Author: swhillsadmin

From the editor

We have had a series of what would be warm winter days at your editor’s old home in Maine. Now it’s going to get warmer, but our new year holiday was bright and clear.

Happy New Year to all. This is the year of the Sheep in the Chinese astrological cycle. (Chinese New Year is in February but Japan starts its new year on January 1, so all your sheep can celebrate early.)

Let me remind you that our meeting coming up on January 18, Sunday, at Morse Family Farm, 2-4 pm, will be to discuss your ideas about what we should be doing in the next year, plus a vote on our new charter, new name, and new board. If we have information about developments at Rest Haven will bring that also.

One of the things that’s the neighborhood association hopes to work on in the coming year is joint planning for response to disasters such as big storms or earthquakes or big fires. We need methods for finding out the right information and getting people to set up their own home disaster preparation. But it’s also important to have us aware of resources and dangers in the immediate several blocks around their houses. Eugene has been involved in the statewide Map Your Neighborhood program and in the excellent CERT training, and now we have a neew resource from the city of Los Angeles.

Here’s their description:

“Disaster Prep Toolkit! We never think a disaster will strike our neighborhood or at least we hope it won’t! However, it is not a question of if one will happen, but when. The City of Los Angeles and its partner agencies have created a plan and resource kit to help their community be ready to help. This comprehensive plan can easily be tweaked to fit in your neighborhood! Neighbors should be prepared to help themselves and each other in the event of a disaster for several days to weeks depending on the size of the disaster.

Take the first step to getting your neighborhood in a better position to prepare and bounce back from disaster by downloading the City of Los Angeles 5 Steps to Neighborhood Preparedness Toolkit. Included within this comprehensive resource set you will find a Just in Time Training Video (13 minutes); a Toolkit Overview (in English, Spanish, Korean, Chinese and Large Print); and a 5-Steps Guide to build a neighborhood disaster plan for your neighborhood (also in several languages); and a Training Facilitators Guide as a resource for those active in the organizing of a meeting. A Neighoborhood Survey to help assess special skills and special needs is also available as a resource to help with Neighborhood Preparedness.”

A zombie apocalypse might be exciting but it’s more practical to worry about fires, earthquakes, windstorms, and other disasters which could cut communications and make it impossible for larger first response organizations to reach us. Think about helping out!

Our Association is looking for people who would be willing to organize small response teams in their immediate block or so. If you are concerned about the safety of you and your neighbors, and willing to take a lead, email David dkolb@bates.edu and we will set up a meeting for those who want to help the neighborhood prepare for the unknown.

Crime note

A neighbor writes: “I’ve noticed a couple of guys (together) riding their bikes past my house and I’ve watched them as they scope out each and every yard that they pass.”

Notice from the county government:

With the onset of colder weather, fireplace and woodstove usage increases dramatically in Lane County. This results in large quantities of particulate matter being released into the local air shed. The current smoke levels are especially high in our neighborhood. A “RED” advisory is currently in place, indicating that air quality is poor and burning is prohibited. Pellets stoves may be used if they produce are no visible emissions. Lane Regional Air Protection Agency (LRAPA) is forecasting unhealthy air quality levels for Oakridge and Eugene/Springfield over the next few days as high pressure dominates the region and air stagnation continues.
Help improve air quality in South Eugene by following these tips from LRAPA.
• Use dry, seasoned wood. Split it, cover it, and give it a year!
• Do not burn illegal fuel. Including: garbage, plastics, treated wood, paints and chemicals, and anything else that emits dense smoke or bad odors.
• Burn small, hot fires. Don’t add too much fuel at once.
• Limit use of the damper. Dampering wastes wood, produces air pollution, accumulates creosote, and yields very little heat.
• Step outside and check the chimney or flue. If you can see smoke, your fire may need more air.
• Check before you burn. You can burn on “GREEN” days and with caution on “YELLOW” days. Burning on “RED” days will result in a fine of up to $500.
To find out if it is OK to burn, call 541-746-HEAT(4328) or visit http://www.lrapa.org.

