WEP at the crossroads: obstacles and opportunities in 2006

 

WETLANDS blog

 

April 20, 2006

 

A tale of two letters.
Half a WEP would be twice as illegal.
Eugene's environmental movement is much less effective than it could be: ego, activist malpractice and the elusive goal of unity.

This letter ran in the Register-Guard today:

www.registerguard.com/news/2006/04/20/ed.letters.0420.p1.php?section=opinion

Infinite growth is impossible
Jeff Miller's March 26 guest viewpoint, "Eugene needs to expand urban growth boundary," claimed that his political agenda would promote sustainability and even help prepare Eugene for the end of cheap oil. Miller's commentary was the first I've read that said we could become more sustainable by paving over farm land.
Miller and the Chamber of Commerce are longtime supporters of the West Eugene Parkway, which is the opposite of sustainability. The interests that hope to make money from parkway construction and speculative development are the reason this illegal, unfunded highway proposal is still on life support, despite a June 2001 consensus of the city, county, state and federal governments to select "No build."
Serious efforts to prepare for peak oil would relocalize food production, require solar panels on new buildings and cancel highway expansions. Sustainability does not mean nice speeches. It refers to practices that our great-great-great-grandchildren could do after the oil is gone.
Investment banker Matthew Simmons, a friend of President George W. Bush who served on Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force in 2001, states that peak oil means the era of growth is ending.
Most Republican and Democratic politicians who use the word sustainable are merely co-opting public concerns. This greenwash distracts from the immense task of shifting away from addictive behaviors that cannot survive past the petroleum era. Infinite growth is not possible on a finite planet.
MARK ROBINOWITZ
Eugene

 

Green Party environmental activist Pam Driscoll had a letter in today's Eugene Weekly against the WEP that recommended half of it could be built.

Letter to the editor - Eugene Weekly, April 20, 2006

HALF A WEP
Maybe I'm naive, but when I looked at the map of the proposed West Eugene Parkway, it seems a simple compromise would be to end the parkway at the Beltline. That way it is still a good shortcut and bypasses all the congestion near Fred Meyer and the little strip malls, but doesn't go through and destroy wetlands.
Why didn't The Register-Guard's article on April 11 mention the wetlands? Wetlands are great filtration systems and important habitat for many different species of plants and animals. That is my major reason for resisting it. That and the fact that people have got to wake up and start thinking of mass transportation. Has anyone been paying attention to global warming? Hello!
I think Mark Robinowitz was correct: It's really about the greed of a few. Same old story.
Pam Driscoll, Eugene

 

While the intentions in this letter were not malicious, it shows a lack of understanding in the community about the issues -- one that WETLANDS takes some responsibility for (since this has been the primary effort to educate Eugenians on the deeper issues involved in WEP). This responsibility is also shared with other environmental groups and the local media who have chosen to focus on superficialities.

It is ironic that in the 1980s, the main ecological issue for the WEP was the wetlands EAST of Beltline and the wetlands west of Beltline were being ignored by the highwaymen. Now, the wetlands WEST of Beltline have their attention, and the wetlands east of Beltline are being ignored. This sort of fragmented analysis shows the need for a holistic vision of the Earth as an interconnected biosphere - paving one place to protect another is a part of the problem that has caused climate collapse. If we have a hope of dealing with Peak Oil in any positive way, we need to move beyond the compromising, capitulating approach that thinks we always have to trade away the Earth to appease the destroyers. This sort of thing is especially tragic with the WEP issue, since there are many federal laws against it, perhaps one tenth of the money is "there," it would worsen (not help) west Eugene traffic, and with Peak Oil about to become painfully obvious the "need" for more highways is even more absurd.

Since 1999, I have been warning the Eugene environmentalists about federal laws that could be used to block the WEP -- one of the most important restrictions prohibits "segmentation" of the project. This means that building half of the highway would be twice as illegal, especially since this form of "segmentation" would be to avoid full analysis of the environmental impacts of decimating the large area of conservation parklands west of Beltline. This message has been disseminated somewhat, but the letter in today's Eugene Weekly proves that understanding has not permeated as far as previously thought.

ODOT has made many statements pointing out that the "half a WEP" option that a variety of officials have proposed (City of Eugene in 2000 / 2001 floated this, former LCOG biologist Steve Gordon, and others) would be very illegal and therefore they will not embrace the concept.

In July 2002, the failed "Crandall Arambula" pseudo-alternatives project proposed three versions of a "half a WEP" option. When it was pointed out to them, and to Mary O'Brien, Rob Zako and Rob Handy, that this would be more illegal and distract from the real alternatives, that architecture firm then proposed a much larger WEP (one and a half WEP's) which would have been worse than ODOT's plans. Ironically, the C&A proposal would have gone through the Royal Blue Organic blueberry farm (owned by friends of Ms. O'Brien) and the home of a co-plaintiff of the 1000 Friends of Oregon / Friends of Eugene legal appeal of the TransPlan / West Eugene Wetlands Plan / Metro Plan amendments regarding the WEP. It's generally a bad idea to propose paving of your co-plaintiff's property. More amusing was the fact that the press conference to announce C&A to the world was held near the route (in Bertelsen Nature Park) and that event was in a heavy downpour (unusual for September) - as if Mother Nature was sending a message that this was not a good idea. (The rain only poured during the press conference - it dried up later that day - a magical response from the natural world?)

It was a big surprise to see anyone revive the discarded "half a WEP" option -- especially since the writer is a vocal environmentalist and the letter uses my name to justify this proposal. Perhaps I have been a failure in effective outreach - and the Eugene environmental community as a whole has also been a failure in public education. While these efforts have had positive results in raising awareness that the WEP would "destroy wetlands" and be expensive, that awareness has not translated into a groundswell of understanding of what the issues would be for actually stopping the project.

Most of the public campaign to stop the WEP was wrecked by the Crandall / Arambula proposal of 2002 -- that amorphous campaign split into three factions: those who thought the C&A proposals were a good thing, those who were horrified that the "alternative" was an even worse idea than what ODOT proposed, and those who had no idea what the C&A alternative was but just wanted everyone to get along. A series of $80 per hour mediation sessions with a professional mediator did not ever reach much understanding about why this compromise was offered.

If the "Crandall Arambula" proposal had been used as "the alternative" to justify a federal lawsuit against FHWA and ODOT for failure to consider all reasonable alternatives and for failure to analyze the "Section 4(f)" impacts (a law that prohibits federal aid transportation projects if there is a "prudent and feasible" alternative), it would have nullified nearly all of our legal claims. It did not come as a surprise to this writer that Crandall / Arambula was also working to greenwash the Peace Health hospital project while they were pretending to craft an alternative to the WEP. This posed a conflict of interest, since the developer who engineered the Peace Health land deal is a big supporter of the WEP, was the primary backer of the nasty "Gang of Nine" attack on the City of Eugene and owns KOPT 1600 AM. (KOPT is the local affiliate of the Air America network, which shares the name of the CIA's opium smuggling airline in Laos during the War on Vietnam. KOPT / Co-Opt ratio is allegedly "progressive" news but is mostly focused on political correctness while avoiding deeper analysis of how the local and national power structures operate.)

