Jobs a bonus, but office plan irks residents.

Byline: Edward Russo The Register-Guard

CORRECTION (ran 4/12/2005): Rick Wright is president and chief executive of Wright's Foodliner Inc., the parent company of Market of Choice. Wright's job title was incorrect in a Sunday article.

Eugene developer Wally Graff is known for constructing quality office buildings that offer space for desirable medical jobs. So why the unhappy faces about his biggest proposal to date?

In the next couple of years, Graff plans to build two large medical office buildings on vacant land just east of Autzen Stadium, at Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Garden Way.

The buildings will house 30 doctors and upwards of 90 employees in two outpatient surgical centers, plus affiliated offices, Graff said.

Many doctors and staff will move from existing offices elsewhere in Eugene-Springfield, Graff said, "but there are a lot of new jobs being created here."

In spite of the job creation, the $30 million development isn't what city officials and area residents had in mind for the property, near Chase Village and other large apartment complexes favored by university students.

Harlow neighborhood residents for years have wanted a grocery store in the area. Their desires meshed with those of city officials, who six years ago identified the area as suitable for a mix of housing, office and retail buildings.

Planners envisioned a variety of housing types surrounding a commercial center.

Residents could get to work or to shops in the commercial area by walking or riding bicycles instead of driving. People who lived farther away could take buses there.

Graff's buildings may contain a small store or two, but they are far from the vision embraced by residents and public officials. With other development plans for the area, it appears the fields will one day have yet more apartments and new offices, but little neighborhood-oriented retail business.

Now, Harlow residents are engaged in a last-ditch effort to change Graff's plans. They have asked the City Council to get involved.

"We are not opposed to medical buildings going in, but let's provide some day-to-day services for residents of the area," said Terry Froemming, president of the Harlow Neighbors Association.

City planners say that there is little that councilors can do to stop the development. Rules governing use of the property allow the buildings.

With last year's passage of Measure 37, planners said that changing the zoning may affect the development potential of the property. That could invite a compensation claim against the city, they said.

Measure 37 "really curtails the options that the council might have," Eugene Planning Director Tom Coyle said.

The development outlook for the property and its recent history illustrate the difficulty that city officials have had in promoting mixed-use centers, where people can live, work and shop within a quarter-mile area.

It also shows that planners can identify potential uses for an area, but market forces will dictate whether a desired business will locate there.

The intent of planning for mixed-use centers (previously called nodal developments) is to use land more efficiently than typical subdivisions or shopping centers by encouraging the construction of multistory buildings in pedestrian-friendly environments so that people will be more willing to leave their cars at home and walk, ride bicycles or take public transit instead.

An underlying goal is to get more people out of their cars as the city grows so that streets won't be as congested.

Planners were asked, "How do you influence transportation demand so you don't have to build so many roads?" city planner Allen Lowe said. "How do you change people's behavior, basically."

The Chase Gardens area was identified as potential mixed-use center.

Home to about 5,000 people, the area is sandwiched between Interstate 105 on the north and the Willamette River on the south.

Nearby residents, including those in the Chevy Chase neighborhood south of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, now must make a four- to five-mile round-trip to a grocery store in Eugene or Springfield.

Graff and his investor group have owned the Chase Gardens property for only a few months. Previously, the land belonged to Simpson Housing, the owner of Chase Village. Simpson owned a total of 20 acres in the area.

Three years ago, Simpson and a Portland-area developer, Gramor Corp., were sharing ideas with city officials as part of the process to develop mixed-use design guidelines for the property.

Simpson and Gramor were thinking of building an upscale retail, office and housing development.

For the shopping area, their initial conceptual plans showed a 150,000-square-foot, single-story commercial center with several buildings, including a 50,000-square-foot grocery story as the anchor tenant.

The guidelines ultimately approved by the City Council required buildings along Garden Way to be two story and to have two entrances. The potential developers disliked both conditions.

The two-story requirement did not help the project, said Eugene consultant Rick Satre, who collaborated with Simpson's design consulting firm.

"Quite frankly, (Chase is) a suburban environment, it's not downtown and two functional floors of neighborhood commercial won't work there," Satre said.

In spite of an invitation by Coyle, Eugene's planning director, to try to have the conditions rescinded by the council, Simpson and Gramor never submitted a development plan for the property.

Instead, Simpson sold more than half of the vacant property to Portland-based Public Private Partnerships, which is proposing to build a 240-unit, affordable housing complex between Commons Drive and Garden Way.

Last December, Simpson sold the 8.5 acres next to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Garden Way to Graff for $2.7 million.

Some residents think the council's building conditions chased Gramor and Simpson away, ending the area's best chance for a true mixed-use center.

Graff, however, doesn't buy it.

He said he has tried, and failed, to recruit a grocery store to the property.

Graff said retailers have told him the area doesn't have enough residents to support a large supermarket.

Among others, Graff asked Market of Choice to consider the site for a store.

Rick Wright, executive vice president of the Eugene-based retailer, said he previously had been invited to open an outlet on the property by Gramor. He declined then, too.

"The site has some flaws and limits that would make it very difficult for a grocery store to prosper," Wright said. "Developing a grocery store is a very expensive investment and smart grocers build stores on sites that have tremendous upside and limited downside."

Graff, who is currently building an office for Oregon Medical Group on Barger Avenue in west Eugene, said that he hopes to attract a small neighborhood-oriented grocery store to one of his two buildings.

The potential tenant is a Eugene convenience store operator, Graff said, but the store that he has in mind for the development would offer more items than a convenience store.

"We want to be a good neighbor," he said.

At the Harlow Neighbors' request, the City Council on Monday evening will discuss Graff's proposal and what, if anything, councilors can do about residents' desire for a store in the development.

"Residents kind of feel left out of the process," said Council President George Poling, who represents the area. "Is this what we truly want as a mixed use development?"

Councilor David Kelly doesn't think there is much that the council can do about Graff's plans, even if it wanted to.

Some cities have review panels to ensure that developments match neighborhood and community goals, he said. Eugene doesn't.

Graff said his two buildings could total 105,000 square feet to 140,000 square feet of offices.

Kelly said such building density near a major street is a good thing, one of the goals of mixed use centers.

"I must say that although I didn't picture 150,000 square feet of medical offices there," he said, "I will give the developer credit in one sense. And that is, it's intensive use of the land.

`I would much rather see three-, four-, five-story development on that major arterial than one- or two-story development."