Development proposal

Project Description: Create cluster housing subdivision from five existing tax lots, reconfiguring property lines and church parking lot
Project Location: 2809 Friendly St.
Tax Lot: 18-03-06-33-10400, 10401, 10500,10700, & 10800
Neighborhood: Crest Drive Citizens Association

Land Use Application: http://www.eugene-or.gov/luappstracking
Building Permit Application:www.eugene-or.gov/buildingpermits (Select “Search Building Permits”)

Three requests from the city for volunteers to help out

1) Egan Warming Center Volunteer Opportunities

The Egan Memorial Warming Center is a coalition of community members representing service providers, religious congregations, nonprofit support agencies, social activist communities and local government who have come together to ensure that homeless people in Lane County have a warm and safe place to sleep when temperatures drop below 30 degrees between November 15th and March 31st.

Please take a moment and consider how you and/or your organization or business can get involved this winter season. To help in a shelter this winter, please complete an online Volunteer Application today.

Deciding to activate is a complex and uncertain business. Churches, volunteers, and support agencies need to be notified that Egan will be on standby 48 hours in advance. Egan volunteer coordinators have to make a decision based on the best forecasts we have 24 hours in advance for activation. Activation information is available on the website or volunteers can text the word “Activate” to 292929 for text alerts (standard data and messaging rates may apply).

Providing decent housing to everyone, all the time is a desperate social problem. Egan’s small contribution to that problem is providing emergency shelter when severe cold threatens lives. If you have suggestions on improving the protocol or data used to make a decision please send us an e-mail. (eganwarmingcenterseugene@gmail.com).

2) Point in Time Homeless Count

Please join volunteers for this point in time homeless count. It’s safe and provides our community an opportunity to count and help assess needs for those living on the street or in shelters.

Wednesday, January 28, 2015. Training will be provided on Thursday, January 22 or right before your volunteer shift begins.

Contact Lane County Human Services at 541-682-4615 or 541-682-4629; or email to hsc.info@co.lane.or.us

3) Repair2ReUse Cafe’s Coming to Lane County!

Lane County will host the Repair2ReUse Cafe’s with the first one to be held at MECCA, January 30 and the second at NextStep on February 27. Cafes will be planned for each month of 2015.

Check the website for dates and times for upcoming events as they are confirmed. Currently there is a need for a repairer of modern sewing machines for January and a need for folks who have skills with consumer electronics for February.

Shortly there will be a need appliance repair volunteers (March/April) bike repair volunteers (March/April) and garden tool shaper-uppers April/May. Other types of volunteering for the cafes include: greet attendees, staff information table, distribute interest/ability survey, share enthusiasm for featured topics of the cafes.

Repair2ReUse Cafes will be an important feature of Master Recycler booth outreach in 2015. Contact Kelly Bell, Lane County Master Recycler Program, for more information (541) 682-2059 or kelly.bell@co.lane.or.us

You may be wondering what’s been going on with this website…? Very little, it would seem. But the truth is out there; read on and you will know all.

The next few months will bring changes in our association. At the January 18 meeting, which we hope many people will attend, we will vote on a new charter for the organization, which clarifies our purposes and procedures, and introduces a new name (Southwest Hills Neighborhood Association) and new borders (we will then include the area west of Willamette and south of 39th and 40th Ave., which currently is in Southeast Neighbors).

At the January meeting, we will discuss plans for the coming year, including a number of social events, our spring gardening fair, our summer picnic, and we will ask members what issues and projects we should be working on in the coming in 2015.

We will also bring what news we can about recent moves by Rest Haven. We have received word that Rest Haven Cemetery wants to seek a redesignation for their land south of the cemetery. This would allow the city to include that land in the Envision Eugene inventory of land available for housing. What is unclear is whether anything further is being planned. It’s possible that Rest Haven wants to reactivate an old development plan that had gone through most of the stages for approval, or perhaps they want to create a new plan. It’s also possible that they’re not planning to do anything for the moment, but the change in designation would open the door for future plans. They are scheduling a meeting for neighbors; the date isn’t set but is likely to be on January 14, a few days before our general gathering.

What with all that’s coming up, I thought it would be helpful to clarify our communication methods:

Here is a summary of ways to reach us:

The fastest way to spread word and get feedback is to join our nextdoor.com page and post there.

The best way to get items into our email newsletter is to send them to dkolb@bates.edu.

The best way to get an item before our board for possible action by the association is to email Juan Carlos Valle, valleconsulting@hotmail.com, or David Kolb, dkolb@bates.edu.