 

Deborah Noble, one of the participants in the group that worked with Crandall / Arambula, finally admitted to this author a few months ago that the process that designed the C&A worse alternative was not democratic, but did not offer any explanation why democracy was not welcome in their group despite promises that everyone was opposed to the WEP. Shortly after that admission, she said that WETLANDS was not welcome in any legal efforts that she was arranging through Friends of Eugene to support Mary O'Brien's efforts, even though the legal work behind WETLANDS is more comprehensive and more accurate. It is sad that democratic participation and merit-based decision making is not how Eugene's environmental elite operate -- a reason why they are rarely effective.

It is a shame, since Mary O'Brien and I have complimentary skills -- the talents that each of us have are those that the other lacks, but there never has been interest in reciprocation and cooperation on an equal basis.

Now, due to the intrasigence (and probably embarrassment of holding a press conference to propose re-routing the WEP through her friend's organic farm), there will be two parallel lawsuits should the WEP be approved and the Record of Decision challenged in federal court. It's going to be yet another example of competing for attention when cooperation and division of labor would be much more productive.

Ideally, the legal claims that Mary O'Brien and Friends of Eugene file can be complimentary to the legal claims in the WETLANDS vs. FHWA lawsuit -- but our interests in a remedy of the outcome of the federal process are currently incompatible and WETLANDS is not interested in compromising part of the wetlands to supposedly protect other parts.

Mary O'Brien has privately told me that parts of the WETLANDS alternative are brilliant, yet that alleged brilliance does not translate into a seat at the table or inclusion in the discussion of what to do instead of the WEP. It is beyond surreal that Mary O'Brien, Friends of Eugene, Mayor Piercy and others posturing to be lead opponents of the WEP studiously ignore the fact that there are alternatives in the public domain that deserve respectful consideration.

 

 

My hardest fight as a performer has been with myself, to be as clear a conduit as possible for what needs to be said. That's the ongoing struggle. Get my ego and my brain out of the way and let this stuff happen.
-- from "mouth that roared: Bruce Cockburn says he's not an activist but a concerned voice", Edmonton Sun, 27 March 2002, by Fish Griwkowsky.

 

Before he left California to take over the Wilderness Society, photographer and lifelong environmental activist Ansel Adams, who knew most of the players well, had warned him: 'You're about to go work with the biggest egos on the planet. They don't get paid much so the drive is ego, and the righteousness is self-righteousness,' Adams added, 'the worst kind.' Turnage says Adams foreboding proved accurate. 'I've never seen so much territoriality and rivalry. Some rivalry is healthy, but this was counterproductive." There were, however, some good meetings, 'although the organizations' staffs disliked each other so immensely it was hard to get them to collaborate on anything we decided to do together.'
-- Mark Dowie, Losing Ground: American Environmentalism at the Close of the Twentieth Century, p. 69-70

 

I must confess that over the last few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can't agree with your methods of direct action;" who paternalistically feels he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by the myth of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of goodwill is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.
-- Martin Luther King, Jr., "Letter from the Birmingham Jail", 1963

 

from Monty Python's The Life of Brian - a parable about many things, including ultra-sectarian leftist groups

BRIAN: Are you the Judean People's Front?  
REG: Fuck off!  
BRIAN: What?  
REG: Judean People's Front. We're the People's Front of Judea! Judean People's Front. Cawk.  
FRANCIS: Wankers.  
BRIAN: Can I... join your group?  
REG: No. Piss off.  
BRIAN: I didn't want to sell this stuff. It's only a job. I hate the Romans as much as anybody.  
PEOPLE'S FRONT OF JUDEA: Shhhh. Shhhh. Shhh. Shh. Shhhh.  
REG: Stumm.  
JUDITH: Are you sure?  
BRIAN: Oh, dead sure. I hate the Romans already.  
REG: Listen. If you really wanted to join the P.F.J., you'd have to really hate the Romans.  
BRIAN: I do!  
REG: Oh, yeah? How much?  
BRIAN: A lot!  
REG: Right. You're in. Listen. The only people we hate more than the Romans are the fucking Judean People's Front.  
P.F.J.: Yeah...  
JUDITH: Splitters.  
P.F.J.: Splitters...  
FRANCIS: And the Judean Popular People's Front.
P.F.J.: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Splitters. Splitters... 
LORETTA: And the People's Front of Judea.
P.F.J.: Yeah. Splitters. Splitters...  
REG: What?  
LORETTA: The People's Front of Judea. Splitters.  
REG: We're the People's Front of Judea!  
LORETTA: Oh. I thought we were the Popular Front.  
REG: People's Front! C-huh.  
FRANCIS: Whatever happened to the Popular Front, Reg?
REG: He's over there.
P.F.J.: Splitter!

 

BRIAN: Brothers! Brothers! We should be struggling together!  
FRANCIS: We are! Ohh.  
BRIAN: We mustn't fight each other! Surely we should be united against the common enemy!  
EVERYONE: The Judean People's Front?!  
BRIAN: No, no! The Romans!  
EVERYONE: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. ...

 

April 19, 2006

 

Note: Information about the June 15 WETLANDS event about the lawsuit and WEP alternative has been moved to a new page - www.permatopia.com/wetlands/calendar.html

 

 

 

ODOT rescinds promise for WEP public hearing

The WEP's new project manager, Ken Kohl, told WETLANDS on April 18 that the Oregon Department of Transportation is not planning to hold a public hearing before publication of the Supplemental Final Environmental Impact Statement. For at least a year, ODOT and other agencies have stated that a public hearing would be held, since the last public hearing they held was in 1997 and the Bureau of Land Management has requested that ODOT hold a formal hearing.

ODOT will hold a public information session where their consultants stand around with charts and the public is invited to talk one-on-one. ODOT has not had one of these sessions since October 1999, a poorly attended event at Willamette High School (there seemed to be more highwaymen than civilians). ODOT did make presentations to two neighborhood groups in 2005 (but did not tell either about major changes to the route they had made).

These sorts of pseudo-informational events (where detailed questions are usually ignored) are not a substitute for a legally required public hearing - and given public interest (on all sides) in the issue, a single evening would not be sufficient time for everyone to have their say.

