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HENDTREE.MMO Page 1 <br /> MEMORANDUM <br /> October 30, 1997 <br /> TO: Christine Andersen, Public Works Director <br /> FROM: John Etter, Parks Planning, PW Maintenance <br /> SUBJECT: Past Hendricks Park planning activities <br /> Given evident confusion in the community about previous planning efforts at Hendricks Park and whether <br /> any plans have been adopted, I have gone through the historical files of the Rhododendron Garden Resource <br /> Committee (RGRC) and the file of the former Joint Parks Committee (JPC). Files containing the RGRC <br /> notes, JPC minutes, and miscellaneous Hendricks Park issues contain nothing to indicate that any plan for <br /> Hendricks Park was ever adopted by an oversight committee or the City Council. <br /> Files do contain a number of notes, internal working documents and letters indicative of staff and special <br /> interest group discussions which were ongoing for several years in the late 1980's which were never brought <br /> to closure. <br /> The following items, which will be provided separately as attachments to this memo, may be educational on <br /> the issue at hand: <br /> 1. Recommendations of the Rhododendron Garden Resource Committee, an undated two page text <br /> produced about June 1985, listed the purpose of the rhododendron garden and contained a number of <br /> suggestions specific to roads, parking, picnic and play areas, the shelter and picnic areas, and the <br /> landscape architecture and design objectives of the rhododendron garden. Two letters from members <br /> of the RGRC from April and June 1985, attached to the recommendations, reveal the thinking behind <br /> the recommendations. <br /> 2. Rhododendron Garden Tree Management Plan, a draft dated 2/16/88, began as a plan to serve the <br /> Rhododendron Garden but is broadly written to reach beyond the garden. <br /> 3. Hendricks Park Management Manual -- 1988, dated 7/23/88. This is a document for internal <br /> use and appears to have grown out of the draft plan from 2/16/88. <br /> 4. Minutes of the JPC show that a proposal for improving the Rhododendron Garden was presented on <br /> 7/17/85, that a tour of the garden for JPC members was scheduled on 8/7/85. At the JPC on 9/18/85 minutes <br /> show the following, attributed to presenter Gordon Wylie: "He stressed that it (the RGRC) was not seeking <br /> approval on the individual details of the plan are [sic] (as) correct, but whether the Department wants to `get <br /> behind' it." The Action statement at the end of the presentation reads: "Drapela (dept. head) said that staff <br /> were fully supportive of the Hendricks Park improvement plan...." <br /> The Eugene Parks and Recreation Plan was undergoing a major update during 1988. The work of the <br /> RGRC is evident on pages 37 and 38 of the plan (adopted in 1989), and focussed primarily on the needs of <br />