvals.

[00:05:26] That way we can kind of ‘go slow to go fast’ having these experts on board and helping us figure out how to do this.

[00:05:33] John Q: County commissioners recognize Steve Moe and Bill Morrisette, and praise Allison Camp and the city of Springfield as a long-held vision advances housing, business, and recreation for the Glenwood riverfront.