The BLM is now a "Cooperating Agency" on the ODOT / Federal Highway Administration Environmental Impact Statement process. This is a procedure that allows BLM to decide to turn over part of their conservation lands to the highway department. However, the "Cooperating Agency" section of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which governs Environmental Impact Statements, requires that Cooperating Agencies must be included in the process from the beginning. 40 CFR § 1501.6 states that Cooperating Agencies must participate in the "scoping" of a range of alternatives, the Draft EIS and the Final EIS -- but BLM is only being allowed to be part of the Final EIS. Details about this upcoming violation of law are posted at www.permatopia.com/wetlands/cooperating.html

Since the last public hearing, there have been countless changes to the WEP.

WETLANDS is preparing a Public Records request to demand documents about the refusal to hold a public hearing, why ODOT withdrew its promise to select "No Build" for the WEP in June 2001, and other issues related to their stubborn refusal to follow federal legal requirements for transportation projects.

 

The Osprey that flew to Eugene

A minor distraction on the WEP issue happened last week. The City of Eugene's new highway consultants - the "Osprey Group" from Boulder, Colorado - flew into town to take the pulse of some of the most active supporters of the WEP and some of the opponents to see if we can all get along with discussing how to deal with the WEP issues. Osprey also interviewed some opponents who were not on the guest list of interviewees.

Osprey, or the City, or whomever selected who they were supposed to interview, did not interview a number of long time highway opponents and neighborhood organizations most impacted by the proposed porkway. In March, Mayor Piercy told the monthly meeting of Whiteaker Community Council (which would suffer severe traffic impacts if WEP is built) that WCC would be welcome to be part of the dialogue with Osprey -- but they never received an invite from the City or Osprey to be interviewed. Perhaps it is a coincidence that those who most strongly opposed the "Crandall - Arambula" strawman alternative in the summer of 2002 (a fake alternative that would have been more destructive, more costly and more illegal than what ODOT is planning) were not interviewed by the Osprey Group.

www.permatopia.com/wetlands/collaboration.html
www.permatopia.com/wetlands/crandall.html

It is rude - but true - to point out that one of the promoters of the Crandall Arambula consultants was Mary O'Brien, the main advisor to Mayor Piercy on parkway issues. She has privately said that parts of the WETLANDS alternative are "brilliant," but that alleged brilliance does not translate into a seat at the table or even a mention from the Mayor that some people do have some reasonable ideas of what to do instead of the WEP. If the sensible solutions were plagiarized and spoken of by others, that would make more sense than the censorship that pretends that there are not any prudent and feasible alternatives that deserve respectful consideration.

On May 4, Mary O'Brien and Rob Handy are giving a presentation about the WEP and critical habitats in the West Eugene wetlands (at the EWEB meeting room). Unfortunately, the WETLANDS alternative that could help protect those critical habitats is not allowed to be included in that program. Exclusionary policies are rarely effective at creating community cohesion, and the desire for "turf" is one of the reasons why the environmental movement is not as effective as it needs to be.

 

Letter to the editor sent to the Eugene Weekly

On June 19, 2001, the City of Eugene, Lane County, the Oregon Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the Bureau of Land Management consensed on selecting “No Build” for the West Eugene Parkway, and decided to finish Beltline highway as part of an effort to find practical solutions to west Eugene traffic. Documents from that decision are archived at www.permatopia.com/wetlands/nobuild.html
It is nice that Mayor Piercy says she wants to look at alternatives to the WEP. However, since local governments do not make Federal highway decisions, the City Council vote last October against WEP lacks legal power to stop it, just as the 51 to 49 citizen vote in favor of the WEP in November 2001 cannot force the FHWA to approve the porkway.
It is weird that the Mayor, who has been a WEP opponent for many years, is avoiding the fact that there are already practical alternatives. After the State of the City speech in January, she tried to persuade me that the June 2001 inter-governmental "No Build" consensus did not happen (it was never implemented, but the agreement did happen). The Mayor has declined to mention the WETLANDS alternative, which is largely based on the June 2001 consensus. If the City really wants to stop the WEP, it would transfer its properties bought for WEP to the BLM's West Eugene Wetlands project for conservation and restoration, which would make WEP even more illegal to approve.
The WETLANDS alternative - West Eugene Transportation, Land and Neighborhood Design Alternatives - is described at www.permatopia.com/wetlands.html
Mark Robinowitz
Eugene

 

Don Kahle of Comic News promotes WEP and express bus, bait to get environmentalists to drop opposition to the sprawlway

Finally, an opinion article in the Register Guard on April 12 from Don Kahle of Comic News suggested that environmentalists should embrace the WEP as long as an express bus route is built in the median strip. This is essentially a recycling of the discredited Crandall Arambula pseudo-alternative from 2002, which proposed rerouting the WEP through even more wetlands than ODOT is threatening. Hopefully, no one who objects to the WEP's environmental destruction, paving of farmlands, excessive cost or the fact the WEP would worsen west Eugene traffic will bite on this bait offered by pro-parkway promoters. Kahle's article is archived at http://www.permatopia.com/wetlands/kahle.html

 

April 4, 2006

please forward to others who are interested in the issues of the West Eugene Parkway, energy conservation, ecological protection, sane land use, better public transportation, fiscal accountability, democratic government, and sensible regional planning for Peak Oil and climate change ...

April 4 is the anniversary of Martin Luther King's most important speech about the war on Viet Nam, delivered April 4, 1967 at Riverside Church in New York City. It is archived many places, including www.oilempire.us/mlk.html and is much more profound than his "I Have a Dream" speech. King was assassinated exactly a year later (April 4, 1968), probably because he was trying to unite civil rights, peace and economic justice. King was only 39 years old when he was killed.

"These forty million [poor] people are invisible because America is so affluent, so rich; because our expressways carry us away from the ghetto, we don't see the poor."
-- Martin Luther King, "Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution," March 31, 1968

 

In this update:

 

Acronyms are defined at
http://www.permatopia.com/wetlands/wep-dictionary.html

 

SEMI-OFFICIAL NOTICE ABOUT APRIL 10 EVENT

from the Register Guard, April 2, 2006
http://www.registerguard.com/news/2006/04/02/c1.cr.citybeat.0402.p1.php

Share your thoughts
Have an opinion about the West Eugene Parkway? Join the club.
Soon you will be able to share your views with consultants John Huyler and Dennis Donald about the controversial highway project that has been mired in decades of controversy.
The consultants from Boulder, Colo., are supposed to determine whether Eugene residents are capable of working together to find an alternative to the proposed roadway.
People can visit with Donald and Huyler in the Bascom Room of the downtown Public Library from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. April 10.
The main questions that they want to answer for Mayor Kitty Piercy and other elected leaders are: What is the nature of the conflict surrounding the parkway today? How did it evolve? And what would it take for the Eugene community to move forward?
People who can't make the drop-in session, can write them at The Osprey Group, P.O. Box 8, Boulder, CO 80306. They also can be reached by e-mail at: dennisdonald@earthlink.net, or johnhuyler@earthlink.net.

