Preserving a park.Byline: The Register-Guard The residents who live near Lane County's surplus Ocean Woods park parcel in Florence should all get together and buy lottery tickets today. Their luck is scorching scorch v. scorched, scorch·ing, scorch·es v.tr. 1. To burn superficially so as to discolor or damage the texture of. See Synonyms at burn1. 2. hot right now. A scant scant adj. scant·er, scant·est 1. Barely sufficient: paid scant attention to the lecture. 2. Falling short of a specific measure: a scant cup of sugar. couple of days ago, the county was practically counting its money from the proposed sale of the 40-acre Ocean Woods property for residential development. Proceeds from the sale, which could have been up to a million bucks, would have been used to make improvements to parks in the Eugene-Springfield area. But county commissioners voted unanimously Wednesday to reverse their earlier decision to sell. The change of heart had a lot to do with the last-minute discovery of a zoning glitch A temporary or random hardware malfunction. It is possible that a bug in a program may cause the hardware to appear as if it had a glitch in it and vice versa. At times it can be extremely difficult to determine whether a problem lies within the hardware or the software. See glitch attack. , and maybe more than a little to do with how much the idea to sell the land seemed, on reflection, like a mercenary mercenary Hired professional soldier who fights for any state or nation without regard to political principles. From the earliest days of organized warfare, governments supplemented their military forces with mercenaries. breach of trust. Granted, the county's Parks Advisory Committee had recommended selling Ocean Woods to pay for projects such as refurbishing the boat moorage area at Richardson Park on the Fern Ridge Reservoir Fern Ridge Reservoir is a reservoir on the Long Tom River in the U.S. state of Oregon. The reservoir is located approximately 12 miles (19 km) west of Eugene on Oregon Route 126. Fern Ridge Reservoir is a U.S. , expanding the camping area at Armitage Park and revamping shelters at Camp Lane. Worthy projects, all. Granted, the committee said Ocean Woods didn't meet the county's criteria for service as a regional park as well as two other, much larger park properties in the same general area. Granted, the county's parks division receives no money from the general fund budget and must rely on car rental tax revenue and user fees to maintain its recreation areas. But in the past 40 years, no one has ever said Ocean Woods would be anything but a public park. There was even an explicit deed restriction placed on the property limiting its use as open space for a park. People bought property near Ocean Woods with the good-faith expectation that Lane County would do what the deed from the state of Oregon specified. Commissioners needed a nudge nudge 1 tr.v. nudged, nudg·ing, nudg·es 1. To push against gently, especially in order to gain attention or give a signal. 2. to revisit re·vis·it tr.v. re·vis·it·ed, re·vis·it·ing, re·vis·its To visit again. n. A second or repeated visit. re the issue, and they got it when county staff members discovered that rather than being zoned for residential development, as previously thought, Ocean Woods actually falls under a beaches and dunes designation that declares it a "natural resource" zone. All's well that ends well. Maybe county commissioners can persuade those lucky Ocean Woods neighbors to let them join in on a Powerball buy. |
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