Nick Bjork//November 9, 2010//
The wheels have been set in motion for what will hopefully one day become Eugene‘s largest park.
The Eugene City Council gave the Park and Open Spaces division of the city government permission to purchase, for $1.94 million, 314 acres near Lane Community College from Arlie & Co., the Eugene-based cattle owner and development company. The parcel, along with an additional 200-acre parcel the city previously purchased from the company, would make up the new park.
If the deal is completed, the park would become the largest in Eugene. Currently, the 300-acre Alton Baker Park is the largest in the city. One selling point of the park is that a majority of the land is still a natural area, with only a few plots that have been disturbed by logging.
But before the city purchases the parcel, it opened a public comment period about one of the catches to the deal: the city has to name the park after the company’s president, Suzanne Arlie, said Johnny Medlin, director of the parks department. If no one objects by Dec. 3, the city will go ahead with the purchase, he said.
According to Medlin, the public supports for the park regardless of what the name will be.