City confirms it is reviewing megawarehouse building permit

Presenter: The Planning Commission, which also acts as the Citizen Involvement Committee for the city of Eugene, limited each public comment to one minute Tuesday night, and afterwards suggested that commenters on the Clear Lake megawarehouse talk instead to the City Council. On Dec. 2, staff member Krystal Fischer:

Eugene staff: The Planning Commission has allotted a maximum of 10 minutes for public comment this evening. To ensure that everyone wishing to speak tonight has an adequate opportunity to do so, each speaker will be limited to, looks like we have seven (speakers), so is a minute, Chair Lear, okay?

Jason Lear (Planning Commission, chair): I think that works.

[00:00:36] Eugene staff: Okay. We will be limiting speakers to one minute. I will announce whose turn it is to provide public comment. Greg Bryant will be our first commenter tonight.

[00:00:44] Greg Bryant: Well, I’m here from the South University Neighborhood Association Board. We’ve got a number of issues. Let’s see what I can do within a minute. 

[00:00:53] One is the effect that I warned, or that we warned about earlier in the year, of the zoning deregulation’s effect on our neighborhood, basically come to pass. And if you want to see how a monster apartment rental, market-rate rental can be built in the middle of a 100-year-old neighborhood and destroy it, come to 22nd and Alder and take a look for yourself.

[00:01:17] It has disturbed hundreds of people who see it–

[00:01:21] Eugene staff: Twenty seconds.

[00:01:22] Greg Bryant: And, everyone who lives around it– blocks the sun, does many bad things. 

[00:01:27] Eugene staff: Next up, we have Stanley Taylor.

[00:01:31] Stan Taylor (Indivisible Eugene Springfield): My name is Stan Taylor. I am with Indivisible Eugene Springfield, and I’m here to talk briefly about the Amazon warehouse that’s to go in by the airport.

[00:01:43] I want you to know that we oppose it. We think that it was not given proper notice under Oregon law. And we also are going to be talking about filing a Type V amendment to the industrial light zoning, to change the nature of that zoning so that this type of warehouse could not be brought into the city of Eugene.

[00:02:04] Again, I think this warehouse application was not properly noticed to the public.

[00:02:11] Eugene staff: Twenty seconds.

[00:02:11] Stan Taylor (Indivisible Eugene Springfield): Under Oregon 455.050, the owners of the building are supposed to be disclosed to the public for transparency purposes, and that didn’t happen here. Thank you.

[00:02:25] Eugene staff: Okay, next up we have Eloise Parish Mueller.

[00:02:29] Eloise Parish Mueller: Hi, my name is Eloise Parish Mueller, and I’m a lifelong resident of Eugene and a graduate of the University of Oregon with a degree in environmental science. I’m here today in support of the campaign to stop the construction of an Amazon distribution center in West Eugene, a development which would cause massive increases in air pollution in an area of our community which is already disproportionately affected by industrial pollution and poor air quality.

[00:02:54] Given the lack of adequate community engagement and consultation in association with this project, those of us commenting today would like to know how we can get our questions answered by the Commission. We’ll be sending a follow-up email after this session, so if you’re not able to answer questions during this meeting, please respond to that–

[00:03:10] Eugene staff: Twenty seconds.

[00:03:11] Eloise Parish Mueller: –so that we can figure out how to start a conversation around this and have adequate public engagement going forward.

[00:03:18] Eugene staff: And Ruth Wren, you are up next.

[00:03:20] Ruth Wren: Hi, I’m Ruth Wren. I’ve lived and worked and paid taxes and voted in Eugene for over 30 years, and I’m opposed to the Amazon warehouse also. 

[00:03:29] It’s Amazon standard practice to deliberately hide their plans from the public using NDAs (non-disclosure agreements) to conceal their identity, so the community doesn’t know what’s happening until it hits them. That’s unethical and it should be illegal.

[00:03:42] So why are Eugene City officials colluding with Amazon in this process? Amazon is a predatory corporation.

[00:03:49] They won’t bring good jobs because they will replace workers with robotics as soon as possible. They’ll extract as much as they can, use electricity and water, dominate our streets, undermine our local economy, and they’ll leave when it’s– 

[00:04:02] Eugene staff: Twenty seconds.

[00:04:03] Ruth Wren: So let’s be good stewards of this land, and let’s slow down this process and research this project before they move forward.

[00:04:11] Eugene staff: All right, it looks like Teresa M. You are up next. 

[00:04:15] Teresa M.: Hi, I’ve been here for decades. I’m also an organizer with Indivisible, and yeah, I understand the Commission exists to help plan for a better Eugene, and if that’s so, then it looks like the proposed e-commerce facility off Highway 99 slipped by you somehow, and I’m hoping you’ll send up an emergency flare for the City Council so they don’t risk having another Hynix situation on their hands, here today and gone tomorrow.

