Trying to add a payment method? You can do this on the 
QuickTake:
During a public hearing, business leaders raised concerns the new land-use change could harm Eugene’s economic competitiveness. Residents and advocacy groups urged stronger protections for west Eugene neighborhoods long affected by industrial pollution. Public comment is open through Oct. 28.
Eugene business leaders are pushing back against a proposed land-use policy aimed at better managing pollution and protecting public health.
The Public Health Standards project is an effort, four years in the making, to keep the environment clean for people who live in or near industrial areas. The project includes several possible land-use regulations that would apply to new development.
As of October, city staff is working on one of the potential code amendments.
Under the latest draft of that code change, properties engaged in certain levels of industrial production must have — or be in the process of obtaining — water, land and air pollution permits from the Lane Regional Air Protection Agency and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality before receiving a building permit.
At a public hearing of the Eugene Planning Commission on Tuesday, Oct. 16, Joe Liebersbach, director of business advocacy at the Eugene Area Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber has “significant concerns” about the proposal.
Liebersbach called it a “misapplication of land-use law” and said the chamber worries the proposed code could hurt Eugene’s economic competitiveness, affecting job creation and access to living-wage employment.
NW Natural, a natural gas provider, and Sierra Pacific Industries, a forest products company, both submitted written public comment to the city underscoring the points made by Liebersbach.
In a statement to Lookout Eugene-Springfield, Liebersbach said, “Our concern isn’t with the goal, but with how it’s achieved. We believe public health standards can and should be strengthened through clear, objective and coordinated processes that promote accountability and economic vitality, but those goals are not achieved through land-use code amendments.”
A vision shift
Tuesday’s discussion marked a shift in how the project has been framed. Earlier this year, many conversations focused on preventing the work of bad actors such as the shuttered and Superfund-listed J.H. Baxter & Co. By Tuesday, the conversation had turned to whether new regulations would be effective in stopping violations of that magnitude.
Eugene Planning Commissioner Tiffany Edwards asked the city’s land-use supervisor, Reid Verner, who’s been overseeing the project, if current businesses are operating without required environmental permits.
“There’s no specific quantitative evidence regarding this, but there is anecdotal evidence from our talks with LRAPA and DEQ that there have been instances where applicants come to the city, obtain building permits, and start developing the site only to later receive complaints. Then they find out they hadn’t started the LRAPA or DEQ permitting process that was required,” Verner said.
Such instances are why Beyond Toxics Executive Director Jen Davis emphasized the need for meaningful protections during her public comment.
Davis, who stepped into the Beyond Toxics role earlier this year, pointed to the environmental justice group’s original policy request: overlay zones. An overlay zone is a special zoning layer placed on top of existing zoning to add or modify regulations for an area without changing the underlying zoning. In this case, the overlay zone would require buffers between homes and industrial areas where the two converge.
Currently, the only such zone is the Clear Lake overlay, which created a buffer around the site of a planned facility by a developer known for building Amazon distribution centers.
Residents in the Trainsong and Bethel neighborhoods — who live in a V-shaped wedge between some of Eugene’s most heavily industrialized areas — bear the city’s most concentrated pollution, Beyond Toxics said.
Those neighborhoods, however, lack any city-sanctioned public health protections.
“The human costs are real. Families in west Eugene have faced higher rates of cancer, asthma, and other chronic illnesses. Parents have watched their children suffer with preventable health problems,” said Davis, who was joined by Arjorie Arberry-Baribeault.
Arberry-Baribeault lived in Bethel when Baxter illegally boiled off toxic wastewater into the air. Her daughter was diagnosed with, and survived, Hodgkin’s lymphoma — a cancer that weakens the body’s ability to fight infections.
“Had there been a code like the public health standards in place before my child’s illness in 2018, I believe what my child went through could have been avoided,” Arberry-Baribeault said. “My seat at the table has brought the voices of the community into decision-making spaces, bringing humanity into a conversation too often only discussed in statistics.”
Next steps
The Public Health Standards process was hobbled when city staff failed to follow through with plans to perform a technical analysis that could have provided key data to help persuade city councilors to continue the project. In its absence, residents of the area have argued that their own experiences should factor into that analysis.
City staff have pointed to challenges finding qualified experts. As of May, the hazard and risk assessment remains in progress. The city did not get back to Lookout Eugene-Springfield on its status as of Wednesday.
The assessment will inform potential additional code amendments for new development in or near industrial areas. In the meantime, Verner’s team continues to revise the single code amendment, related to LRAPA and DEQ permits as directed by the City Council.
Staff will make further revisions based on feedback, including comments from Lane Regional Air Protection Agency Director Travis Knudsen, who told commissioners he supports enhanced procedures in the interest of public health but is concerned about how they would function within existing processes. The team is also considering additional feedback from other agencies and community members.
A public comment period on the code will remain open until 5 p.m. Oct. 28. Commissioners will then deliberate and provide recommendations for the City Council, which is tentatively scheduled to hold another public hearing on Jan. 20, 2026.
