Council expands drinking area to parking lots near Autzen.

Byline: Edward Russo The Register-Guard

Tailgating parties with alcohol will be legal in the parking lots near Autzen Stadium on home football game days, the Eugene City Council decided Monday.

Councilors voted 6-2 to expand the legal drinking area around Autzen, but not before debating whether it was wise public policy.

A council majority said the approach was a practical response to regulating an overwhelmingly popular game day tradition - tailgating parties with beer and other alcoholic drinks.

"We are not allowing no-holds barred drinking around Autzen Stadium," Councilor Alan Zelenka said. "What we are doing is acknowledging that drinking is occurring and we have limited resources to deal with it."

But a council minority said expanding the legal drinking area during Duck football games was the last thing the council should do.

"We are sending the wrong message," Councilor Bonny Bettman said. "People can watch sports without the expectation of getting intoxicated and getting in their cars and driving home."

The council vote means private parking lot operators near Autzen would get the same game-day exemption from Eugene's law banning drinking in public that the city gives the University of Oregon for its massive stadium lot.

Voting in favor of the expanded drinking area were Zelenka and councilors George Poling, Jennifer Solomon, Chris Pryor, Andrea Ortiz and Mike Clark. Joining Bettman against the idea was Councilor Betty Taylor.

The change will take effect in 30 days, in time to cover the last two home football games of the year.

That means that during the next month it's still illegal to drink in the lots around Autzen. Yet Police Chief Robert Lehner told councilors that he doesn't have enough officers to prevent tailgaters from drinking alcohol.

Poling, who represents the Autzen area on the council, said the police department would need at least 40 more officers to enforce the current public drinking law.

"We don't have 40 additional officers," he said. "So by passing this ordinance, we will have some way of controlling this" through the parking lot operators.

Before approving the ordinance, councilors made a change. Instead of allowing drinking to continue in parking lots for up to two hours after football games, as the ordinance was originally written, the council decided that drinking should stop when the games end.

Some Duck fans may not like it, but Ortiz said cutting off drinking earlier would give inebriated fans time to sober up before driving home.

Several of the parking lots are owned or operated by nonprofit groups, which charge football fans to park. Many of the groups rely on the fees for their fundraising and charitable giving.

In return for the expanded drinking area, private lot operators would have to register with the city and post signs and distribute fliers informing football fans not to sell alcohol or to distribute it to minors, among other things.

If they fail to regulate drinkers, the operators could be fined $200. Second violations would result in a $500 fine. An operator would lose their license for a year if they have a third violation within 12 months.

The police department surveyed parking lots during the Sept. 15 game against Fresno State and found that 18 of 23 pay-for-use parking lots near Autzen allowed tailgating parties with alcohol.

Two weeks ago, members of Mothers Against Drunk Driving and other residents urged the council not to expand the drinking area.

Before the vote on Monday, Dan Williams, assistant to the UO president, supported the change.

Life would be less "problematic" if alcohol didn't exist, he said.

But it does, and football fans expect to tailgate, Williams said. The university "cannot be insensitive to the expectations" of fans who purchase tickets to athletic events, he said.