UO E-clips, Aug. 30-Sept. 2

Developers object to rules for new housing near UO (Register-Guard): Lane County's home builders group is challenging the Eugene City Council's decision to change two key rules for building new apartments in neighborhoods near the University of Oregon. The dispute pits home builders not only against the council but against neighbors around the UO who don't like the impacts of big apartment complexes. The Homebuilders Association of Lane County has appealed two land use ordinances that the City Council passed on Aug. 11, including a change to require developers to provide more off-street parking for new apartments in the west university and south university neighborhoods near the UO campus. Another change in the ordinance would lower the maximum height of new apartment buildings on the edge of the south university neighborhood.

Duck game occupies police on Saturday (Register-Guard): Eugene police reported a busy weekend, thanks in no small part to the Duck football game. Police officers working the University of Oregon season opener ejected 60 spectators on Saturday night. Forty-four of these were because of alcohol, police said, and an additional seven related to disorderly conduct. The rest of the ejections were for a variety of reasons, including trespass and possession of less than an ounce of marijuana. Heavy postgame traffic was exacerbated when a driver crashed her car into a telephone pole on Coburg Road near Harlow Road around 7:40 p.m., Eugene police said.

Higher ed projects in Oregon (Associated Constructions Publication): Building contractors throughout the Northwest may be watching nervously for signs that their markets are starting to contract, as is the case in other parts of the country, and indeed there are a few warning flags on the horizon. Whether the region's economy is in a recession or not, the mere raising of the question is cause for concern. Likewise, announcements of project delays and postponements can shake the optimism of anyone. ... Two substantial construction projects are under way this year within sight of each other on the University of Oregon campus in Eugene. John Hyland Construction Inc., of Eugene, is nearing completion of the $17.8-million expansion and renovation of the MarAbel B. Frohnmayer Music Building. The expansion will add 29,000 square feet to the existing building, increasing its total size by about 50 percent.

Revised plan for UO arena hits tree snag (Register-Guard): Eugene residents may get to vote on one aspect of the University of Oregon's proposed new basketball arena: whether the UO should be allowed to cut down an old oak tree on Franklin Boulevard. A revised plan for the UO's new arena features a significantly smaller underground garage and could include new limits on street parking aimed at keeping cars out of the Fairmount neighborhood. The plan also calls for cutting down more than half the trees in and around the arena site, plus one so-called heritage tree on Franklin that might come under a city ordinance requiring a citywide vote before it can be felled. It's unclear at this point whether a citywide vote is required for removing the oak, which has a 14-inch diameter trunk and is in the city-owned landscaped median on Franklin.