Eugene council rejects bundling bond for Golden Gardens sports, Ems Stadium, LCC pickleball

Eugene city councilors said they want to advance the Emerald baseball stadium as a stand-alone bond measure, place a proposed pickleball facility at Lane Community College on a list to be paid for with parks' system development charges and wait for more community outreach before moving forward on Golden Gardens Park.

Councilors had previously suggested sending the three projects to voters in a combined bond measure but instead chose to separate them. They have not yet voted on the projects.

During a public forum at Monday's City Council meeting, some commenters praised the rejected proposal to group the three projects as a single bond measure.

"This city is a sports town," said Eugene resident Steve Honeycutt. "We're now having teamwork between the city and the county to address this one issue of the stadium, but also we're looking at the needs of other people in the sports area."

Others criticized the earlier suggestion to group the projects.

"I wonder why the stadium is bundled with two other facilities," said Allen McWayne, a Jefferson Westside resident and critic of the proposed Emeralds stadium. "If only 1% of residents attend Ems games, are there enough pickleball fans or Golden Garden users to pass this bond?"

Councilors decided with the latter group.

"I would be in favor of separating each of these three questions rather than grouping them all together," councilor Mike Clark said. "I think each has their own considerations that are important to make separately."

Golden Gardens Sports Complex

The city of Eugene says there are not enough sports fields in Eugene and Springfield, citing a 1995 Metropolitan Sports Commission of Eugene-Springfield analysis. It said this is especially true for youth sports, and the city has proposed a complex of fields at Golden Gardens park, which staff said was the only appropriate location in the city parks' system.

The city has so far identified $4.3 million for the project at the intersection of Golden Gardens Street and Jessen Drive on the northern edge of the Bethel neighborhood. Staff has suggested three possible project scopes ranging from $15 million to $35 million, which include between two and six athletic fields, a restroom/concessions building, habitat protection, trail extensions and other park improvements.

Proponents have said the facility would have positive impacts on health and community, especially on kids who often have to travel for "home" games because of a lack of facilities in Eugene. The complex also could improve commerce by attracting people for sports tournaments.

"There are lessons learned from your relationship with sports that remain relevant to your lives now," Andrew Brown, director of sales for the Eugene Emeralds, told councilors. "Consider the impact on our future leaders and society members. It will allow us to keep making memorable connections that cannot be made inside the classroom."

Opponents said the complex would hurt neighbors and wildlife with increased noise, traffic, light and plastic.

They were especially vocal about the plan to use artificial turf fields, which they said would harm both youth athletes using the fields and wildlife at the park, particularly the western pond turtle. The turtle was proposed for addition to the federal Endangered Species' List in October.

"Golden Gardens Ponds Park is one of the few natural areas in Bethel and is a crown jewel of the community," Bethel resident Jere Rosemeyer told councilors. "The site features herons, bald eagles, and the endangered western pond turtle. As the city seeks to add a large sports complex to the site, please protect the natural area by ensuring no plastic AstroTurf and a 500-foot buffer between the ponds and the new sports complex."

Critics cited a University of Massachusetts literature review they said demonstrates turf harms animals and children's development. Proponents argued turf's benefit of making it possible to play sports in the winter outweighed those potential harms.

Most councilors said they did not want to make a decision on Golden Gardens before finishing community outreach.

"We're still in these draft design phases," said councilor Lyndsie Leech. "When you look at the minimum buffer for what's recommended by the Department of Fish and Wildlife, all the designs are kind of encroaching on that buffer and I'd like to just see more about how we're approaching that and how we're ensuring that we don't destroy a very biodiverse ecosystem."

Potential Eugene Emeralds stadium at Lane Events Center

In 2020, Major League Baseball took over Minor League Baseball and began to revamp the league. In its first big move, MLB cut 43 of the 160 teams.

In the Northwest League, MLB cut the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes and Boise Hawks and promoted the other six teams, including the Eugene Emeralds, from Single-A to High-A, moving the start of the season from June to April. This has created scheduling conflicts between the Emeralds and the Ducks, who currently share a stadium.