 

note: the "conflict surrounding the parkway today" is obvious. The WEP would violate numerous federal transportation laws -- so the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) do not dare approve approve or cancel it. They can't approve it, because it's been challenged successfully in court (in 1996). They can't cancel it, because most of the elite who own our town want it built, especially Randy Pape, who is one of ODOT's "Transportation Commissioners." Only $17 million of the official estimate of $169 million is available, and now that Peak Oil is here it is extremely unlikely that the highway will be completed even if construction starts sometime in 2007. The WEP's approval has been a year in the future since 1999, and some of the officials who've worked on the project know it probably cannot be built.

Some of the history of how it evolved is at www.permatopia.com/wetlands/history.html

 

There are at least three ways the the WEP issue could "move forward"

1. the strongest supporters (those who plan to profit from the parkway) drop their support for the project
2. FHWA and/or ODOT abandon the project due to legal impediments and the lack of funds
3. FHWA approves the WEP and the subsequent lawsuit(s) block construction.

The WEP will be canceled when the $17 million appropriated for the project is transfered (to finish Beltline?) and the ODOT and City owned parcels bought for WEP are transferred to the BLM for restoration and conservation.

http://www.permatopia.com/wetlands/transfer.html

 

APRIL 10 FORUM WITH CITY'S NEW HIGHWAY CONSULTANTS - EUGENE LIBRARY, 5 TO 7 PM

Eugene's never ending saga of the West Eugene Parkway is having yet another twist next week. The City of Eugene and the Federal Highway Administration have hired "The Osprey Group," who are highway consultants from Boulder, Colorado who will supposedly tell us things about the WEP that we don't already know.
Osprey is holding an open house forum at the City Library, Monday April 10 from 5 pm to 7 pm (across the street from the City's new downtown wetlands restoration project at the corner of 10th and Charnelton).
Please attend if you can and urge them to implement the NO BUILD consensus that the City of Eugene, Lane County, Oregon Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration and the Bureau of Land Management agreed to at the "West Eugene Charette" on June 19, 2001 -- see www.permatopia.com/wetlands/nobuild.html for the details of that consensus, including some of the minutes of the meeting. We don't need more consultants, we need the City, County, State and Federal governments to implement the agreement they promised almost five years ago.
Osprey's website states that they helped move the South Lawrence Trafficway project through -- a controversial freeway in Kansas very similar to WEP. Both WEP and SLT are projects with a many decade history. Both WEP and SLT were approved in the early 1990s, and then stopped thanks to a federal lawsuit. Both WEP and SLT threaten wetlands with rare butterflies.
In 2001, Osprey was hired to help facilitate discussions about SLT, and the "Trafficway" was approved in an Environmental Impact Statement shortly afterwards.
Osprey is currently a consultant to the Missouri Department of Transportation for their I-70 widening project (from Kansas City to St. Louis).
The weirdest thing about this latest development is that the City has hired a consultant supposedly to facilitate the dialogue who pretends to be neutral but clearly is not -- and the elected Mayor who has been an opponent of the highway for many years is now pretending to be neutral. Mayor Piercy has refused to mention that there are practical alternatives to the WEP -- and even tried to persuade me at the State of the City event in January 2006 that the June 2001 inter-governmental "No Build" consensus did not actually happen (it was never implemented, but the agreement definitely did happen).
ODOT officials predict that they might hold a public hearing on the Supplemental Final Environmental Impact Statement in May or June. Several previous predictions about the timing of the hearing (over a several year period) have not been met. ODOT's track record on timing for the project is even worse than Microsoft's efforts to publish the next version of its "Windows" software system.
After the public hearing and comment period, ODOT and FHWA plan to publish the SFEIS and issue a Record of Decision approving the project -- and that is when a federal lawsuit will be filed. Technically, the highway has not been approved since these legal steps (SFEIS and ROD) have not happened. A lawsuit can only be filed after the ROD has been issued - but it would need to be filed quickly to block construction crews from clearcutting the forests and other destruction that would make canceling the WEP somewhat moot from an environmental perspective. Also, the transportation bill signed into law last year sets a short time limit for citizens to file suit to block illegal highway approvals.

 

BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON WEP, HIGHWAY LAW AND WETLANDS ALTERNATIVE

The WETLANDS alternative is not a precise blueprint of exactly what should be done, but instead it describes a range of possibilities based on the amount of money that would be available ($17 million, $88 million or $169 million) and whether Peak Oil is here (likely) or not yet here (perhaps a few years away and therefore there will be more money and continued traffic increase for a bit longer).

the outline of the WETLANDS alternative
http://www.permatopia.com/wetlands/alternative.html

WETLANDS alternative - three options
$17 million, $88 million, $169 million
http://www.permatopia.com/wetlands/wetlands-cost.html

WEP would not solve traffic flows
http://www.permatopia.com/wetlands/wep-traffic-routes.html

June 19, 2001 "No Build" consensus from City of Eugene, Lane County, ODOT, FHWA and BLM
(the outline for the WETLANDS alternative)
http://www.permatopia.com/wetlands/nobuild.html

maps of the WEP
http://www.permatopia.com/wetlands/maps.html

Top Lies about the WEP
http://www.permatopia.com/wetlands/top-lies.html

the WETLANDS alternative meets the "Purpose and Need"
the WEP would not
http://www.permatopia.com/wetlands/purpose.html

Peak Oil and the Parkway: a "new circumstance" that must be included in the EIS
http://www.permatopia.com/wetlands/peakoil.html

Land and Water Conservation Fund properties that cannot be used for WEP
http://www.permatopia.com/wetlands/lwcf.html

Cooperating Agencies: BLM and Army Corps of Engineers did not participate in required "Scoping" of Alternatives
http://www.permatopia.com/wetlands/cooperating.html

Avoidance, Minimization, Mitigation
http://www.permatopia.com/wetlands/mitigation.html

Section 4(f) and WEP
http://www.permatopia.com/wetlands/4f.html

Environmental Justice and the WEP
http://www.permatopia.com/wetlands/justice.html

 

WHITEAKER COMMUNITY COUNCIL URGES INCLUSION OF WETLANDS ALTERNATIVE

"The Whiteaker neighborhood association, Whiteaker Community Council (WCC), at a general meeting on March 8, unanimously decided to send a letter urging ODOT to stop pushing ahead with its plans for WEP, to cooperate with the community on alternatives and public participation, and to include alternatives (specifically the WETLANDS Alternative) in the EIS. WCC had previously reconfirmed its 2003 position opposing construction of the WEP."

 

note: WCC was formed in part as a response to plans for the Roosevelt Freeway, which would have decimated that neighborhood.

See www.permatopia.com/wetlands/history.html for information on the "hidden history of the West Eugene Parkway," including maps of the early proposals for multiple freeways through south Eugene, including Roosevelt Freeway, the 6th / 7th freeway, Amazon Park expressway, Beltline through the South Hills, the "30-30 connector," Skinner Butte freeway and others.

