Wednesday, January 19 | 7:00 p.m. | On Zoom
Join the SUN General Meeting with Eugene’s Parking Director Jeff Petry for a discussion about parking during the World Meet.
Registration required to join the Zoom general meeting. Register here to receive your Zoom invitation.
The World’s largest track meet will be held for the first time in the United States July 15-24th at Hayward Field. It’s our neighborhood’s opportunity to welcome visitors, which will include making parking options available to both residents and visitors.
Track events and traffic have grown over the past few years. With no permits, hundreds of visitors have searched for places to park near Hayward. This has led to frustration for visitors, safety concerns, blocked driveways, and loss of street parking for residents with permits. While some neighbors have driveways and garage space, others do not.
The goal is to balance this experience so visitors have clear, reasonable parking options and residents can still access their homes.
After several community meetings, the City and SUN decided to try a parking experiment for last summer’s Trials. First, the Parking Services Program counted all the available parking sites in SUN. Next, the number of Zone A permits already sold was subtracted. Then a number of additional guest permits for residents’ visitors were set aside. Finally, most of the remaining spaces were sold as visitor permits—with priority to teams and support staff. Additional parking was created nearby at South Eugene High School and Autzen, with frequent shuttles to Hayward Field. SUN also received some money from permit sales, which will be allocated to upcoming improvements at University Park.
Following the Trials, SUN neighbors were polled on how to improve this effort. Although the Trials were under attended because of Covid, there were many helpful suggestions, including the need for more clarity in the parking signage and permit information.