Here is a summary of ways to stay informed about what’s up:

By email

Our weekly email newsletter is our most up-to-date and wide reaching means of communication — currently 337 subscribers. Sign up by using the form located on the right side of the crestdriveca.com webpage. We hope to put the texts of email newsletters (sometimes after a delay) at crestdriveca.com and also at nextdoor.com.

On the web:

crestdriveca.com — The Crest Drive Citizens Association has used this website as its official web home. However, the Neighborhood Leaders Council has a plan to produce a system that each neighborhood association can use to maintain their websites more elegantly, with useful links to other neighborhood associations. Because we knew this was in the works, we have been neglecting this website. However the new system will be delayed (surprise!) until next summer.

So we will begin more regular postings to crestdriveca.com. (You’re reading the first one now.)
Although this site has a facility for comments, whenever we enable that facility then we get flooded with spam comments generated by robots trying to sell items. Moderating these comments takes a lot of time, so we encourage those of you wishing to raise issues for discussion to use our nextdoor.com site.

Our nextdoor.com site — the nextdoor site has 110 members — The advantage of the nextdoor site is that it allows discussion and comments. It is available to people within our defined area, ***AND we have recently redefined that area to include the those living west of Willamette and south of 39/40th Aves.*** That area currently belongs to the Southeast Neighbors Association however it will likely be transferred to the Crest Drive Association early in the new year. We wanted to make it available now for people living there to join the next-door.com site for discussions about Rest Haven.

We have a Facebook page and a Twitter account, and though not many people use or follow them, they are available for comments.

By printed mail

Our postcards — a postcard should be going out soon about our winter meeting plans.

Our printed newsletters — paper newsletters have become more expensive but we will be sending out a winter issue in a month or so.

A touch of holiday cheer
We haven’t heard any new crime reports this week.

2015 approaches. We hope you had a good holiday season so far, and that you’re looking forward to creative and unexpected adventures in the coming year. As Yogi Berra is reported to have said, planning is difficult especially about the future. The one thing you can be sure about is that many things will remain the same and many things will change but you can’t know which those will be, so keep an open mind, eyes and ears. Nurture the tender shoots of spring and novelty.

From the Editor

Our association is moving into social media age. We have had for many years this Web site, crestdriveca.com, but we haven’t used it lately except to post there a form for signing up to our email list. Plans are afoot to replace this as part of a larger web site s ystem for all neighborhood associations. Stay tuned!

But that’s not all! We also have a Facebook page, which you can reach if you use Facebook; just search for Crest Drive Citizens Association,. We will be putting announcements there as well.

Then there is our site at Nextdoor.com, which provides a forum for discussion and announcements. You can sign up with this site if you live within the neighborhood. Our security people say that it is as secure as other social media sites, which is to say good but not perfect. They say they do not store the data you provide to show you reside in the neighborhood.

But that’s still not all! We have now a Twitter account @CrestDriveCA, and we encourage you to follow it. This will be a place for brief announcements and questions. We will be tweeting some content of our own out on the Twitter account but also re-tweeting items of local interest from other sources. Also, you can tweet questions to @CrestDriveCA and get responses from us and other neighbors.

We are working to develop these new media communication so that we can involve more people in discussions for the good of the neighborhood. If you have ideas about other social media methods or projects we should undertake, please let us know by contacting dkolb@bates.edu.

This is the email message sent out this week.

