09/26/1990 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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e fact. He urged the council to leave the ballot title as it is currently certified. Responding to public testimony, Mr. Gary said that the measure proponents and appellants are disputing what the ballot measure provides in terms of street access downtown. He acknowledged the ambiguous nature of the measure, and reminded the council that its role is to make a decision on the appeal based on what the council believes is an accurate reflection of what the measure says, not what it would do. Mr. Gary noted that if the council believes that the measure would close the section of Broadway Street in question and feels that this should be included in the ballot title, he has prepared an alterna- tive draft. Responding to a question from Ms. Ehrman, Mr. Gary said that there is no document that clearly delineates the boundaries of the Eugene Downtown Mall. Responding to a request for clarification from Mr. Boles, Mr. Gary said that measure appellants believe that the phrase "no additional vehicular traffic" in Section 3 of the measure refers directly to Section 2 which would prohibit all vehicles "except for public emergency and utility vehicles." Mr. Holmer said that the current ballot title wording does not reflect that a public vote would be required in order to authorize additional vehicles on the section of Broadway Street in question. He felt that this is one of the primary aims of the measure and suggested that the ballot title be reworded to reflect this. e Ms. Schue asked how the measure would be interpreted with the current ballot title wording. Mr. Gary explained that if both the wording of the measure and ballot title were considered to be ambiguous, a judicial body would then be forced to question how the voters interpreted the measure. If the council elected to resolve this ambiguity in ballot title wording, it would serve as future reference for what the voters had intended. Ms. Ehrman asked whether the property in question is public or private prop- erty. Mr. Gleason responded that the road beds in front of First Interstate Bank are public right-of-way. Mr. Boles moved, seconded by Ms. Ehrman, to approve the ballot title as certified by the City Attorney's Office. Mr. Rutan moved, seconded by Ms. Schue, to amend the motion to include the addition of the phrase "other than existing ac- cess" in sentence two and "additional" in the last sentence of the ballot measure explanation. The amendment passed unan- imously, 6:0. Ms. Schue indicated her interest in rewording the ballot title to reflect the revised ballot explanation. e MINUTES--Eugene City Council September 26, 1990 Page 3