Additionally, MLB announced a new set of standards for every stadium. These facility requirements include things from expanded clubhouses, designated eating areas for players and better weight rooms to locker room water pressure and crew tractor width. MLB told the teams to be in compliance by the opening day 2025.

Emeralds' officials say it's not feasible to upgrade PK park to meet these standards. They and the Lane County government have been conducting planning work to construct a stadium at the Lane County fairgrounds.

In August, county commissioners voted to extend the contract for stadium planning but said they would not give the Emeralds enough money to close the $43 million gap to pay for the $100.5 million construction.

Eugene City Manager Sarah Medary said the Emeralds have asked the city for $15 million toward a stadium, and that the only way the city could afford that much would be through a bond.

Proponents of the project have said the stadium will keep MLB from moving the Emeralds out of Eugene, and with them the family friendly affordable entertainment, charitable work and sense of community they say the team provides.

They also have said the stadium would be a multi-use facility, hosting large events such as concerts and community events such as high school baseball tournaments, graduations and events put on by local nonprofits. They say it would improve other events held at the Lane Events Center and bring in commerce that would revitalize the area around the fairgrounds and Eugene more broadly.

"It's so much more than baseball," Emeralds' Assistant General Manager Matt Dompe told councilors. "It's about having that place where we can all come together. That communal spot where we can have shared experiences as Eugeneans. Minor league baseball teams, they reflect their community. As a father, I would hate it if my two little girls didn't get a chance to keep going out to the ballpark."

Opponents of the project have said the stadium will increase noise and traffic to an otherwise residential neighborhood, take up space at the events center in a way that harms other events held there, hurt the event center financially and that public money shouldn't be spent on a facility for a private company.

"The county board put this on pause because the money was just not there," McWayne told councilors. "Economists say publicly funded stadiums are a bad investment. Forty minor league ballparks are now vacant and abandoned across the country. Communities like Flagstaff, Arizona, have recently rejected such public stadiums."

Councilors said they want more information from the Emeralds on their operations plan and confirmation Lane County would devote Car Rental & Transient Lodging Tax money to the project. Some councilors said with that would be comfortable sending a stadium-only bond to voters.

"I'm in favor of a simple, clean, stadium-only $15 million bond," councilor Alan Zelenka said. "That would be my preferred approach to this. Put it out for a vote. If people want to vote for it great. It's their option to do that and the people that are in real support that we've been getting cards and letters and emails from can create a campaign to get a 'yes' vote."

Some councilors expressed a concern that sending voters a stadium bond could result in them voting 'no' to later bonds.

"Clearly the Ems are a beloved local team but I think we have a really high responsibility of how we use or ask for tax money," councilor Jennifer Yeh said.

"We have a similar-sized funding gap of our own that we need to deal with and we have a revenue team we've asked to talk about it," Yeh said. "A bond is one of the tools they might choose to suggest and if we use it for this, we're not using it for something else."

Lane Community College pickleball

Members of the Emerald Valley Pickleball Club have said the sport's growth has outpaced court availability in the area. They cited a 760-person membership who share 31 pickleball courts in Eugene and Springfield. The club and LCC have planned a 24-court regional facility on LCC campus.

The club projects a total cost to build the facility of $5 million and has so far secured $500,000 from the Lane County parks levy voters approved in 2022. It is asking Eugene for $750,000.

Pickleball players have said the facility would usually be open to the public and would be an asset that encourages health and community, and commerce when it sometimes hosts regional tournaments.

Leaders of the Emerald Valley Pickleball Foundation had previously asked for the complex to be added to the list of projects eligible for money from the city's parks system development charges, fees charged to developers of new construction.

In a statement sent to The Register-Guard on behalf of the foundation's board, the group said "we remain curious to hear more about a potential bond … but our focus is on being deemed eligible for funding through Parks SDC's."

The pickleball facility hasn't received the same community opposition as the other two sports projects, and some councilors voiced support for adding it to the parks SDC list at a later date.

"I think the pickleball court is the easiest of all of the asks," councilor Greg Evans said. "I would like to move forward with that."

Alan Torres covers local government for the Register-Guard. He can be reached over email at atorres@registerguard.com or on twitter @alanfryetorres.

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Eugene City Council talks next steps for Emeralds stadium