From the Editor Our association is moving into social media age. We have had for many years a Web site, crestdriveca.com, but we haven’t used it lately except to post there a form for signing up to our email list. We have also occasionally posted new on that Web site, which has the form of a blog.  Starting next week we will begin putting copies of these email weekly messages also on the Web site.   But that’s not all! We also have a Facebook page, which you can reach if you use Facebook; just search for Crest Drive Citizens Association,. We will be putting announcements there as well.   But that’s still not all! We have now a Twitter account @CrestDriveCA, and we encourage you to follow it. This will be a place for brief announcements and questions. We will be tweeting some content of our own out on the Twitter account but also re-tweeting items of local interest from other sources. Also, you can tweet questions to @CrestDriveCA and get responses from us and other neighbors.   We are working to develop these new media communication so that we can involve more people in discussions for the good of the neighborhood. If you have ideas about other social media methods or projects we should undertake, please let us know by contacting dkolb@bates.edu.   Development News   The city informs us that the proposal to redesignate the Resthaven property (bounded by Willamette, 39th, Brae Burn) is moving to the next step, a hearing before the Planning Commission. Owners within 500 feet of the property should receive a public hearing notice shortly with all of the details of the hearing, which is scheduled for November 19th at 6 pm at Harris Hall (125 East 8th).   The Resthaven property is included as one of five areas under consideration to be re-designated to accommodate single family housing inside the existing Urban Growth Boundary. This step would make the property’s land use designation (future land use) match the zoning (R-1). It would not affect the already approved Conditional Use Permit or the vested application for Controlled Income and Rent housing.   Your testimony is appreciated and needed, and Terry Harding ((541) 682-5635; Terri.L.Harding@ci.eugene.or.us) is happy to answer questions if you have them after reviewing your notice and additional materials that will be posted on the city’s website by next Monday.     Street Work Update   Willamette Street (19th Ave. to 23rd Ave.):  Street and utility work will continue this week.  Northbound Willamette is closed.  Through traffic can use 24th Avenue to Amazon Parkway. Southbound Willamette is closed during day time work hours.  Through traffic may use 18th Avenue to Amazon Parkway.  Southbound Willamette is open after work hours.  Watch for construction traffic. 18th Avenue (Chambers St. to Washington St.):  Contractor is scheduled for permanent striping this week.  Drivers should watch for lane closures or lane shifts throughout the length of the project.   Budget News   The remaining workshops for discussing ways to cut city expenses are open to the public and will be from 6-8 p.m. The dates and locations are: Wednesday, October 23 Sheldon High School Thursday, October 24  North Eugene High School Tuesday, October 29  Willamette High School Wednesday, October 30 Churchill High School   Recycling News   As part of a statewide effort aimed at reducing the risk of household medicines being misused, abused, accidentally consumed by children, or improperly disposed in a manner that threatens water quality, Drug Take-Back boxes have been placed at secure locations including at Eugene Police, 300 Country Club Road. There are also boxes in Springfield and Lane County.   In addition to the threat of abuse or misuse, flushing expired or unwanted household medicines down sinks or toilets raises the risk of pharmaceuticals getting into water supplies. The public can clean out their medicine cabinets and take unwanted or expired prescription or over-the-counter medicines, drugs that are no longer used, medicines from deceased family members, pet medicines, and any unknown tablets or capsules and dispose of them safely in the box.       Park News   Morse Farm has had several neighbors express concern about a padlock that was placed on the SW corner gate of the park, near the upper field and Crest heading south. The person in charge of the Farm did not place it there, nor did the City, but she has submitted a request for the City to remove it.

Our postcards and printed newsletters are sent to all the residents of the city-defined Crest neighborhood, about 2500 homes. But printed materials take time to produce and can only be sent out a few times a year.

The Crest Drive Citizens Association also publishes a weekly e-mail newsletter. This is sent out to 314 people, about 12% of the homes in the neighborhood.

Funding for paper mail notices and newsletters is likely to dry up in the next year or so. So email will be a major communication channel for the neighborhood.

Also, with the fast pace of developments on the crime and city planning and development scenes, it would be good if we could expand our e-mail list so that more people could get announcements and news more promptly. Consider adding your name to the list, and If you know people who should be on the list, please encourage them to sign up.

You can sign up by filling out the short form on our web page, www.crestdriveca.com. You can also email dkolb@bates.edu. You can unsubscribe from our list at any time by using the Manage Your Subscription link at the bottom of the weekly message.

Also: we’re now on Facebook at “Crest Drive Citizens Association” and on Twitter at CrestDriveCA.

Click here to see the map.

Crest Drive Citizen’s Association General Meeting February 22, 2012; 07:00 pm – 8:20 pm

9 neighbors attended; David Kolb, chairperson, and Karen Austin, secretary also present.

Two topics tonight: Crime Prevention, Urban Growth Boundary Possible Expansion: important dates.

Most of the neighbors attending are from the Crest Drive area and Blanton/Crest/Lorane in or near the proposed area for inclusion in the Urban Growth Boundary (UGB).

Crime Prevention

Officer Tod Schneider, Crime Prevention specialist, spoke to our group.

