Eugene, OR, USA

Principal, Fodor & Associates
Employer Type: Self-employed

Eben Fodor is a community planning consultant. His firm, Fodor & Associates, is based in Eugene, Oregon and does land use and growth management consulting, development impact analysis and sustainable community planning. He represents businesses, individuals and community groups in land use appeals and helps resolve land use and development conflicts. He has been one of the leading researchers on the impacts of urban growth. He writes on growth and sustainability issues and speaks on these topics across the US.

His popular book on managing growth, Better, Not Bigger – How To Take Control of Urban Growth and Improve Your Community was published in 1999 (updated in 2001) by New Society Publishers (http://www.newsociety.com).

He is the author of Assessment of Statewide Growth Subsidies in Oregon, February 2002, for Alternatives to Growth Oregon, The Cost of Growth in Washington State, published by Columbia Public Interest Policy Institute, October 2000 and co-author of Taking Its Toll: The Hidden Cost of Sprawl in Washington State, published by Climate Solutions, February 2000.

Before moving to Eugene in 1990, he worked in Washington, D.C. as an engineer and executive in the energy industry developing energy conservation programs and high-efficiency technology for residential and commercial space conditioning. He served as an elected neighborhood leader in Washington, D.C. during one of that area’s most rapid growth periods (1987-1990).

He is a member of the Technical Advisory Committee for the Mayor’s Sustainable Business Initiative. He founded the Progressive Leadership Forum in 2001 to unite progressive City Councilors across the state of Oregon on urban growth issues.

He founded Friends of Eugene in 1993, a charitable organization created to encourage greater public involvement in local planning and land use issues. He served as president for the first three years. He is a founding member of Citizens for Public Accountability, a Eugene-area group concerned about the environmental and economic impacts of the Hyundai computer chip factory and the need for greater public accountability in local economic development programs. He helped found LandWatch Lane County in 1996 to promote responsible land use policies in the county.

He served as executive director of the Community Progress Board – a group of business, civic and environmental leaders who worked together to develop quality-of-life and sustainability indicators for the Eugene-Springfield metro area. He organized a campaign to successfully defeat an $80 million bridge expansion that would have sent a freeway through the heart of downtown Eugene and encourage sprawl north of the city. He served as a member of the Citizens Utility Board of Oregon for three years and as a member of the City of Eugene’s Rates Advisory Committee reviewing development impact fees.

• Fodor & Associates: Sustainable Community Planning