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EPILOGUE: MAKING IT HAPPEN <br />Our downtown is a regional center, and a <br />walkable collection of special lilaces and <br />special times. It is also everybody's neighborhood, <br />with events and services for the entire city. Down- <br />town is what is "Eugene" <br />about Eugene - a synergis- <br />tic, creative, accessible <br />place, a downtown of short <br />distances and friendly faces. <br />The character of downtown <br />has changed over the past <br />twenty years, as Eugene has <br />grown in population and <br />area. Downtown is and <br />will remain the center of <br />Eugene, giving an identity <br />and character to the city and <br />a coming together place for <br />the entire community. <br />The policies and ideas in the Downtown Plan <br />promote a vision for. a strong, active, distinctive <br />urban center. For this plan to be meaningful, it has <br />to result in actions and investment that bring about <br />the desired transformation of downtown that this <br />community envisions. The plan reinforces our <br />commitment to a strategic, proactive, collaborative <br />approach, creating partnerships, working with <br />private developers, and using the financial resources <br />available to the City. <br />promoting the use of economic tools to leverage <br />desired development, and giving priority to Great <br />Streets and special places. The plan encourages <br />additional housing in and around downtown, but <br />notes the nrimacv of <br />commercial office space <br />downtown to provide jobs <br />and to support housing <br />and retail opportunities. <br />The plan requires a <br />master plan for the EWEB <br />waterfront property and <br />lays out principles for that <br />effort. The plan is flexible <br />to provide direction for de- <br />cisionswithout overly pre- <br />scribingactions or projects. <br />In the future, new oppor- <br />tunities and priorities will <br />emerge. The construction of a new hospital or Fed- <br />eralcourthouse was not anticipated even a few years <br />ago. The city will change and grow in ways that <br />cannot be predicted. But our vision foi° downtown <br />as the center of our community will hold true. <br />Based on the framework of the plan, and a little <br />serendipity, we will strengthen the economic vital- <br />ity and the special character of our downtown. We <br />will recognize and create opportunities to bring our <br />collective vision for downtown to life. <br />The plan will help the City make choices for the <br />future. The plan is specific in terms of outcomes, <br />EUGENE DOWNTOWN PLAN APRIL 2004 43 <br />Mayor Jim Torrey speaking at the unveiling of "The Storyteller," <br />a memorial to Ken Kesey in Broadway Plaza. <br />