The city of Eugene has acquired an 8-acre piece of property as part of a land exchange with the University of Oregon. It’s along the Willamette River near the city’s new Riverfront Park.
In 2023, the city and university entered into a land exchange agreement to facilitate the UO’s building of an indoor athletic practice facility near Autzen Stadium. The City traded 4 acres on the north side of the river for this property on the south side. The Ruth Bascom bike trail runs through the newly-acquired land.
“It’s just a really exciting piece of property to build off of the downtown riverfront park and just helping to connect our community and our downtown back to its roots with being a Willamette River town,” said Carolyn Burke, Parks and Natural Resource Planning Manager for the City of Eugene.
Burke said city crews have cleaned some garbage and debris from the riverside and some signs have been put up, but not much else has changed so far.
“For now there’s probably not a ton of visual difference that people will see, but we think over the coming months and years, we’ll be planning what kind of restoration activities will happen on the site,” she said.
The city lost parking for the Eugene Science Center and Cuthbert Amphitheater with the land exchange. As part of the deal, the UO is paying for new parking.
“Some of the parking improvements are already in place,” Burke said.
The new parking for the Eugene Science Center has been constructed and is closer to the museum than the previous lot.
The project includes some improvements to the canoe launch and a bridge over the canoe canal along the Willamette.