If you or your organization also wants to express support for the WETLANDS alternative, please consider sending a short statement of support to "wetlands at permatopia.dot com"

Please also consider the next item -- send a comment to the FHWA and the City of Eugene.

 

PLEASE URGE FHWA AND THE CITY OF EUGENE TO CONSIDER WETLANDS ALTERNATIVE

Please send an email to these officials to recommend they give serious consideration to the WETLANDS alternative in their "collaboration" process and in the Environmental Impact Statement, and ask that your comments be added to the public record for the WEP Environmental Impact Statement. Please also send WETLANDS a copy at "wetlands@permatopia.com" Thanks.

 

Mayor Kitty Piercy
kitty.piercy@ci.eugene.or.us

David Cox
Oregon Division Administrator, Federal Highway Administration
david.cox@fhwa.dot.gov

 

Please urge the City and FHWA to select the No Build consensus they agreed to nearly five years ago and stop wasting money on more studies and consultants. If that consensus had been implemented then, we could have made needed fixes to West 11th intersections, finished the Beltline and be well on the way toward other needed repairs to west Eugene.

 

HIGHWAY SUPPORTER WONDERS WHY MAYOR PIERCY WON'T DISCUSS AN ALTERNATIVE

This letter from a highway supporter is worth reading -- while it contains some inaccuracies (contrary to the writer's assertions, wetlands mitigation does not restore ecosystems), it does make an extremely important point: the City should have offered some practical suggestions when the Council voted against the highway in October 2005. A good strategist tries to understand what their opponents are thinking, and what countering arguments can be used. Politicians who merely state they are opposed to the WEP but stay silent about the existence of credible alternatives are not making serious efforts to stop the highway.

http://www.registerguard.com/news/2005/12/13/ed.letters.1213.p1.php?section=opinion
Register-Guard, letter to the editor, December 13, 2005
Piercy wrong on parkway issue
Apparently, Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy never learned that two wrongs don't make a right. Never has that been clearer than by her actions and comments regarding the West Eugene Parkway.
First, she was wrong in her action to completely disregard the will of Eugene voters by casting a tie-breaking vote to withdraw City Council support for this important project.
Second, she's equally wrong to now be asserting that Eugene should go about the process to find some alternative to the parkway. If Mayor Piercy took those actions while simultaneously putting on the table an alternative solution that was planned, designed and budgeted for, I'd feel a little better. At least then I'd know she was serious about dealing with our transportation needs. But she's done nothing of the sort.
To add insult to injury, taxpayers like me who voted for the parkway will now get stuck with the bill to pay for some new process to find alternatives, which is precisely what we said we didn't want to do when we rejected Measure 20-53. Mayor Piercy must put her personal opinion and those of her no-growth friends aside and honor the will of the majority of voters.
For those of you who may disagree with me, I don't want to hear about the margin of victory on the parkway measures. If this is the case, we can recall any elected official who won only by small margin. Additionally, what part of mitigating wetland acres 2-to-1 don't people get?
MICHAEL CAPRAI
Eugene

 

 

2001 ELECTION
The 2001 "election" for the WEP did not approve the porkway -- that vote merely authorized the City to make planning changes for the project. Federal aid highways such as WEP are approved through an Environmental Impact Statement published by the Federal Highway Administration. Measure 20-53 was a straw man option designed by pro-WEP City staff which would have been even more illegal than the WEP, since it included two-thirds of the WEP and Federal laws prohibits "segmentation" of highway approvals.

see http://www.permatopia.com/wetlands/2001election.html for details.

 

THE DIVIDE IN THE ANTI-WEP MOVEMENT

It's easy to understand why ODOT won't mention the WETLANDS alternative (even though it's largely based on their public promises and statements, and they have provided private feedback on parts of it), but it is harder to understand why anti-WEP politicians also ignore WETLANDS and the City/County/ODOT/FHWA/BLM "No Build" promise of June 19, 2001.

The reasons for the Mayor's exclusion of this information are probably a combination of poor strategy, bad advice from her advisors, a lack of understanding of the details, and elitist attitudes that divide the environmental movement into cliques of insiders and peripheral people. This divide is not based on meritocracy, but on wealth, a willingness to play conventional politics, avoidance of deeper issues, and competition for who gets attention.

It is a slight over-simplification to say that the divide in the anti-WEP efforts in Eugene is caused by the impact of the last set of outside consultants brought into Eugene to analyze the WEP. In July 2002, a Portland architecture firm Crandall-Arambula was brought into Eugene by Rob Zako and Mary O'Brien to analyze the potential for alternatives to the WEP. They were given a bus tour of the WEP route by environmentalists (including this writer) and provided with lots of information and guidance on the project's issues, history, legal constraints and potential ranges of alternatives. Nearly all of that information was completely ignored in favor of an extremely bizarre report that excluded virtually all input from opponents -- and the final product resulted in a straw-man option that would have been considerably more destructive and costly than what ODOT is planning. The only input that this writer was allowed to have in that report was to point out that the penultimate draft included converting a cemetery to a mix-used, transit-only commercial development -- an idea quickly dropped before the final report. This mistake showed that none of the authors consulted a map to see what they were really doing.

This new route proposed a bus-only express route on part of the WEP alignment, a bus-only expressway to the Eugene Airport through farmland and wetlands, and a new expressway (for cars) through BLM conservation land with a greater footprint than the WEP would have. This new route would have gone through the Royal Blue Organics blueberry farm and the land of a co-plaintiff on the Friends of Eugene, et al, appeal of the TransPlan amendments enacted in 2002 to include more of the WEP in local government plans. (It's not a good idea for plaintiff solidarity to propose building an expressway through their home.) While this proposal was only promoted for a short while due to the ludicrous nature of it, none of its proponents have ever explained why this happened, or publicly retract support for it. Subsequently, the Register-Guard disclosed that the consultants were simultaneously working to greenwash the relocation of Peace Health to Springfield, which was kept secret from WEP opponents trying to convince these consultants that a larger highway with greater impacts was not what we wanted. If Crandall-Arambula had been used as "the alternative" to justify a federal lawsuit trying to block approval of the WEP, it would have nullified nearly every legal argument against the project.

This "activist malpractice" is detailed at http://www.permatopia.com/wetlands/crandall.html

These sorts of disasters and factions and lack of fact checking make social change efforts much less effective than they could be and must be. Current and future generations of all species depend on our successes to stop ecocidal policies and shift toward genuinely sustainable ways of living. These shifts would require a societal wide change to politics, psychology and economic systems -- they are not going to be achieved through mobilizing a small part of the population.

