Here are a couple of letters from two of our neighborhood supporters,
Debbie Hoernig and Edel Davenport.
Have you expressed your feedback yet? It’s important! Here’s how…
https://isfloralhilltherightplace.com/ohcs-letter-writing/
Dear Oregon Housing and Community Services (OHCS) and LIFT HO (Home Ownership) Program,
Most of my immediate concerns about this project center around the safety of current and future residents. I’m also seriously concerned about the wisdom of the developer’s plan, its ability to successfully execute it, and whether public funds for our community’s housing needs will wind up being wasted.
– Fire Safety and Street Safety Issues
According to drought.gov, more than two-thirds of Lane County is currently rated as in D2 “severe drought” or D3 “extreme drought” conditions. It’s not projected to improve, either. Long-Term MIDI projections (see map) show that all of Eugene will be in a D3 zone. https://www.drought.gov/states/oregon The site of “Floral Hill Terrace” is on the downhill side (east) a 17-foot wide country road that runs along the west side of Laurel Hill Valley. This same road is adjacent to 78-acre Hendricks Park, most of which is forested; i.e., there’s a huge supply of readily available timber that could burn, should embers from a fire to the east blow into the park. Siting a new, dense housing development here isn’t simply illogical. It’s grossly shortsighted.
Those of us who live here witnessed first-hand last summer how difficult it was for Eugene Springfield Fire department vehicles to maneuver on Floral Hill Drive when they responded to a single house fire – almost directly across the road from DEVNw’s proposed development site – on July 26, 2025. It took first responders 18 minutes (!) to reach the site. That particular house was unoccupied so there was no need, medical or otherwise, to evacuate residents. What happens when there’s another fire, possibly involving multiple houses and evacuations? There are currently a total of 70 houses along Floral Hill Drive. If you approve DEVNw’s LIFT request for this 4-acre, 40-house development (what would equal R-10(!), under Oregon’s land use code), you will have contributed to significantly increasing the potential danger that we who live here are already in.
Floral Hill Drive is approximately 0.8 miles long. It’s a narrow and slightly winding road, with a north-south (N-S) segment joining an east-west (E-W) segment at a 90-degree blind curve. The proposed development would be built on the N-S segment, near the blind curve. Because that segment was built along one side of Laurel Hill Valley, the land slopes significantly upward on one side while dropping significantly downward on the other, making the installation of sidewalks on most of the length of either side of the road seriously problematic. This road has never had sidewalks. We depend on common courtesy as our principal traffic control device. Most of the time it works. We already know that it doesn’t work when people are distracted or in a hurry, or during extraordinary times of relatively heavy traffic egress from Hendricks Park, like we see now only during the annual Mothers Day weekend or other rare special events. Between 2-way car traffic, bicycles, and a variety of pedestrians, this rural road already probably functions at maximum safety capacity. Added vehicle traffic from an increase of 40 households, creating intermittent relatively heavy traffic conditions, will jeopardize this; i.e., it will jeopardize all of our safety.
– Lack of Access to Essential Services
The proposed site is too remote from transportation and infrastructure corridors. It has a walk score of 11 out of 100, the lowest of any neighborhood in Eugene. https://www.walkscore.com/score/2700-floral-hill-dr-eugene-or-97403 “2700 Floral Hill Drive has a Walk Score of 11 out of 100. This location is a Car-Dependent neighborhood so almost all errands require a car.” The nearest grocery store is 1.5 miles away; the nearest bus stop is 1.4 miles away. Note that the proposed development site is located in Eugene’s southeast foothills; the grocery store and bus stop are not, so hill-climbing is part of the journey. This may be a hardship for mobility-impaired people.
– I question the wisdom of the developer’s plan, its ability to successfully execute it, and whether public funds for our community’s housing needs will wind up being wasted.
DEVNw has little or no experience with a Community Land Trust this large. Whether they can successfully execute their plan in a timely fashion, considering their apparent poor judgment in choice of site, is questionable. The site-specific issues raised above have been presented to DEVNw multiple times on multiple occasions and have subsequently been ignored. Because this particular project site is too remote from transportation and infrastructure corridors, prospective home buyers will be reluctant to commit to it. Full (or close to full) occupancy will be difficult to achieve. Repayment of a LIFT loan will become problematic. This means that housing funds – including LIFT loans – that could be made available to subsequent LIFT applicants will be tied up in “Floral Hill Terrace” and delayed or possibly even denied. A 40-unit CLT in Eugene – especially by an organization with no experience in building or managing a CLT of this size here – will be an experiment. If the experiment fails, in whole or part, “Floral Hill Terrace” will become an albatross and serve as a conspicuous deterrent for future proposed CLTs in Eugene.
Further, the developer has expressed in writing its intention to expand development even beyond the proposed “Floral Hill Terrace” 4-acre 40 house site, stating that “the project’s internal street network is deliberately designed to connect to neighboring properties,” and describing a 3-acre parcel to the north as “a likely property for future development.” Ergo, the developer is either willfully ignorant of or apathetic to the dangers and difficulties – both to current residents and to the prospective buyers to whom they propose to sell these houses – inherent in building so dense a development in an area facing substantial environmental stress. Is DEVNw really an entity to which you should entrust public funds?