His jurisdiction is this south part of Eugene. He focuses on crime prevention and comes to people’s homes to talk to homeowners about making their homes more secure. He also helps people that have been vandalized. The crime rate in Crest Drive neighborhood is low compared to central Eugene, but many houses in this neighborhood are secluded and vulnerable.

Thieves typically cruise an area, sometimes driving walking or biking, and if they happen to be in the area as you leave, they know you will be gone for at least 10 minutes and might take advantage of an opportunity. Thieves tend to look for a house where no one has been home for a while. Signs they look for include grass not mowed, porch lights on all day, newspapers or fliers piled on porch. Also looking for houses that are for sale and not occupied; they will take refrigerators and dishwashers from unoccupied homes.

First line of defense is to make it look like someone is home. Lights, TV on, radios going, lights on timers to go on and off at appropriate times. One solution when you are away from home is to use a house sitter, or have a neighbor look after your home.

Criminals often ring the front door and if no one answers will go around into the backyard and break in. If someone comes to your door and you feel something isn’t right, call your neighbors immediately (Neighborhood Watch phone tree) to help you keep an eye on this person. Call police with details about the person, even if police don’t always act on your call. In specific instances an officer might come and question someone in your neighborhood, because this person could be a suspect in another crime. It is important to take down specific information if you see someone in your area that is suspicious, such as car license plate numbers.

Thieves may not want to work as hard as it may take to get into your house. Make sure you have good locks on windows and doors and keep them locked when not home. Thieves can use your garage door opener in a car parked in driveway to get into your garage. Older windows and sliding doors may be loose in the tracks and can be lifted out. Deadbolt locks on all exterior doors will help. A deadbolt lock that has needs a key on both interior/exterior is not to code, but it is harder to break into. One way to prevent window entry is to use security film plastic on the inside of windows around doors, which prevents the glass from coming apart and falling out when the glass breaks. The security film is tough and very difficult to cut through. One can use this film to reinforce glass near door latches. This material is about $10 per square foot. Another option is wrought iron bars over windows, but these are not commonly used in Eugene. Another choice is the use of alarm systems.

Alarm systems should be professionally installed. Officer Schneider recommends getting bids from several alarm installation companies. There are two kinds of systems. Internal systems make noise at the home and can also record information. External systems make noise locally and send a signal to an external location.

A local alarm system should have an alarm that is really loud inside and outside, to scare the intruder and alert your neighbors. These involve a one-time cost. One can pay a monthly maintenance fee but it is a relatively small amount. Internal systems can trigger an alarm in the home and send a message to cell phone or email to let you know that your home alarm was triggered. These systems can also take camera footage from the interior or exterior of your home and send it to a remote web site, which the homeowner can then view remotely. If you can see evidence of a home break-in on camera it is considered a verified break-in by the police department. Eugene has a verified response alarm policy which means they won’t come to your home unless someone can confirms that they have seen evidence of someone breaking into the home. If a neighbor sees a broken window or sees someone entering the house it is a verified break-in. It is important to have someone, a neighbor or friend, to come to your house and turn off the alarm.

External systems are monitored by personnel of an alarm company, and charge a monthly fee. They can also use cameras inside or outside to visually inspect your home. If your alarm is triggered, alarm company staff will first call your phone number, and if they don’t get a response, or if the person at the residence cannot give them the password, they will send out a security guard to your home to investigate. If they find evidence of a break-in they will call police.

Another preventative measure is to mark your property with your name, ad to write down serial numbers of electronics, and take photos of everything. Then if you have a break-in and things are stolen, police can put descriptions of your stolen items in a national database, and they are more likely to be returned to you if found.

You can call Officer Schneider at the Eugene Police Department with questions or request that he come evaluate your home for prevention steps you can take to have a more secure home.

Possible Expansion of Urban Growth Boundary (UGB)

The group discussed the area adjacent to our neighborhood which has been identified as possibly included in the UGB expansion proposal (along Crest and Lorane near the Crest & Chambers intersection, just outside the current UGB). There are 3 large parcels in this area, the largest of which is 132 acres (south of the intersection of Crest & Chambers) and two smaller parcels to the north and west. The landowner is proposing that these lands are marginal (legal definition) and should not be considered agricultural-forest land (current designation). Marginal lands can have a higher density of housing allowed under state law than agricultural-forest lands. Right now these areas are zoned for 40 acre lots and the landowner would like to develop at a higher density.

