Piercy v. Torrey: West Eugene Parkway
By KVAL Web StaffDavid Walker: A viewer, Paul, asked a question about the West Eugene Parkway. Voters twice approved it. It didn't happen. His question is why? And what do you see as the answer to the transportation problem in west Eugene? Jim Torrey: Well the answer of why is pretty easy. The mayor made a decision that was contrary to the votes of the people, two votes of the people. She made it prematurely by presupposing that the Federal Highway Administration and the Oregon Department of Transportation wouldn't have been able to make the West Eugene Parkway work. She alienated both of those bodies, and we still have a congestion problem in west Eugene that's not getting any better. She promised to have a solution. It's been over three years now and there's been no solution. Not only that, any solution that is created will become the sole financial responsibility of the citizens of Eugene. One of the proposals they're talking about is a boulevard on West 11th that could cost a $100 million just to buy the right of way. We're going to have to work on those. I'm prepared to work on those. But we better not make allies, or excuse me, enemies out of the federal highway administration and odot because those are our tax dollars. Kitty Piercy: I appreciate that question because in truth the parkway was never going to get built. The funding wasn't there. The federal approval, environmental approval hadn't occured. It had been going on and on .. had the possibility of going on for 20 more years. I felt that we really needed to find something that would deal with what the public wanted and that's deal with as transportation and traffic issues. So right now we have business leaders, we have environmental leaders, we have agencies, we have elected officials, we have neighborhood folks who have all formed the West Eugene Collaborative and just this week are really formulating some real options for dealing with those issues that people want in a way that is affordable, reasonable and that we can get done in a short period of time. |
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