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QuickTake:
Springfield residents said they were curious about what’s in the works for the industrial area along the Willamette River and said they wanted inviting public spaces and affordable housing.
Photos of modern apartment buildings and urban green spaces stood on easels in a party room at Roaring Rapids Pizza Co. on Thursday, Feb. 19, as community members filled the room to learn about plans for riverfront development in Glenwood.
“I like the idea of affordable housing mixed in with these green spaces and then having some types of commercial,” Springfield resident Patrick Mohr told Lookout Eugene-Springfield. “I think it’s a good integration of everything.”
Mohr, 45, said he recently moved to Springfield and has been curious about Glenwood.
“It seems like a vital piece of property, but I didn’t know if there was any kind of game plan until I heard about the event,” he said.
Mohr attended a meeting organized by the Springfield Economic Development Agency, the city’s urban renewal agency, which is spearheading the redevelopment of 22 acres along the Willamette River in east Glenwood. Urban renewal funds are financing the city’s work.
Plans call for the property north of Franklin Boulevard to be split into four lots with residential and commercial buildings. A promenade with a road and walking path is proposed to run north-south through the center of the area and lead to a riverfront park with a bike path.
“Making public spaces that are inviting is huge for Springfield,” Mohr said. “I come from Corvallis, where there’s a lot of open public spaces, walking spaces, bike paths, and it makes it very inviting for people to come and be part of the community.”
Economic Development Manager Allie Camp said she expects to have an approved master plan for the development in early 2027. After that, the agency will move forward with construction of roads, utilities and other infrastructure.
A neighborhood feel
Lisa R. Stevenson attended the meeting because she lives in Ponderosa Village and worried she would be displaced as part of the project. However, she learned the mobile home community, which is west of Roaring Rapids on Franklin Boulevard, is not in the development area.
She said she hopes some of the new housing is for people with lower incomes.
“I get that we need growth, but make it feasible,” Stevenson, 48, said. “Make it so that everybody has a chance to live in one of those places.”
Development will include an affordable housing property by Homes for Good, which has owned an undeveloped parcel in the project area since 2018.
Audrey Banks, the agency’s real estate development director, said she had received comments from community members at the meeting who are interested in affordable housing.
“We’re excited about being able to take this next step and seeing how many units we can fit and that will meet the community’s needs,” Banks said.
Early plans call for the organization’s development, Glenwood Place, to be completed in 2029.
Camp said she had received questions about the kind of housing planned for the area.
“This project is about a variety of types of housing and a density and a style that’s right-sized for Springfield,” Camp said. “A project like this is a big balance in terms of open space, space for development and space for vehicles and pedestrians.”
She said it’s easy for everything in a large development project to feel new, and she said the city wants it to feel like Springfield.
Developers Jill Sherman of Edlen & Co. and Mark Miksis of deChase Miksis are advising the city as it makes plans for the property, with the goal that they will develop parcels after the city installs streets and utilities.
Sherman said developments may include rentals and townhouses for ownership and pricing could be market-rate, affordable or mixed-income. She said specifics will depend on market demand and funding availability at the time.
“I think the hope would be to have a mix of uses, a mix of housing types, a mix of incomes, a nice range so that it feels like a neighborhood,” said Sherman, standing next to pictures of properties the developers have worked on.
Stephen and Paul Roth own the 8-acre property that Roaring Rapids and Camp Putt Adventure Golf Park sit on and are also partners on the project.
‘A generous pedestrian experience’
The city is working with Walker Macy, a landscape architecture and urban design company, to design the promenade.
“We really want it to be a generous pedestrian experience with wide sidewalks, lots of seating and gathering areas, lush planting, tree canopy for shade, rain gardens,” said landscape architect Cameron Blakely. “And that it really creates a strong connection from Franklin up to the Riverfront Park.”
He said it may include gateway elements like a small archway, “something that reflects the industrial character of the site and acts as a threshold that you move through, and as you’re looking down the promenade, you can see these features pulling you towards the river.”
Willamalane Park and Recreation District plans to create the riverfront park.
“We know we’d love to have a park here,” said Jackie Rochefort, the district’s planning and natural resource manager. “It’s an ideal location. It would be serving this whole new community, and it’s on the river.”
But beyond that, she said, Willamalane does not have the details worked out yet.
“One of the things that Willamalane always strives for is to make sure that there’s optimal access to green space and park land available to all the people that live in our district,” said Kristina Boe, senior planner at the district. “So that would be a priority for us, just making sure there’s something for the people that are going to be living here in the future.”
In addition to the park, Willamalane’s comprehensive plan calls for a riverfront path connection through Glenwood. Also in the plan is the goal for a pedestrian bridge across the Willamette that would provide access from Island Park to Glenwood.
$10 million for phase 1 infrastructure
During a Feb. 9 Springfield Economic Development Agency board meeting, Camp briefed members about the cost of the first phase of infrastructure, which includes the north-south road and promenade that connects Franklin Boulevard to the riverfront park.
“Open space is an asset for the whole development to be successful,” Camp said. “When a park is there, it’s seen as an asset for when people, shops, things want to be there in the future.”
The two-block stretch provides all of the required utilities for adjacent properties and many of the utility services to extend throughout the rest of the area, she said.
Camp told board members the early cost estimate for phase 1 infrastructure is $9.97 million. She said this infrastructure will provide a development starting point for each landowner.
“The goal of the Glenwood Master Plan area is to get to development,” Camp said. “We cannot get to development until we get through some degree of infrastructure.”
The Glenwood Urban Renewal Plan has a maximum indebtedness of $32 million. Of this, the agency has used approximately 60 percent on purchasing property, planning work, relocation services and a program to provide financial assistance for development charges, she said.
Of the $15 million remaining indebtedness, phase 1 construction costs would account for about two-thirds.
“This is really the backbone of this development, and it’s how we are going to start to be a catalytic force for Glenwood,” Springfield City Manager Nancy Newton said during the meeting.