Home Tours Financial Support Volunteer Opportunities Calendar WEP at a Glance Print & Post Op/Ed - Cliff Notes     WEP at a Glance -- Talking Points for Why We Oppose the West Eugene Parkway Project Here is a brief summary of some key "talking points" about the main issues when you send letters to the Register Guard (rgletters@guardnet.com), Eugene Weekly (editor@eugeneweekly.com ), and the Daily Emerald (ode@oregon.uoregon.edu). If you send your letter to multiple newspapers, send it to them individually. They won't print it if they think it's being printed in another paper. It Costs Too Much! The West Eugene Parkway (WEP) would cost over $100 million tax-payer dollars. Financing the WEP would require raising taxes or canceling other transportation projects such as expanding the Delta/Beltline interchange, Beltline/I-5 interchange, Coburg/Beltline interchange. It Will not Work! It Will Create Sprawl! Even if the WEP were built, projections show traffic will increase by 70%. According to ODOT, the WEP is in large part designed to promote new development outside the Urban Growth Boundary. Why should Eugene taxpayers subsidize sprawl? Eugene doesn't need LA, Houston, or Atlanta as role models! It Will Hurt Existing Businesses! The WEP will bypass existing West Eugene businesses. The WEP serves out-of-towners while draining the vitality of Eugene. Developers and land speculators stand to increase the value of their public lands at the expense of taxpayers & West Eugene businesses. It Would Harm the Environment! The WEP would destroy more than 50 acres of important natural areas and wetland habitat. The National Academy of Sciences says creating artificial wetlands, "mitigation," is rarely successful. Mitigation is a sham! It doesn't work. Only 0.1% of our native prairie wetlands remain. We need to preserve what's left. The U.S government (BLM and Army Corps of Engineers) has spent tens of millions (our taxpayer money!) of dollars to create(protect?) the West Eugene wetlands, a much celebrated national wetlands model. The WEP would irreparably pave over these parklands. Other Four years ago, Eugene citizens indicated a clear preference for more compact urban land use and improved transportation options in the Growth Management Study. Reducing use of fossil fuels is good for country and environment Measure 20-53 ... would make use of proven strategies like redesigning traffic lanes, redesigning how cars enter and exit the traffic flow, designing transportation into a development projects to enhance transit, walking and bike riding. A Western Portland suburb faced a similar choice: a bypass or an alternative called LUTRAQ (land use, traffic, air quality). After ODOT determined LUTRAQ was cheaper and more effective than the bypass, they chose it. ... looks to Portland as a model for successful solutions to similar traffic congestion headaches. Measure 20-53 includes strategies similar to LUTRAQ.