There will be a hearing at 7 pm on March 6th at Harris Hall, County Bldg. (8th & Oak) to consider this land zoning proposal. The Planning Commission will make a recommendation on whether these 3 land parcels in the Crest/Chambers area should be considered marginal land rather than agriculture-forest land.

Important dates and meetings regarding the possible UGB expansion:

• The County Planning Commission will make a recommendation on whether the 3 land parcels near the Crest/Chambers area should be considered marginal land. If you’d like to learn more or if you’d like be counted as someone who considers the zoning in this area important, please join other Crest and Blanton neighbors at 7 pm on March 6 at Harris Hall, County Building at 8th & Oak.

• On March 14 the Eugene City Manager will make a draft recommendation about any expansions of the UGB.

• The City of Eugene will hold community forums to present the draft recommendation and gather comments; the forums in our part of town will be on April 3rd @ Churchill HS, and April 12th @ South Eugene HS.

Karen Austin, secretary.

Crest Drive Citizen’s Association General Meeting
Wednesday, January 11, 2012, 7 pm – 8:45 pm at Morse Family Farm, Crest Drive.

Board members in attendance: David Kolb, Karen Austin, Eunice Kjaer, Francina Verrijt
Guest Speakers: Alissa Hansen and Terri Harding, City of Eugene Planning Dept.; Shawn and Jeremy, City of Eugene Police Department.
Number of neighbors present: 23

Meeting Agenda: Board reports; Guest speakers on 1) proposed Urban Growth Boundary expansion, and 2) neighborhood home break-ins.

Board reports:
Treasurer’s Report by David Kolb; current balance is $499.76. Crest Drive Citizen’s Association (CDCA) neighborhood history books available for $10 to augment budget. David asked if anyone wanted to purchase snacks or beverages for general meetings and the only response was “no”.

Proposed Urban Growth Boundary expansion

Terri Harding is a senior planner with the City of Eugene. She manages the public involvement of the urban growth boundary (UGB) extension project. Alissa Hansen, is a planner with City, and will talk about the analysis of the data regarding urban growth boundary extension. They gave a slide show.

Envision Eugene is a study to determine needs to accommodate anticipated growth in next 20 years. UGB has to be sized to match anticipated growth and job projections by law. The population numbers come from Portland State and were adopted by Eugene City Council. The projection is for another 30 thousand residents in the next 20 years. This process is about deciding whether the current UGB should be expanded.

Eugene Comprehensive Lands Assessment (ECLA) focused on lands existing in UGB. In this report it was determined that if we continue to grow as we have in the past we need more space. For the UGB process they used a variety of numbers to construct several models for Eugene growth. Planners worked w/community resource groups, neighbors, and others to find out what they should strive for, and what should be included. See the 7 Pillars document (draft proposal) on web site for more information. They are now at end of the strategy refinement phase of this process. Next step is Implementation.

7 Pillars document included information from seven general categories: Economic opportunities, Affordable housing, Climate and energy, Compact development and transportation, Neighborhood livability (trees, fresh air; different for different neighborhoods, use existing feel of development), Natural Resources (prioritize preservation of farm and forest land – state law), Flexible implementation (future is a guess, plan should be flexible and adapt over time; work with LCD to build into plan to make it more adaptable). Outcomes from the Climate and Energy Action Plan (CEAP) were considered in this planning effort. For instance, the 20 minute neighborhood idea from CEAP was considered. This encourages the growth of services in areas that are underserved, and encourages infill of housing in areas that have adequate services, with the objective of encouraging walking /biking/busing to schools or shopping and reducing the need for driving.

Single family housing (SFH) has the biggest demand in Eugene(as opposed to Multi-family housing (MFH). The presenters talked about the values for this type of housing only, but gave various ratios of SFH to MFH used to model land acreages. The question asked here is how many new SF houses (housing units) are needed in Eugene in the next 20 years? Need is based on one population projection – up to 34,000 more people by 2031. The mix of SFH to MFH to use in modeling can be changed and will create a big difference in the amount of acreage needed for growth in the future. The ratio used historically in planning for SF/MF housing is 60/40. Current trend is to shift to smaller houses and smaller lots and a SF/MFH mix of 55/45. Using the more equal ratio, a total of 8,200 additional SF housing units are projected to be needed in Eugene in the next 20 years.