 

OSPREY GROUP CONSULTANTS HIRED BY CITY AND FHWA

for background information on Osprey and South Lawrence Trafficway project they worked on
http://www.permatopia.com/wetlands/collaboration.html

 

http://www.theospreygroup.com/transportation.html
Osprey has extensive experience helping jurisdictions solve transportation problems at the state and local levels. Our public engagement work has helped build community support on projects ranging in complexity from specific intersections, to widening interstate highways, to the design and implementation of TDM programs. The support we help generate means that projects are actually embraced and then built or implemented.
Interstate 70 in Missouri:
Currently assisting the Missouri Department of Transportation with public involvement activities associated with the expansion and improvement of I-70 across the entire state of Missouri. Osprey convened and is facilitating a highly effective, 23-person Advisory Group. Current information on this project is available at http://www.improvei70.org/ ...
South Lawrence Trafficway (SLT):
Osprey convened, designed and facilitated meetings of the SLT Stakeholder Input Group in Lawrence, KS, and a retreat-type meeting of the Board of Regents of Haskell Indian Nations University. Products included a "Report to the Community" based on interviews with 30 individuals and summaries of stakeholders’ perspectives. We often use this type of neutral assessment and find it to frequently be helpful and well received.

 

WHERE DID THE OSPREY GROUP COME FROM?

 

http://www.theospreygroup.com/who.html
"Dennis formed The Osprey Group with long-time friend and colleague, John Huyler, in 2000. Prior to this, he was a senior facilitator and director of The Keystone Center's Science and Public Policy Program."

http://www.keystone.org/general_section/board.html
board of trustees for Keystone includes Dow Chemical, Dupont, General Electric, Lockheed Martin, coal companies, nuclear power interests and CH2M Hill (a former contractor for the West Eugene Parkway)

 

http://www.keystone.org/spp/env-esa.html
Executive Summary of Letter to Senators
The Keystone ESA Working Group on Habitat
February 17, 2006
"new provisions for integrating habitat protection and conservation into the ESA to replace the current critical habitat framework"

[note: they support undermining one of the strongest provisions in the Endangered Species Act ... which would reduce one the key legal impediments toward approval of the WEP]

 

Keystone hired by NASA to promote nuclear power in space
http://www.keystone.org/spp/env-space-science.html
"The Keystone Center aids in the design of an inclusive public involvement strategy in coordination with NASA Headquarters and Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) staff, for ten years of Mars Missions, starting in 2003. The Keystone Center has worked on potential areas of high concern such as the use of space nuclear power sources including launch site issues."

[note: For a sensible view of launching plutonium on rockets in Florida, including whistleblower testimony that virtually no preparations were made by NASA to address the severe risks of a launch malfunction, see www.space4peace.org Pictures of other planets are nice, but if we wreck the biosphere of Earth, we aren't going to be able to move to nearby planets that lack atmospheres that sustain human life. Our omnicidal behavior does not justify the pretty pictures of other planets.]

---------------------

Keystone promoting more industrial large-scale use of natural gas even though supplies are in decline
http://www.keystone.org/spp/ener-naturalgas.html
"There is widespread agreement that the demand for natural gas is likely to increase significantly by 2010. .... The purpose of a Keystone Dialogue is to bring a diverse group of stakeholders together to discuss the nexus between current capacity, the emerging market and increased environmental concerns. The goal was the creation of policy-related guidelines for the development of criteria that is amenable to all stakeholders, for new or expanded pipeline capacity."

note: natural gas supplies in North America are in decline, having already past Peak. The proposed Liquid Natural Gas terminals would be unlikely to mitigate the decline from domestic supplies -- conservation is the real urgency. Furthermore, most of the increase in natural gas consumption in the past two decades is from construction of new power generation capacity that is powered by natural gas. Much of this capacity was driven by a desire to burn lower-polluting fossil fuels (natural gas is cleaner than coal) but no provisions were made by utilities to contemplate the obvious impacts of these generators accelerating the decline of natural gas supplies.
"Stakeholder" is a term from casinos that refers to a person who holds the bets of gamblers. Public relations consultants have adopted this term to refer to special interest groups who benefit from the kleptocracy rampant in governments as a substitute for the word "citizen." When "stakeholder" is used to sell a project, it's a good bet that it is not a democratic process. Perhaps "stakeholder" refers to the fact that citizens who try to participate in these sorts of processes are gambling that their concerns will be taken seriously and with the respect they deserve.

---------------------

Thousand dollar a plate fundraiser for Keystone, ten thousand dollars for a table (not a normal behavior for an environmental group)
Note: the "Master of Ceremonies" is a reporter for ABC News (Disney) and National Public Radio (NPR's director came from Voice of America, the US government propaganda network). Her brother is one of the most influential lobbyists in Washington, D.C.

http://www.keystone.org/general_section/awards2006.html
The Keystone Center Awards Dinner 2006
The 13th Anniversary Celebration of The Keystone Center Leadership Awards Dinner will be held on:
June 8, 2006
Union Station
Washington, D. C.
Master of Ceremonies
Cokie Roberts
The Keystone Center is headquartered in Keystone, Colorado, with an office in Washington, DC. Contributions to the 2003 Keystone Awards Dinner are tax deductible as to the extent allowed under law.
Tables - $10,000/Tickets - $1,000

 

from Debby Sugarman, professional facilitator
Mark,
I went to the website of the Osprey Group. It sure didn't look like a
group of facilitators and mediators-- more like professional negotiators
advocating for one side. Certainly not something I would want to
participate in.

 

JUNE EVENT TO COMMEMORATE TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF LAWSUIT THAT BLOCKED WEP

In June, WETLANDS will hold a forum to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the successful lawsuit by Save Our ecoSystems to block the parkway (www.permatopia.com/wetlands/sos.html has an introduction to that success). It will also be the fifth anniversary of the City / County / State / Fed consensus to select "No Build" for the WEP. We will also sponsor another WETLANDS walk to highlight Bertelsen Nature Park, which is threatened by road construction. We will visit the City owned parcel bought for the WEP near the proposed intersection with Bailey Hill Road -- when the City transfers this parcel to the BLM's West Eugene Wetlands project for restoration and conservation, then they will be taking a serious step toward permanent cancellation of the project.
Details on the exact location should be finalized shortly.

 

WETLANDS v. FHWA lawsuit and WETLANDS LEGAL DEFENSE FUND
WETLANDS is taking steps to establish the WETLANDS Legal Defense Fund as part of preparations for the long-planned WETLANDS v. Federal Highway Administration lawsuit, which will be needed if the FHWA and Oregon Department of Transportation approve the Supplemental Final Environmental Impact Statement and make a "Record of Decision."
WETLANDS has spent many years working hard to keep the WEP from being approved and prevent the need for a lawsuit.
Hopefully, FHWA and ODOT can be persuaded to select No Build and implement something similar to the WETLANDS alternative -- as they promised to do on June 19, 2001 -- but if private interest prevails over legal, financial and other limitations, then the approval will be immediately challenged in federal court.

