Like it or not there is nothing as certain as change. This month you will have the opportunity to learn of a major construction project in the ‘hood and hear of a way to join with others to make a change that might not otherwise be possible.
North Eugene High School rebuild
The major construction project is the rebuild of North Eugene High School which is in the design changes. Although the 4-J Staff and the project architects held a January 21st meeting at the high school, they have agreed to come to our February 10th General Meeting to fill us in on the plans to date and to take feedback. It will be interesting to hear how they plan to improve the current traffic issues and how they plan to move Corridor Elementary Schoolinto the existing high school and Yugin Gakeun into Kelly Middle School. Please attend to hear from North Eugene High School principal Iton Udosenata, 4-J board member and RRCO resident Mary Walston and other 4-J staff about the plans, answer your questions and take feedback. Here is a PowerPoint of their plans thus far.
Additionally the School District is seeking a zone change for the site to remove the site review requirement from the property. Siter review is required to maintain or improve the character, integrity, and harmonious development of an area and to provide a safe, stable, efficient, and attractive on-site environment.
Backyard Barnraising
Guest speaker Dylan Lamar is an architect and energy consultant. Dylan will explain challenges of housing affordability and how neighbors can advocate and get involved in reducing financial barriers to homeownership.
Backyard Barnraising aims to organize and empower three families to build their own homes together. By building it yourself and cooperatively sharing ownership conventional cost barriers can be overcome. Total payments around $700 per month are possible. www.cultivateplace.com/backyardbarnraising
River Road / Santa Clara Neighborhood Plan is Ready for Your Feedback
It is often said that there are only two times to give feedback on land use decisions, either when it is too early or when it is too late to have an impact. The other complaint is that when participating in a public hearing there is no opportunity for discussion and only two or three minutes to ask questions and/or give feedback. Your neighbors that comprise the Community Advisory Committee want to avoid that mistake by creating a series of small group Community Conversations to get feedback on the proposed goals, policies, and action items while there is time to fine tune them. These talks will focus on the proposed land use changes, especially proposed zone changes and design standards. A meal will be provided so sign up soon!
If there is interest we will reschedule more meetings. You can get more information by calling Jon Belcher at 541-343-6695 or City Planner Chelsea Hartman at 541-682-5686
River Road Community makes FOOD!
Pastel de Tres Leches at Pasteleria Colin
on River Road
By Mysti Frost, RRCO Board member
We are excited to welcome a new family owned business to our neighborhood!
Pasteleria Colin, a Mexican cake shop, opened on January 25th on the corner of Corliss and River Road.
The owners are brothers Arturo and Diego Gonzales who run the front of the house and their mother, the master baker, Eustolia Colin. Her recipes come from her home state, Michoacán, Mexico. They have lived in Eugene for 20 years and both brothers graduated from local high schools.
Their charming bakery specializes in offering the famed pastel de tres leches, three milks cake, which is moist and rich in flavor. They offer a wide verity of other traditional Mexican cakes, flan and jello. When I visited, they had just sold out of their Tamales! But don’t worry, they’ll have a fresh batch tomorrow.
Let’s give the Gonzales-Colin family a warm welcome by stopping in for a free sample and support their business. Gracias!
Pasteleria Colin
(541) 525-5920
1925 River Rd. Eugene OR 97404
From the 4J newsletter School Meals Get a Local Twist
Locally made tofu, tortilla chips and soft pretzels served up for students to enjoy
Eugene School District 4J’s in-house meal program, which launched this year, is serving up a bounty of locally made foods to students across the district.
They include soft pretzels from Reality Kitchen, which have proven to be popular with students. Other local purchases include tofu and tempeh from Surata Soy Foods, tortilla chips from Carmen’s Chips, and a baking mix, used to bake morning muffins and other items, from Camas Country Mill, all businesses located in Eugene.
These local partnerships and other menu changes ensure 4J students have access to nutritious foods that taste better and contain fewer unwanted additives—such as sugar, salt, and artificial flavors and preservatives.
Providing enough local food to the district to feed about 10,000 meals to hungry students each day is a big economic boost for the local businesses and organizations. But the benefits to the community go well beyond the economic, including providing job training for former 4J students.
Reality Kitchen is a local nonprofit that provides job skills training to young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The nonprofit prepares soft pretzels with more whole grain flour specially for our school meals—on the order of 10,000 pretzels since the beginning of the school year. Supported staff in the program are involved in every step—mixing, twisting, baking, packing and delivering.
4J's Nutrition Services team worked with Reality Kitchen and some other businesses on different iterations of the recipes to achieve the best taste and nutritional value.
The investment is paying off. “We have had kids who didn’t eat tofu and are now eating tofu—because we sourced a really good tofu,” said Jose Alvarez, 4J nutrition services co-manager. “It tastes good.”
Pretzel makers at Reality Kitchen 645 River Road
Lawn signs available at RRCO meetings and soon at Reality Kitchen
Greenway Stewardship -
Serve your community and meet your neighbors
Friends of Rasor Park Second Saturday Work Party
Sat., Feb. 8, 10 AM- 1 PM
Join us in planting out another new swath of native prairie, creating more habitat for native pollinators and birds. This will be our last planting this season.
We will also aim to do some edge clearing and gentle expansion of some older plots. Bring your own gloves, water bottle, and hand planting tool if you can. We will have a few extra big shovels and gloves for you if we know you are coming. RSVP to friendsofrasorpark@gmail.com or Friends of Rasor Park on our Facebook event page. Come prepared for the weather—likely a bit damp, but perfect for the little plants.
