A new partnership.

Byline: The Register-Guard

As many a married - and divorced - person will attest, conflict can either make or break a marriage. In the case of the city of Eugene and the General Services Administration, the result has been nothing less than a wholehearted reaffirmation of vows.

GSA Regional Administrator Jon Kvistad's announcement Thursday that his agency has resumed plans to build a new federal courthouse on a city-owned site in downtown Eugene marks a happy ending to a gut-wrenching two-months of uncertainty over the long-anticipated project.

Now, the project moves forward on solid footing - far more solid than before the GSA shocked city officials by suspending its purchase of the former Agricpac cannery property as the site for the $70 million project.

The GSA's explanation for the suspension initially sent ripples of confusion and frustration through City Hall. Federal officials made general references to concerns about the city's plans for transportation, parking and development, but it quickly became apparent that the primary explanation for the postponement was controversy over the courthouse's access-unfriendly for people with disabilities.

GSA officials wrongly characterized those concerns as a lack of "community support." But the agency prudently continued its previously announced review of its access plans and then announced late last month that it would incorporate a ramp in the design for the front entry of the new building.

That still left unanswered the unsettling question of whether the courthouse would be built at the downtown site, in which city officials had already invested millions of dollars. For those involved in the negotiations, it eventually became apparent that the real question was how - not whether - the remaining concerns would be addressed.

As it turned out, the process of hammering down the nitty-gritty details on the issues of transportation, parking and development brought the project into much sharper focus. It also forged a strong working partnership between the city and the GSA that hadn't previously existed.

As a result, the city crafted, among other things, a back-up plan to pay for new streets in the courthouse district if expected congressional funding does not materialize. By a 6-2 vote, the City Council stated its support for the use of urban renewal funds as a secondary source of funding - a commitment that sent a strong and unmistakable message of support for the project to the GSA.

Meanwhile, city planners put together a framework for what promises to be a vibrant mix of office, retail and residential development in the district. Ironically, the University of Oregon's announcement that it would not build a new basketball arena in the courthouse district was a key breakthrough, one that broke a logjam of uncertainty over how to proceed with planning.

The past two months have been stressful and challenging for both the city and federal officials. But the end result is a project that promises to be a great source of community pride and a model for new courthouses across the country in the decades to come.