Has the prospect of being the builder of the largest CLT in Eugene clouded DEVNw’s judgment by putting its own goals ahead of prospective homebuyers’ needs? Again I ask: Is DEVNw really an entity to which you should entrust public funds?
I sincerely hope that at some point in your review of DEVNw’s application for LIFT funds you can make an on-site inspection here. The safety issues are readily apparent; so much so that a reasonably prudent developer would have reevaluated and then changed its plans. DEVNw has demonstrated that it is neither reasonable nor prudent. Please do not entrust it with public funds that could be far better used for more viable and beneficial development. Other sites in Eugene that are far more accessible to transportation and accessible by emergency services can be developed for the affordable housing our community needs. The site proposed for “Floral Hill Terrace” is, now and for the foreseeable future, plainly inappropriate. Please don’t facilitate it and for heaven’s sake, please don’t squander available housing funds on it.
Respectfully submitted,
Deborah Hoernig
Eugene OR 97403
Date: August 17, 2026
To: Jeff Gepper
Principal Planner
Planning and Development I Planning
Eugene, OR
From: Edel Davenport
Eugene, OR 97403
Re.: DevN/W Floral Hill project
Dear Mr. Gepper and Planning Review Committee Members:
I am writing to express my strong opposition to the Affordable Housing Development, planned by DevNW for about 40 homes in between the SE end of Floral Hill Drive and Riverview street,
While Eugene needs definitely more affordable housing, not every site available is appropriate and safe for a development of such magnitude.
LHV is:
* A separate, contained valley with natural borders that has neither stores, restaurants nor public transportation;
Both, the closest bus stop and only grocery store, “Market of Choice’(one of the most expensive ones in town), are on Franklin blvd, about 1.6 miles from the development via Floral Hill Drive, through Hendricks Park or longer yet, via Riverview street and Franklin blvd.
* It has rolling hills with mature trees;
* It is strictly residential and family oriented;
* With the exception of Augusta Street, LHV’s core is defined by narrow streets such as Floral Hill Dr., Riverview St. and Sylvan St., bordered by homes on either side; the streets are in most places only 17’ wide, with little or no room on either side; given the hilly terrain and the layout of the neighborhood, it would be extremely expensive if not impossible to adequately/safely retrofit the above mentioned streets;
* Wildlife, people of all ages on bikes, walking or jogging are sharing the streets regularly with school buses, delivery, garbage trucks and emergency vehicles.
* LHV is eclectic in nature with homes next to each other from being old, small and affordable to newer, modern and expensive. Some are built on large acreage while others are barely surrounded by property.
Many of us have lived here for decades while others have moved here more recently. Our community is a mixture of low, middle and high income homeowners as well as renters.
* People who live here come from a variety of backgrounds regarding age, socio-economic status and culture.
Most of us pride ourselves in being inclusive, thriving on diversity and all along, have actively supported affordable housing.
* Over the years, we have embraced new developments that were built on open, adjacent land at the south (Hendricks Hill) and at the east (MoonMT. and East Ridge Village) edges of Laurel Hill Valley.
My opposition to this proposed development in LHV is based on:
* Neither public transportation nor grocery stores, etc. are in close proximity.
* The Development plan is incompatible with the location/site and size ; about 40 houses squeezed in between existing homes, on a sloping site with potentially unstable, ground with runoff and water springs ;
* The entrance/exit from the development would be ‘to and from ‘ a 17 ft wide, two way street only a few feet away from a blind curve; definitely, unsafe for cars, pedestrians, etc.; especially so, given the site for the proposed development is on the east side of Floral Hill Dr., which means the entrance/exit would be build downward, on a steep slope.
* the deep slope extends along side most of he border of the east side of Floral Hill Dr..
To retrofit Floral Hill Dr. with a side walk would be costly if not unsafe or impossible; additionally, current homeowners, specially those with fixed incomes, might be adversely impacted by having to pay the cost for potential attempts of road improvement.
In spite of it, the developer suggests to build a sidewalk along the borders of their proposed development; even if possible, I wonder to what reason given that a few yards of a sidewalk does not serve a meaningful purpose nor improve safety alongside Floral Hill Dr..
* A big increase in traffic on Floral Hill Dr. and Riverview St., during as well as after construction,
* Additionally, there are concerns for the environment including fire danger;
* Lastly, with no apparent concern for the cost to a low income homeowner, the developer suggests that if someone becomes physically disabled, a ‘home lift’ could easily be installed at that time;
How ironic and sad to think that in the name of “ Need for Affordable Housing”, current residents, including those who are considered ‘low income’ are put at risk and might feel ‘forced’ to move/sell their homes.
Thank you for taking my concerns and those expressed by other neighbors, seriously.
Your decision is critical!
Edel Davenport
Eugene, Or 97403