The Slant column in the latest Eugene Weekly opines:

The Moving Forward Together conference on “smart growth” took place June 11, and urban planning consultant John Fregonese’s talk was of particular interest to us. Since his days as Ashland’s city planner, Fregonese has been a strong, clear voice for sanity in urban planning nationwide, and we liked what he had to say about how cities can take control and shape their built environments for livability, efficiency and aesthetics. Is Eugene in control of its built environment? We remember the chaos and frustration of Eugene’s Land Use Code Update a few years ago. Most of the best and brightest reforms in LUCU got watered down by a weak Council under Mayor Torrey’s leadership, pressure from developer interests, and a city planning staff resistant to change. What did we end up with? More big box stores on the outskirts, more movement toward expanding our urban growth boundary, more development of resource lands, less affordable housing, more car-oriented housing development, a struggling downtown, not even a meaningful solar access code—in short, more “stupid growth.” It’s not been all bad, of course, but clues to our lack of progress include vacant buildings downtown, cutbacks in LTD bus routes and fewer people biking to work than 20 years ago.

So where do we go from here? The conference did shed light on the link between our environment and our economy and pointed us in the right direction. But overcoming inertia requires action and tough decisions. So-called “Green” Eugene is actually many years behind Portland, Corvallis, Ashland and many other cities in progressive planning. Let’s take these good concepts from the conference and put them to work. Nothing less than the future vitality of our city is at stake.