West Broadway Advisory Committee Final Report

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.I -Concluding .Remarks WBAC FINAL REPORT Our vision is of a West Broadway area characterized by its intensity in our recommendations. Thus, for example, we engaged in a more of activity-thafi of a diverse, stimulating, and inviting urban habitat. fine-tuned prioritization of the mix of uses we are recommending for . - West Broadway, like the greater downtown area, should be a place for the W. Broadway area (see section 1.6); we took on more directly the . _ everyone, a place where Eugene residents want to come to live, work, issue of public open space (see section 111.4) and debated the merits of shop, talk,. or play. a 1 /2 block park, versus 1 /8 block raised plaza, versus smaller 1 /8 block corner plaza or similar sized. open space; we .considered .the issue. of Fifty years ago, West Broadway and the surrounding blocks were.the historic preservation in relation to four properties in the W. Broadway commercial, retail, and entertainment center of our city, and served project area (see section IV.9, and Appendix E). in many respects as the cultural and business core of the community. In ensuing decades, the restructuring of the retail sector, proliferation The prioritization of desired mix of uses yielded clear results-the of regional malls, and other factors resulted in a loss of much of that committee voted 11-0 that this was a useful and accurate reflection of economic and culfiural vitality, and West Broadway (like similar urban what in our collective judgment would "work" best in the downtown cores across the U.S.) has been struggling with high vacancy and core. Similarly, on the question of open space across#rom the library turnover rates, and a lack of investment. thecommitteewasunambiguous,voting:8-2 infavorofcreating asmall - plaza or similar space on the corner of Olive and 10th Ave. Our lack of Over the last two and one-half months the West Broadway Advisory support for other options should not be interpreted as a devaluation Committee has considered numerous ideas aimed at revitalizing this of the importance of open space; on the contrary, all committee importantareaofdownts~wn. Westudied recentpolicydocumentsand members noted the importance of vital, public open spaces in the initiatives by the city (such as the Downtown Plan, and the redesign downtown area, and expressed a desire, for example, for the city to of W. Broadway and Broadway Plaza). We have drawn on some of the consider ways of making the Park Blocks and Broadway-Plaza function best thinking of the "New Urbanism', including examples of what has as more dynamic open spaces. The major concerns here were that a worked in othercities. Weconsidered many"local"ideas-suggestions larger open space in this particular location would have potentially offered in two public workshops, via email and in presentations to the negative consequences for the success of vital components of the committee, reflecting the rich knowledge and creativity of members West Broadway concept: the creation of a dense, active-at-all-hours of our community. We crafted draft recommendations from all of urban zone with significant commercial and retail, and residential, these-and put these out to the public for evaluation and feedback. uses. We were encouraged-and a bit surprised-at the initial response. On the- question of historic preservation the committee's Essentially all of the committee's 40 Draft Recommendations were recommendations are more complex.. Two of five draft supported by significant majorities of the approximately 165 recommendations considered received strong support: Restore participants in our second public workshop. But we also took note and reconstruct the Centre Court and Washburne buildings, and . of additional suggestions, and a desire by many for more-specificity incorporate significant historical features ofexisting buildings in new ~ ~ ~ ~ :=onrludinq R~~marl« ~ 59