City planners also looked at how much development could occur within the current UGB, on currently undeveloped and underdeveloped lands, including vacant lands, large lots with houses that could be split and developed, and properties that could be redeveloped. There is a possibility of changing zoning rules to include a greater density of homes, but Eugene already has zoning that includes houses in small lots. Using the SFH/MFH ratio of 55/45 the total number of possible housing units that can be added to un/underdeveloped lands now within the existing UGB is about 7,500 – 8,500 units.
The different between the number of needed units minus the number that could be met in existing UGB is the unmet need of between 0 – 690 units.

The estimated total number of acres needed for unmet future SF housing need of 0 to 690 units (assuming a 55/45 SF/MF ratio, and a density of 4.2 units/acre), including commercial, park and services, is 134 – 360 acres.
The projected SF unit needs and acreage numbers are sensitive to SFH/MFH ratio. If the modeling were done using a 40/60 ratio there would be no further need for units and acreage.

Alissa: Info on analysis for SFH lands only.

The current City of Eugene UGB has been the same since 1982. This process of changing an UGB is very tightly controlled by state law.

First step is to identify the highest priority lands for inclusion into the UGB. Law says the process has to consider lands other than Farm/Forest first. Alissa showed a map which has areas with current residential use, or planned for residential use in Lane County close to the city’s current UGB.

In first priority lands have to look at many things regarding suitability: natural hazards, wetlands, waterways, steep slopes, floodplains or other significant natural features. An important consideration is whether utilities and services (water, storm water, sewer, streets and public transportation) can be reasonably built in the area considered. If there is not enough first priority land the city can consider the next priority of land, which is land with marginal farm or forest value. There are numerous areas being considered for inclusion into the UGB around the Eugene area. Alissa talked about each of these areas.

[For purposes of the CDCA general meeting notes I only included the one area being considered that directly effects our neighborhood. K.A.]

The area off of Crest Drive and Chambers Road (to the south of this intersection), in the Crest Drive Neighborhood, is one of the largest areas being considered for UGB expansion, an area of about 485 acres. Some of this area has slopes over 25%, and there are some concerns about the shape of the area for consideration of utilities and services. Things that this area has going for it in terms of inclusion: immediately adjacent to current boundary, is near MFH areas, and does not have as much sloped lands as some other areas under consideration. There is a big piece of land zoned agricultural right in the middle, but there is a possibility of being able to consider Forest/Farm lands in the process, especially lower priority lands with marginal soils. The boundary shape of the parcels in this area are very irregular and not connected which makes planning difficult, because services require connection and complete loops. Planners have flexibility to straighten out lot lines. There are some questions about transportation into this area. Alissa cannot answer these questions at this time. Chambers seems to be the highest capacity street in this area so it’s likely most traffic would move this direction.
Next steps: More detailed analysis on serving these areas will occur, including the expected cost for sewer/water/electric, areas adjacent to each of the highest priority lands (farm, natural areas, industrial) and public input from neighbors. If not enough of current areas being studied make it into a final process, planners can go back and reconsider some marginal Farm/Forest lands.

Meeting schedule for this process is on the web site calendar. In March there will be a presentation of full recommendation to the City Council. Then there will be community forums, public hearings and council discussions. There is e-newsletter – can contact Terri to get on this list: terri.l.harding@ci.eugene.or.us .

See the Envision Eugene web site for more information: http://www.eugene-or.gov/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=815&PageID=0&cached=true&mode=2&userID=2.

Neighborhood Crime

Shawn and Jeremy, police officers from the City of Eugene Police Department, took time out of their busy schedules to talk with us about home break-ins, prevention, and how you can help EPD to collect evidence to convict thieves.

This discussion is in response to residents’ increasing concern over a series of break-ins on Blanton Rd., Storey Blvd., and adjacent streets, mostly in the afternoons, beginning in March 2011. Eugene is in the 80% percentile for property crime in nation, so the Eugene Police Department (EPD) is “running to catch up”. Crest Drive neighborhood has always been a relatively low crime area in Eugene and still is. Most theft crime in our city is related to low income drug users looking for easy cash, and is exacerbated by the limited City of Eugene jail space, which puts non-violent crime suspects back out on the streets quickly.

