Armory roadway decision is put off.

Byline: JOE MOSLEY The Register-Guard

Lane County commissioners opted for a procedural detour Tuesday on the Oregon Military Department's proposal to build an access road to the site for a new National Guard armory across East 30th Avenue from Lane Community College.

By a 3-2 vote, commissioners deferred action on the access road until a pair of appeals involving the overall armory proposal have been resolved in state and federal courts.

"I do have a feeling in my gut that there is something wrong with a process that allows us to move forward before all the legal issues have been resolved," Commissioner Bill Dwyer said as the board deliberated.

In the end, Commissioners Peter Sorenson and Cindy Weeldreyer joined Dwyer in voting to defer action on the access road while commissioners Anna Morrison and Bobby Green opposed the delay.

No representative of the Military Department attended Tuesday's meeting.

But Maj. Jeff Julum, public affairs officer for the Oregon National Guard, said later that the commissioners' reluctance to proceed is disheartening even if it has little practical effect.

"On the one hand it doesn't do a whole lot of anything," Julum said, pointing out that there were never any plans to begin construction of the road until work on the full project can start. "So such a deferment in and of itself doesn't change anything.

"On the other hand, it's a disappointment. We did not have to move our armory (from its former site on what is now the Serbu Youth Campus off Centennial Boulevard). At the request of the county, we agreed to do that. We expect some sort of help and cooperation."

Julum said the Military Department is not looking at any alternate sites for its new armory because its current proposal is "site-specific" to the property just north of East 30th and west of McVay Highway.

But he said the process would start over with a search for a new site if the appeals courts rule against the current proposal or if the process becomes impractical.

"But we probably won't look at Eugene, at that point," Julum said.

The commissioners' vote came at the end of a 45-minute public hearing in which neighbors of the proposed armory site urged the board to allow issues of compatibility and wetlands destruction to be settled in the courts before considering the road application.

"There is a process that's going on (in the courts)," said Howard Epstein, who lives near the site. "What we need to do is calm down and follow the process. I don't understand what the hurry is."

Former U.S. Rep. Jim Weaver, who represented Oregon's 4th District, and a couple other speakers also questioned the wisdom of allowing a 122,000-square-foot armory project to be built outside the Eugene-Springfield Urban Growth Boundary, maintaining that the complex would ultimately require city services and would lead to further development in the wooded area.

Weaver went a step further and contended that the National Guard is being used as a pawn in a high-stakes conspiracy between developers and county planners to extend the urban growth boundary.

He suggested "an independent investigation" to look into his allegations of collusion.

"As a veteran of World War II ... I have nothing but the highest regard for our National Guard," Weaver said. "I therefore resent the Guard being used as a dupe to break the UGB."

Dwyer, the board's chairman, chastised Weaver for "impugning the integrity" of the county commissioners but Weaver insisted that his only gripe is with the county's planning staff. Planning Director Kent Howe, who attended the meeting, did not respond.

The armory plans are on hold indefinitely as a result of appeals by the Russel Creek Neighbors Association, the project's chief opponents.

The neighborhood group went to the state Court of Appeals three months ago in a bid to overturn a ruling last December by Lane County Circuit Judge Lyle Velure that the armory proposal complies with land-use laws and can go forward. The neighborhood group maintains that the armory would be inconsistent with existing property uses along McVay Highway and Bloomberg Road.

Opponents also have filed a federal lawsuit challenging the Military Department's plans for mitigating damage its project would cause to wetlands.