Eugene report: employment permits steady but industrial land lags forecast

EUGENE, Ore. — City staff told the Envision Eugene technical advisory committee on March 20 that employment development activity has been largely steady since 2013 but remains well below earlier industrial forecasts.

The city reported an average of 41 employment permits per year from 2013 through 2024 and about 4.2 million net new employment square feet during that monitoring period, Heather O'Donnell, senior planner on the long‑range team, said. "The numbers really don't look much different than as we reported in the annual report last year," she said.

The update matters because the buildable lands inventory (BLI) and urban growth strategies rely on accurate permit and demolition tracking to estimate future land need. "We capture demolition permits as TBD when the new use hasn't been permitted yet," O'Donnell said, explaining that some demolition permits remain listed as "to be determined" for years when no replacement permit arrives. The committee heard that staff are working to link demolished uses to replacements in the database so redevelopment patterns can be…