 

TWO MORE HIGHWAY PROJECTS START UP: I-5 BIG BRIDGE, 126 UPGRADE IN SPRINGFIELD

Interstate 5 bridge replacement

ODOT is holding a public "Open House" on Wednesday April 5 for the I-5 Willamette River Bridge project:

11:30 am - 2 pm
Springfield City Hall Library Meeting Room
3 pm - 7 pm
Eugene Library meeting room

ODOT is planning to spend $114 million to rebuild the I-5 bridge over the Willamette River in Glenwood.
A few years ago, ODOT had planned to perform a seismic upgrade to this bridge to make it resistant to large earthquakes, but when engineers examined the structure, they realized it was cracked and a seismic upgrade would have been a waste of money. (One of them told me that they were glad it was not a flood year, since they were not confident of the bridge's continued strength.) The heaviest trucks were rerouted onto circuitous routes and ODOT scrambled to build a "temporary" parallel bridge (over $20 million) that is now in operation.
Unfortunately, the new "temporary" bridge was not built to withstand earthquakes, and now ODOT wants to build a SECOND replacement bridge on the alignment of the original bridge. Since money is no object to some transportation planners, they ignored suggestions that the first replacement bridge be a permanent structure, which would have been much cheaper and simpler.

ODOT's website on the new bridge project is
http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/HWY/REGION2/I-5WRB.shtml

If you attend these forums or send comments to ODOT, please urge them to consider the projections of Peak Oil and climate change in their traffic projections for this project. The US Army Corps of Engineers has now admitted that Peak Oil probably happened in 2005, and the military is taking steps to ensure that its installations have renewable energy systems to guard against energy disruptions. One of the best media organizations exploring these issues is http://www.fromthewilderness.com (newly relocated to Ashland, Oregon).

 

Oregon 126 widening and upgrade in Springfield

ODOT has also announced a major highway expansion effort to widen Oregon 126 in Springfield to a six lane freeway from 42nd Street to Main Street. This project would include reconstructing a larger interchange at 42nd Street, building a new grade-separated interchange at 52nd Street (and expanding the local road network outside the Urban Growth Boundary), and a new interchange at Main Street.
This is probably part of a long-planned effort to extend the Oregon 126 / I-105 highway all the way to Oregon 58 in Pleasant Hill to facilitate regional and interstate truck traffic. It would also enable the conversion of Pleasant Hill into a bedroom community for Eugene - Springfield, something that is a top priority for Lane County's "Region 2050" planning effort. "2050" is a governmental campaign to claim that "growth" is going to continue unabated forever without limits imposed by nature (Peak Oil, climate change, finite water supplies, etc). Don't expect local government to take steps to help the region prepare for energy decline, climate change or economic disruptions from oscillations of the global economy.

ODOT's website on the 126 expansion project:
http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/HWY/REGION2/OR126EMP.shtml

for details on 2050
http://www.permatopia.com/wetlands/2050.html

 

HOW THE CITY OF EUGENE CONTINUES TO PROMOTE THE PORKWAY DESPITE THE OCTOBER 2005 ADVISORY VOTE OF THE CITY COUNCIL

Mayor Piercy has refused numerous opportunities and requests to mention that the City, Lane County, ODOT, Federal Highway Administration and BLM agreed on June 19, 2001 to select "No Build" and to finish Beltline Road instead. Some of the details are posted at http://www.permatopia.com/wetlands/nobuild.html That is an extremely important part of the convoluted history of this project.
After the State of the City address in January 2006, Mayor Piercy tried to persuade me that the "No Build" consensus did not actually happen (she claimed that the feds told her this, but we have the documents and she could have asked David Kelly, who was a participant and has a good memory).
Mayor Piercy has refused to mention the more developed version of that consensus:

WETLANDS (West Eugene Transportation, Land and Neighborhood Design Alternatives)
http://www.permatopia.com/wetlands.html

It's easy to understand why ODOT, FHWA and pro-WEP City staff won't publicly mention these facts (even when they privately provide constructive feedback about WETLANDS), but it's harder to see a rational reason for the "anti-WEP" Mayor to refuse to state that these truths. It's not for lack of knowledge, since she has been told these things many times over a several year period. While it is true that Mayors are busy and have a lot to read, this information is basic to an understanding of the WEP issues. Kitty's main advisor on WEP issues has privately called aspects of WETLANDS "brilliant" but also publicly ignores WETLANDS.

Instead of mentioning even ONE thing that could be done instead of the WEP, the Mayor has spent more money to hire consultants from Boulder, Colorado to tell us if we can "collaborate" on an alternative. The consultants that were hired ("The Osprey Group") helped pro-highway forces in Lawrence, Kansas overcome environmental and Native objections to a similar freeway through wetlands, butterfly habitat and Native sacred sites. They are also a contractor for selling the I-70 widening project in Missouri (between St Louis and Kansas City). The gory details are at http://www.permatopia.com/wetlands/collaboration.html

The idea of "collaboration" does not address the fact that Randy Pape (who sits on the Oregon Transportation Commission, which runs ODOT) is not going to change his mind just because the project is illegal, unfunded or that there are practical alternatives. Furthermore, Piercy's refusal to mention the June 2001 consensus undermines her negotiating power and does not help increase understanding in the community.

The City's new consultants are supposed to be neutral facilitators (ha!) but the Mayor is definitely NOT neutral -- she campaigned on a platform of being opposed to the WEP. She also campaigned to support sustainability and local business, but that just seems like rhetoric now.

If the City informed people why the WEP can't be built, that it is a FEDERAL decision, that it violates every law there is to violate, there is almost no money for it, it wouldn't solve traffic problems and that there are practical alternatives that are cheaper -- that shift in policy would ease the tension and splits in the community over this issue.

The City Manager still has his agreement with ODOT to maintain part of the parkway (between Beltline and Highway 99) despite the "no" vote of the City Council in October 2005.

The City staff continute to meet with ODOT to plan the WEP / Beltline interchange. How does that constitute the CIty being against the highway?

I asked Mayor Piercy in March if the City would be willing to transfer the City owned land for the highway to the BLM for conservation purposes (which would stop the road). She said she'd never heard of that before, although the idea has been floated in the community (by me) for at least five years. (She declined to answer the question.) I was surprised that she was uninformed on the basics of the project, since it is reasonable to assume that City staff can easily find out who owns what in the City. If the City transferred the land for conservation purposes to BLM (without a "reservation" for the WEP), that would probably force a halt to the approval process. (The City owns two parcels - one just west of Danebo road, one near the proposed Bailey Hill / WEP intersection. This proposed transfer would invoke the "Section 4(f)" law -- see http://www.permatopia.com/wetlands/4f.html for details.)

To be fair, at that same meeting, the new ODOT project manager for the porkway admitted that he did not know one of the most elementary legal basis for approving Federal aid highways. He admitted that the WEP is his first Environmental Impact Statement, which is astounding considering the sensitivity and controversy of this project. (He is the fifth project manager that I've dealt with, and the least informed about federal highway law.)

