Wednesday, May 30, 1990, has been set as the date for the next West Eugene Wetlands Special Area Study (WEWSAS) workshop. Workshop No.5 will be located at the Petersen Irarn Community Center (same location as Workshop No.4, 870 Berntzen Road, Eugene, OR) and will be open to the public from 3:00pm to 9:OOp.m.

While the workshop is scheduled as a casual drop-in event, formal presentations will be made at 4:00 pm and 7:00 pm. The public is encouraged to attend and participate! The primary purposes of the workshop are to present preliminary staff recommendations on wetland sites proposed for protection and development, and to receive pubhc comment and response to the recommendations. The results of the workshop will be used to refine the recommended wetland management plan due to be released for formal public review and comment in late summer, 1990.

The fourth in a series of public workshops was held at the Petersen Barn Community Center on Saturday February 24, 1990. At this workshop, information was presented on draft wetland boundaries, assesments of functions and values, wetland scenarios and the public's response to individual wetland sites, scenario criteria and scenario preference. The workshop was well attended with a good cross-section of the community represented. Public response was accomplished using a variety of techniques, including questionnaires, bean jar surveys and written comments, including comments written on maps. The results of the workshop have been compiled, evaluated and presented in a report, "Results of Public Comments - Public Workshop No.4", which will be available to the public in the middle of May. Copies will be available at the workshop or they may be picked up at either L-COG (125 E. 8thAve) or the Eugene Permit and lnformation Center (244 E. Broadway). As with results of all the WEWS workshops, public comments are forwarded to local planning commissions, city councils, and Board of County Commissioners. The following is a summary of that report.

Public Participation

• Attendance was the highest level of the four public work shops, 145 persons.
• Amount of public participation varied by topic. Response to scenario preference was high, 127, while response to scenarios criteria and individual wetland sites was moderate, 49 and 69 respectively.

• Scenario 'A' (highest percentage of wetlands available for development) and Scenario 'C' (highest percentage of wetlands protected) received the most votes, 62 and 53 respectively, while Scenario 'B' (balance of protection and development of wetlands) received 9 votes.

• The public's response to the criteria was not consistent with the response to the favored scenario. While Scenario 'A' received the most votes, there was little support for the criteria which was used to generate the scenario. By contrast, there was strong support for the criteria used to develop scenarios 'B' and 'C.'
• Criteria receiving the most support were:
  • Rate Plants
  • Interconnected Wetland System
  • Ecologically Unique
  • Within 300 feet of Waterway
• Criteria receiving the least support were:
  • Wetland Size
  • Disturbed Wetland
  • Human Created
• Criteria recommended for addition were:
  • Floodplain
  • Ability to Buffer Wetland
  • Water Quality
• Critical comments included:
  • wetland functions and values should be assessed in absolute terms, not in "relative" values;
  • many of the standards (e.g., distance from water-ways, or distance from a street) are arbitrary.

• There were more sites recommended for protection, 34, than for development, 11.
• Assessment areas 'A', 'B', and 'H' received the most votes for protection.
• Assessment areas 'A', 'C' and 'H' received the most votes for development.
• Few sites were recommended for a combination of development and protection, and for those that were, the areas recommended for development were along street frontages.

The Army Corps of Engineers reports they have approved the proposed mitigation plan for phase III expansion of Spectra Physics, a local manufacturer of electronic scanners, and are prepared to issue a Section 404 permit.

The report prepared by Scientific Resources Incorporated, Wetland Inventory and Wetland Functions and Values in West Eugene, Oregon for the West Eugene Wetlands Study is available for public review at the Lane Council of Governments, 125 East 8th Avenue, Eugene, OR.

Until final wetland boundaries have been accepted by federal and state regulatory agencies, the City of Eugene will require a wetland "determination" status, from either the Division of State Lands (contact person is Janet Morelund, 378-3805) or the Army Corps of Engineers (Ron Marg, 326-6995), for all properties that are shown to be affected by "hydric soils" as listed in the Soil Survey of Lane County Area, Oregon, 1987 prepared by the U.S. Soil Conservation Service. A copy of the soil survey is available at L-COG, 125 East Eighth Avenue, Eugene, Or. If there is a determination that wetlands exist on site, the property owner will be required to provide information as to the extent and location of wetlands resources, which normally involves the services of a qualified wetland consultant. The Division of State Lands maintains a list of qualified consultants (contact Janet Morelund, 378-3805).

The Urban Land Institute (ULl) has published an excellent wetland document, "Wetlands-MitigatingandRegulating Development Impacts", 1990. The document is a good primer on wetland law, process and mitigation strategies. Copies may be obtained from the ULI by writing to David Salvesen, 1090 Vermont Avenue, N.W. Washignton, D.C., 2OOO5-4962.

Lane Council of Governments
125 East Eighth Avenue
Eugene, Oregon 97401