[00:04:40] The warehouse has all the earmarks of an Amazon project, and it’s bad news. Taxation, labor, safety, the environment, respect for privacy and democracy– their record stinks. Letting this corporate giant get a foothold in our community would be a disaster. 

[00:04:57] Eugene staff: Twenty seconds.

[00:04:58] Teresa M.: Given that this project has advanced without adequate public discussion, please tell us what legal options do we have to challenge this.

[00:05:06] Eugene staff: And Adrian, you are up next.

[00:05:08] Adrian: I’m a very low-budget landlord in Eugene, and I grew up here. I’m recommending a serious extension of the current list of projects that are exempt from building inspection and exempt from rental rules.

[00:05:23] The erasure of the paragraph defining a family was a huge step forward that way, and I’d like to see consideration of igloo-style heating, 50-volt electricity, compost sewage instead of blackwater, sandbox greywater, gravity-fed water handling, fireproof building materials, single– 

[00:05:47] Eugene staff: Twenty seconds. 

[00:05:48] Adrian: –permit exemption, inspection upon arms-length sale, and non-contract rental payment without rental enforcement. 

[00:05:58] Eugene staff: And then looks like we have Charmane Landing. You’re up next. 

[00:06:01] Charmane Landing: Well, I’m just reiterating what the other folks have said, that I’m angry and alarmed at the way the Amazon distribution center is being foisted on us.

[00:06:10] They’re using backdoor tactics, which enables them to avoid significant citizen involvement. The permit is no ordinary project. It’s this warehouse the size of six football fields, over 2,000 vehicle trips per day, adding to more traffic, road use, and air pollution.

[00:06:29] I ask for a pause in certification of this project and citywide public participation in its acceptance or denial.

[00:06:37] Eugene staff: Okay. Looks like that concludes our public comment period for this evening.

[00:06:43] Presenter: Planning Commission Chair Jason Lear:

[00:06:46] Jason Lear (Planning Commission, chair): I guess I just wanted to maybe start off by telling folks who have kind of asked us specifically about the Amazon warehouse that that isn’t really a decision that comes before Planning Commission.

[00:06:56] There may have been some activity on it before I was on, several years past, but it’s definitely not–we’re definitely not the decision-makers when it comes to that, and those those comments may be better directed to City Council, to some of the Planning staff.

[00:07:10] Presenter: Eugene Planning Director Alissa Hunter:

[00:07:13] Alissa Hunter (Eugene, Planning director): And I also just wanted to mention, just for your information, we do have a building permit in for an e-commerce facility out in the Clear Lake industrial expansion area, the area that was brought into the urban growth boundary in 2018. There is a building permit in.

[00:07:34] So Commissioner Lear is correct that it’s not something that would come before the Commission, it is a permitted outright use for a warehouse and distribution center. And it is currently under review as a building permit. So, just so you have that information. 

[00:07:52] Presenter: At the close of the meeting, Commissioner Ken Beeson:

[00:07:55] Ken Beeson (Eugene Planning Commission): The other item we have at the end of the agenda is: ‘How are we doing?’ I was uncomfortable tonight when we allowed one minute for the seven people who came here to give us comments.

[00:08:14] I’m not entirely recalling exactly what all goes into how we set up to decide to give 10 minutes. I’d like to just throw it out there for a kind of future discussion maybe between (Planning Director) Alissa (Hunter) and Commissioner Lear, if you’re setting the agenda.

[00:08:32] And when we do public comment, I think on an occasion like this, if we had seven people, I think several of the people, I think, had some things to say, and a minute felt awfully short. So I’m just registering that as a constructive comment going forward.

[00:08:49] We’re the Citizen Involvement Committee for the entire city of Eugene. I think of us as kind of a conduit, I guess, in part back to the Council. And anyways, that’s my comment.

[00:09:04] Presenter: Alissa Hunter:

[00:09:05] Alissa Hunter (Eugene, Planning director): Thank you, Commissioner Beeson. I appreciate your feedback on that. And I think that is something we can, we can talk about prior to future meetings when we intend to have public comment on the agenda. So thank you for bringing that up. 

[00:09:20] Presenter: Commissioner Jason Lear:

[00:09:22] Jason Lear (Planning Commission, chair): Yeah, Commissioner Beeson, I agree with you too. It did feel a little bit short as people were going through, so I think that process is a little bit informal and kind of, the decision gets made a little bit on the spot, but definitely a point well taken.

[00:09:34] And I think we want to honor everyone who came out and spent their time after work to come and speak before Planning Commission to have a chance to get their message out. 

[00:09:42] Presenter: The city is reviewing a building permit for a megawarehouse in Northwest Eugene, as the Planning Commission, which is also the city of Eugene’s Citizen Involvement Committee, limits public comments to one minute each and suggests megawarehouse commenters to go to the City Council instead.