The Bethel and Trainsong residential neighborhoods can’t catch a break.
A major California-based gas station chain seeks to build a regional fuel distribution “tank farm” next to the Eugene Union Pacific rail yard, drawing objections from neighbors and other activists who fear environmental and other impacts.
The proposal’s fate lies with Eugene planning staff who will decide whether the city’s land use code allows such a facility on the property, which is zoned for heavy industry. The city doesn’t have a decision timeline.
In its application, H&S Energy of Orange, California, said its “bulk plant” or “tank farm” would have above or below-ground storage tanks holding fuel that would be distributed by tanker truck to gas stations and government and business customers.
Bethel and Trainsong area neighbors are alarmed. The proposal “must be stopped,” says Lin Woodrich, co-chair of the Active Bethel Community neighborhood group. Residents are lobbying the Eugene City Council, although planning staff said the decision is based strictly on the city’s land use code.
The proposal comes just as activists succeeded in beating back an attempt by another company to build a fuels transfer facility next to the rail yard. In that case, Texas-based USD Clean Fuels said it wanted to build a fuels facility on Bethel Drive, at the south end of the sprawling rail yard. USD wanted to transfer fuels from rail cars to tanker trucks for regional distribution. Following community protests, the city decided Eugene’s heavy-industrial zoning rules don’t allow that use.
Scant Info
Only a few details are available on the H&S proposal.
The facility would sit on a vacant seven-acre parcel at the end of pot-holed, unpaved Kintyre Street at the northern edge of the rail yard. The site is wedged between the rail yard and Highway 99.
It would receive fuels via rail, truck or pipeline, says the application. A major gasoline pipeline operated by the Kinder Morgan corporation has a terminal and large tank farm near the rail yard.
H&S has not yet designed the facility, says Jennifer Doty, H&S senior director of real estate.
The project is “a sort of if, sort of maybe sort of thing,” Doty tells Eugene Weekly. “It may or may not happen.” H&S is looking at other sites around the state, she says.
H&S, with more than 50 gas stations in Oregon, likes the site’s proximity to I-5, she says. The company has not yet settled on price with the landowner, Doty says.
Among the groups in opposition is Beyond Toxics, the Eugene-based environmental nonprofit.
“Our main objection to this proposal is that, similar to the [USD Clean Fuels] transfer station, this tank farm does not belong in the middle of our city,” says Lisa Arkin, Beyond Toxics executive director.
The proposed site is in a largely industrial/commercial strip along the west side of the rail yard. But it is close to densely developed residential areas in the Bethel, Trainsong and River Road neighborhoods.
Industrial Zoning
The site is zoned heavy industrial. That’s the same zoning as the land the city rejected for USD Clean Fuels.
The company late last year submitted a zone verification request to the city, a procedure that requires the planning staff to formally confirm whether a particular use is allowed. The city doesn’t have a decision timeline, says Jeff Gepper, the planner handling the request.
Eugene’s zoning code says the purpose of heavy industrial land is to “serve a range of manufacturing uses, including those involved in the processing of large volumes of raw materials into refined products and/or industrial uses that have significant external impacts.” Lighter industrial uses are also allowed.
The land is owned by a corporation controlled by members of the Cole family in Massachusetts and Eugene, according to ownership filings. They bought the land in 1997 for $145,000, according to a deed. It is listed for sale by Campbell Commercial Real Estate of Eugene for $2,295,000.
The site is currently occupied by a caretaker in an RV. A few hens and roosters roam through the trees.
Privately held H&S has been growing rapidly. It owns several hundred convenience stores and gas stations under various brands along the West Coast, according to its website. Last year, it bought California-based Andretti Petroleum Group, which had nearly 170 convenience stores, gas stations and other fuel outlets on the West Coast, according to news reports.