Lane Community College: The Significance of College Campus for Regional Recreation Opportunities
October 3, 2025

By Colin McArthur

Eugene’s parks, recreation, and open space system includes 3,900 acres of natural areas, 575 acres of developed parks, 78 miles of paved and unpaved trails, six community centers, and three pools. It is remarkable for its size and diversity and is supplemented by a special ingredient: higher-education campuses.

The University of Oregon is renowned for its thoughtful, sustainable, and integrated campus planning framework, which blends natural beauty with academic needs. Slightly off the map, which is true if you consider Eugene’s current Urban Growth Boundary, is Lane Community College (LCC), within the urban reserve area, and is to be part of Eugene proper in the future. LCC’s campus plays an important and strategic role in the system as a hub and access point, and there are bigger things to come.       

LCC was founded in 1964. It serves more than 25,000 students annually through transfer, career technical, and personal enrichment programs. The main campus is nestled at the southern edge of the Russel Creek Basin, in southeast Eugene, at an elevation of 500-600 feet. The campus land cover is a mix of paved parking lots, paths, buildings dating from the 1970s to 2010s, and landscapes of mixed conifer, deciduous forest, open grasslands, formal gardens, and lawns.

LCC’s athletic facilities are among the best in the region. LCC’s track and field complex has the same surface as Hayward Field, a surface found at only one other venue in the state (OSU), and the hammer cage from the World Athletics Championships. It is the practice track for the significant events at Hayward and a popular venue among athletes and coaches for its training environment.

The OSAA State Cross Country Championships have been held on LCC’s cross country course for over two decades, becoming a permanent venue in the early 2000s. The course has seen state records and legendary performances, with Steve Prefontaine and Galen Rupp among them.

LCC and its three soccer fields are used by Eugene Metro Football Club (EMFC), which serves hundreds of youth players annually, ranging in age from 4 to 18. Although exact totals aren’t published, it’s estimated that well over 500 youth participate each year.

The installation of a synthetic turf baseball field, funded as a 2020 bond project, is under construction and will be completed in the fall. The field will be Eugene’s second fully synthetic turf playing surface, following PK Park.

This was all before the explosion of pickleball. Emerald Valley Pickleball Foundation has an agreement with LCC to construct a state-of-the-art Regional Pickleball Complex on the campus immediately east of the baseball field. The complex is planned to have 24 courts, with 10 covered, and construction is anticipated to start in May 2026. The complex will supplement sports and athletics already on campus.

Of more interest to EPF readers, the campus is the gateway to the eastern access to Suzanne Arlie Park, the largest park in Eugene’s system at 565 acres. The park is largely undeveloped, with habitat enhancements, an extension of the Ridgeline Trail, mountain bike trails, and a trailhead planned for the initial construction phases. Trail crews started work in June and plan to add a two-mile Ridgeline Trail connector from Mt. Baldy and a suite of downhill mountain bike trails by the end of 2026. By the end of 2026, the City hopes to expand the entrance of Gonyea Road and build a dedicated parking lot with about 80 spaces within the park.

As the author can attest, the distance from the LCC track to the planned trailhead at the park is about 1.2 miles and 700 feet in elevation change. It’s a remarkable experience with the expanse of the landscape appearing with each stride of the climb, and the park revealing its vastness.

There is a not-too-distant future where a run and a hike at Suzanne Arlie Park can be preceded or followed by a professional pickleball match, a college baseball game, a track meet, a soccer match, a state cross-country race, or maybe several of those events at the same time. We can attribute that to investment in our public spaces, whether city or state; they are all essential.    

Colin is Principal Planner, AICP
Cameron McCarthy Landscape Architecture & Planning
EPF Board member

Donating Stocks and Crypto Made Easy

Donate StockDonate Crypto