The City is poised to approve another Big Box store at Danebo and West 11th (Lowe's hardware). If the City was really pushing local business, they would adopt a size limit for new stores similar to those passed in dozens of other cities. The Oregon Supreme Court has upheld this restriction as legal (in response to a law enacted by Hood River to block a proposed super Wal Mart). About two years ago, the City Council voted 5-3 against adopting a similar law in Eugene -- but the new "liberal" City Council could vote 5 - 4 in favor of this proposal, if the Mayor exercised some leadership. (The "3" were Bonny Bettman, Betty Taylor and David Kelly. If Andrea Ortiz voted for this, that would be a 4-4 tie, and then Kitty Piercy could break the tie.)

I think the level of competence at the City is shown by the new pit across from the library. If there was any accountability in the City government, the planners responsible for the hole would be fired. If the City was run democratically, the City manager would have canceled his agreement with ODOT to maintain part of the road after the elected officials voted to oppose the project. If a new City Hall is built (instead of the much cheaper seismic retrofit), it should be built on the pit at 10th and Charnelton. If the lunatic idea to demolish the Atrium building for the Wooley-Conmen developers is dropped, then the City employees in the Atrium would be next to the main City Hall structure, although it would be less contiguous to the other levels of "government" (which would be a good thing).

At the recent public relations exercise for the new City Hall / Police station complex, the consultants showed a map indicating the relative size needed for different City departments. That map shows the City manager as needing more space than the City Council and Mayor. It also showed that the City Manager was a gatekeeper between the public and the elected officials -- the public would have access to the Council and Mayor via the Manager. That was the most revealing facet of the whole show. A major part of the solution to the corruption of the City government would be to change the City Charter to make the City Manager into a manager, since currently the Manager position is a quasi dictator barely answerable to the elected officials. The City Manager makes more money than the Mayor and all eight Councilors combined, a symbolic way of showing who is really running the City. Campaign finance reform / public financing would be a key part of reducing the corruption that plagues the political system.

After the Mayor alienated many of her loyal supporters with her promotion of the Giustina family parking garage, she offered a vague idea to reserve space for a Farmer's Market in the new Police Station / City Hall complex. This suggestion is bizarre, patronizing, and just an effort to save face given the disaster that the City promoted with the Giustina parking garage (a garage that Hole Foods does not need, since they are planning two floors of parking above their store - which proves that Hole Foods would be more sprawl, catering to suburbanites, not downtown residents). It's very sad and shows that the City is unlikely to do anything substantive to help the region prepare for Peak Oil and climate change before we are in crisis and panic.

Hopefully the next Mayor can reconcile rhetoric promising sustainability with policies designed to implement positive changes -- that would require public campaign finance reform, making the City Manager a more modest position, firing incompetent managers in City government (starting with those who authorized the new pit next to the library), and other changes to make City operations become genuinely democratic.

 

ODOT TO FINISH DESIGN OF WEP AFTER IT IS APPROVED

Federal law requires that the type of road be determined before a Final Environmental Impact Statement is published and a Record of Decision is approved by the Federal Highway Administration.

In October 2005, ODOT unveiled a new design for the WEP that scaled back the type of road that they are planning. Instead of an limited access expressway, the newest version would take Beltline traffic and dump it onto 5th and 7th Place between Seneca and Highway 99 (in the industrial zone). Previously, ODOT had planned to use these roads for temporary access to the WEP during its construction, with the ultimate design being an overpass over 5th and Highway 99 to facilitate higher volumes of traffic - since traffic studies have suggested this segment would be the busiest section of the highway.

But ODOT's consistent downplaying of costs, inflation, rising energy prices as we approach Peak Oil, and other factors have forced ODOT to figure ways to cut costs. Now, instead of an expensive bridge over Highway 99 with a partial interchange, ODOT plans to dump WEP traffic onto local roads with lots of driveways, road crossings, and a rail line. 7th Place between Seneca and 99 (which would become the eastbound WEP) has three stop signs!

ODOT's newest project manager was asked by WETLANDS last month what type of design this "couplet alternative" is planning for 5th and 7th, how ODOT would handle the road crossings (keep the stop signs? traffic lights?) and what would happen to businesses that currently have driveways onto these roads (a major selling point of WEP has been it would be an expressway without driveway access).

While ODOT has a nice map on its website that shows the footprint of the proposed parkway path, it does not answer any of these questions -- and it also ignores the fact that ODOT discarded the "couplet alternative" twenty years ago because it was unpopular and would greatly complicate access into the west Eugene industrial area. The fact that ODOT has revived the Couplet Alternative suggests that the highwaymen are privately conceding defeat, they are unable to design a cost-effective expressway that would fix traffic problems.

http://www.permatopia.com/wetlands/couplet.html has maps and background on the previous rejection of the "couplet" option

 

LETTER FROM THE WEP PROJECT MANAGER:

On Mar 23, 2006, at 11:27 AM Mar 23, KOHL Kenneth L wrote:
Mark,
I’ve looked into your questions that we discussed last week. Here’s my response:
What is the classification of the WEP between Seneca and 99W? It’s my understanding that 5th Avenue and 7th Avenue are currently designated as collectors. I believe that those portions of 5th and 7th that become part of the WEP will be classified as interim arterials.
Will private accesses be allowed between Seneca and 99W? Not on new right-of-way ODOT acquires for the WEP. Accesses onto those portions of 5th and 7th that become part of the WEP will be addressed as part of an Access Management Strategy that will be developed during the preparation of the construction plans, but after FHWA approval of the Record of Decision.
What will happen to existing 5th and 7th? It is difficult to communicate in words the answer to this question. I’d suggest you refer to our map of the project east of Danebo, which you can find on our website at this link:
http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/HWY/REGION2/images/EastofDaneboWEP2005ModifiedProject.pdf

Ken Kohl
Oregon Department of Transportation
644 A Street
Springfield, OR 97477
541-747-1496
541-744-8088 fax
kenneth.l.kohl@odot.state.or.us

 

RESPONSE FROM MARK:
Thank you for the reply. I assume that this means ODOT has abandoned the idea of the past two decades to build a limited access arterial in this segment.
My understanding of NEPA and FHWA regulations is that you need to identify the type of road you want to build in the EIS and then have it approved in the ROD.
If you refuse to list the number of displacements that would be created by the project, you cannot fully analyze the impacts in the SFEIS.
I have seen that map, but it does not answer the questions about access and type of road.

 

two definitions of "collaboration" in the dictionary:

collaboration - noun
1 the action of working with someone to produce or create something : he wrote on art and architecture in collaboration with John Betjeman.- something produced or created in this way : his recent opera was a collaboration with Lessing.
2 traitorous cooperation with an enemy : he faces charges of collaboration.