Mulch-A-Palooza 2020 When: March 7, from 10:00am to 1:00pm Where: We will rally at Maurie Jacobs Park
Join us to provide essential restoration to our West Bank Park, while getting to know your neighbors. In the River Road neighborhood, we have an agreement with the City of Eugene that we will provide volunteer services to restore the habitat of West Bank Park in order to keep our portion of the park system pesticide and herbicide free. At this event we will be pruning and mulching young trees that were planted 6 years ago to keep them healthy without the use of chemicals. We will also be removing any critical invasive species along the way. We will start at Maurie Jacobs park and move north up to Heron Slough. As the River and Garden district, these local efforts towards the health of our environment make all the difference.
Tools, gloves, snacks, water, and coffee will be provided.
River Road Land Use Applications and Decisions
Willamette Greenway Permit Application (WG 19-007) A was heard on January to consider a Willamette Greenway permit for two single family (R-1) lots between 108 and 114 Thomason Lane. The hearing official granted the application without conditions.
North Eugene High School Zone Change to remove Site Review requirement (Z-20-0002) See the agenda for more details.
112 & 114 Hansen Lane Tentative Partition (PT-20-0001) is a proposal to create a third lot to the site.
Cherry Blossom Village (26-66 Owasso Drive). The only land use application associated with this 24 unit rowhouse development was an annexation which took place on 11/13/2018. Although the development seems dense for the 1.14 acre site, it is within the allowable 28 units per acre allowed in an R-2 Medium Density lot so it required no further land use application. That cleared the way to develop via a building permit.
Some neighbors were alarmed by unexpected removal of three big trees off Howard
Neighbors invited to give input on property development
Dear Neighbor,
You are cordially invited to attend a meeting to discuss a proposed project located at 625 Howard Ave. The proposal tentatively includes dividing the subject property into 13 parcels through the city of Eugene land and subdivision process.
As the applicant preparing this proposal, we invite you to attend a meeting with us and other neighbors to review our plans, share information, and identify issues regarding the proposal. A copy of the proposal is included on the reverse side of this page.
No applications for this proposal have been submitted to the City of Eugene at this time. Your comments and input into the proposal at tis early stage will be valuable in helping us identify issues and shape the proposal. For more information, pleases feel free to contact Jake Burnham by telephone at 541-554-7358 or by email at jburnhambuilds@gmail.com
River Road Jam--Unplugged!
Bring your favorite songs to play/share - rock, blues, pop, folk/traditional, country- to third Sunday of each month Jam session from 12:30-3:30 pm at the Annex (1550 River Road). All musicians and songsters with any acoustic instruments (including voice) at any level of experience are welcome. This is a friendly get together, not a class. For more information contact Doug Chandler at d.chandler@asu.edu or call 480-897-2005.
Creative and Affordable Housing Options
NLC Housing & Homelessness Committee mtg: Thursday February 27th 12-1pm, McNail-Riley House 601 W. 13th Ave
We continue our 3 month focus on creative, affordable housing options. Join us to hear from Amanda Dellinger, SquareOne Villages; Tricia, Emerald Village resident; and Dylan Lamar, architect& developer who will share an innovative small housing project in Springfield. Please view links for further information. https://www.squareonevillages.org https://www.squareonevillages.org/emerald https://www.cultivateplace.com/
February 2020 Calendar
THURSDAY, February 6, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Let's Talk Land: Neighborhood Plan Community Conversations. River Road. RSVP for meeting location. cepddrrscplan@ci.eugene.or.us
MONDAY, February 10, 7:00 p.m. River Road Community Organization General Membership meeting. River Road Annex, 1055 River Road.
WEDNESDAY, February 12, Noon to 1:30 p.m. Let's Talk Land: Neighborhood Plan Community Conversations. River Road. RSVP for meeting location. cepddrrscplan@ci.eugene.or.us
THURSDAY, February 13, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Let's Talk Land: Neighborhood Plan Community Conversations. River Road. RSVP for meeting slocation. cepddrrscplan@ci.eugene.or.us
SUNDAY, February 16, 7pm. Unplugged Jam Session at the Annex.
MONDAY, February 17, 7 pm. River Road Community Organization Board meeting. River Road Annex, 1055 River Road.
MONDAY, February 24,11:30 a.m. Eugene Planning Commission. Work Session on River Road/Santa Clara Neighborhood Plan. Atrium, Sloat Room, 99 West 10th Avenue.
MONDAY, February 24, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Let's Talk Land: Neighborhood Plan Community Conversations. Santa Clara. RSVP for meeting location. cepddrrscplan@ci.eugene.or.us
Additional Volunteer Opportunities
Keep the neighborhood calendar of events! Contact Clare to help collect calendar items for the newsletter.
River Road Park & Recreation District is looking for people who are interested in volunteering. To see what is available click the login/register/pay account button to the on the left side of our web page. This will take you to our on-line registration page where you will see a catalog tab for “Volunteer Opportunities”. If you are interested in any of the opportunities available you may sign up using our on-line registration, filling out the volunteer form or by calling the park office at 541-688-4052.
Neighborhood schools:
You can come read to kids, mentor middle schoolers, help high schools students apply for college, and pitch in for special events. Eileen Nittler 4-J Board Member
River Road - Santa Clara Volunteer Library – Fundraisers, staff, donate books. Vickie Cain 541-554-6854 http://rrscvollib.org
River front enhancements: Join the RRCO N.E.T. design team to enhance usability of the river front, Help maintain the natural beauty without toxic spraying. Cameron Ewing and Michael Lambros riverroadcommunityorganization@gmail.com
Crime Prevention – Neighborhood Crime Watch. Contact: Margaret Mazzotta (541) 682-5761 Margaret.A.Mazzotta@ci.eugene.or.us or Carrie Carver 541-682-4179 Carrie.carver@co.lane.or.us
River Road- Santa Clara Homeless Advocacy Group. Betty Grant 541-343-6695
