Posted by Unnamed Mailer on August 05, 2000 at 23:03:41:
Dear Friends,There is no absolute sovereignty for property owners. Land and Wetlands were
not created by men but by nature. Property is a legal term that does not
define a right. Property is subordinate to the needs of the community which
is responsible for the natural environment and therefore the well-being of
the people who live and interact most intimately with this elemental and
grace-bequeathed land.The Amazon Headwaters defends and proclaims its right to exist as it is, not
only through us but in its very being -- a host to nature's living plants and
animals and waters and the self-renewing world itself. It is where it belongs
and cannot be moved or compromised. It is a unity. It cannot endure as a
fraction of itself or riven by roads.If we fail the Amazon Headwaters, we fail all Eugene and Oregon and the
nation and the continent itself. We the citizens of Eugene and Lane County
in the spirit of Oregon have united against those who would threaten our
native source of water and open space and verdant earth upon whose features
we grow and discover and preserve our humanity.In Truth,
Bob Rosen
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Defending developmentWe would like to respond to a July 22 story about our proposed South Park
Public Utility District, and correctly describe the hearings official's
decision of denial.The road system does not crisscross the streams four times. West Amazon Drive
crosses the creek once at a previously existing crossing in the current
dedicated right-of-way of Amazon Road. A second crossing of a private road in
Phase 2 is over an 18-inch-wide drainage area.We believe that the public would not consider our lots to be large - the
average lot size is 8,067 square feet. Additionally, the buildable area of an
8,000-square-foot lot in the south hills is not the same as a lot on flat
terrain.Out of 26 acres, 52 percent of the property is proposed to be held in
conservation and open space.Since the previous sale last year of 12 acres to the city and the Audubon
Society, we have not discussed selling the balance of our property to the
city for parkland. We did meet with the new South Eugene neighborhood
president, Kevin Matthews, and Ebon Fodor. They discussed their desire for
the land to be parkland and that we hold off on the development.We agree that planning reviews are necessary to ensure that any proposed
development is responsibly planned and ensures the preservation of natural
attributes.However, as citizens, we are also concerned about the increasing direction of
the city to control and/or eliminate what should be the fundamental right of
private property owners.LESLIE BEVERLY, South Park Associates, LLC, Eugene, Register-Guard 8-5-00