The trend in home break-ins is day time burglaries. The assumption that thieves make is that everyone is at work and school. A common scenario is that a stranger knocks on the front door, has a false story if someone answers, but if no one answers the door the criminal walks around the back, and breaks in through a window. They can take their time and look for specific things. Preferred items to steal are electronics, jewelry, guns, and cash. Cars sitting in driveway are also stolen. Thieves look for car keys in drawers.

What can you do to lower the chance of a home break-in? Join or start a Neighborhood Watch program for your street. Make a phone tree between neighbors, where all your neighbors are invested in protecting each other’s homes. The pressure not to be a nosy neighbor can allow crime to happen right next door. Know your neighbor’s phone numbers, their schedules (work, vacation).

Make your home and car look less easy to break into or steal than others. The use of a car steering wheel lock (the club) is a good deterrent and can be purchased from EPD at cost. Using outside, motion activated lights, fortifying structures, having secured outbuildings, using electronic security with outside alarms (even if not monitored) are all good ways to discourage break-ins. There are home security systems that are relatively affordable and that will set off outdoor alarms (scare off thieves, alert neighbors) and send messages to cell phones. Do some shopping online for different systems. Home security services which will come to your home in the event of an alarm are available although somewhat costly.
The officers emphasized that police will not come to an unverified alarm, so someone has to be on site to verify that a crime occurred. Most docile family dogs are not a theft deterrent.

There are things you can do to prevent losses if your house is burglarized. Call police as soon as you find a break-in, but understand that it might take time for police to get there. Don’t clean up before police get there because this can destroy evidence.

Locked file cabinets can help deter thieves from taking personal information, which can result in identify theft. Write down serial numbers of items likely to be stolen. Some electronic devices have built-in GPS units to track. Take pictures of jewelry and valuables: it will help police get these back to you.

The EPD can help you prevent home break-ins. EPD can send out an officer to walk through your house, and give ideas to fortify your home and help deter crime. A volunteer from EPD will come and video tape personal items in home and give you a copy. Home vacation checks can be requested. A volunteer with EPD will come by your house and check the exterior.

Data-led patrols are an important part of reducing crime. If homeowners report all burglaries and car crimes, even small thefts, EPD can track property crime and link crimes to known offenders. This can help to build effective cases which put repeat offenders in prison.

Karen Austin, CDCA Board Secretary

The board meeting we heard a presentation by Jason from the city planning department, about the Envision Eugene project and in particular the survey being done about land which might be available for housing in our neighborhood. The number of additional housing units that they have to plan for is set by county and state, and while the number is unlikely to be accurate, it’s what they have to work with. The crucial variable is the ratio of single-family to multifamily housing. In the last 10 years 60% of the new housing built here has been single-family homes. At that ratio Eugene would need 9000 new single-family homes over the next 20 years. If the ratio drops to 40% single-family homes, the number needed drops to 6000. Vacant land inside the urban growth boundary could supply about 4300 homes, and land that already has one house but could be further subdivided could supply from 2400 to 3100 homes. Several other strategies make up the difference with smaller numbers. Whether or not the urban growth boundary needs to be expanded for homes depends on the decisions made about these ratios. Our neighborhood has two areas which would be candidates for expansion of the boundary: on the south side of Crest Drive and along Lorane Highway.

Jason gave the Association a map showing vacant and partially vacant lots in our neighborhood. The Crest neighborhood has about 75 pieces of land that could be developed further. If you would like to examine this map, it will be at the September meeting, which will be held at Morse Farm on Tuesday, September 20. We also have several copies of the handout from the meeting, and a version can be found on the web at XX.

You are cordially invited to our annual Crest Garden Party, held this year at the lovely home of Eunice Kjaer, 814 Lorane Highway, at the corner of Lorane and Storey.
We will be honoring Eunice and her many years of generous service and spirit in our neighborhood.
The party will include food and wine, musicians from the Eugene Symphony, a tribute to Eunice Kjaer, an auction of glass art works, and the latest Crest Oral History interview.
Parking is available off the south continuation of Friendly Street.
The house will be open for touring, and, in case of rain the party will move indoors.

Co-chairs: Kathy Saranpa and Cathryn Treadway

Secretary: Kathleen Bosteder

Treasurer: David Kolb (who will also handle email and newsletters)