07/13/1977 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

MINUTES EUGENE CITY COUNCIL July 13, 1977 - Adjourned meeting from July 11, 1977 , of the City Council of the City of Eugene, Oregon, was called to order by His Honor Mayor Gus Keller at 12 p.m. on July 13, 1977 , at the King's Table, Oakway Mall, with the following Council members present: Eric Haws, D. W. Harne I , Tom Williams, Ray Bradley (arrived late), Jack Delay, Scott Lieuallen, Brian Obie, and Betty Smith. 1. Council Work Program and Goals: Economic Development June 1977, report on Eugene's economy in the commercial sector and July 13, 1977 , report from the Planning Department outlining excerpts from the "Beuter Report" were distributed to Council. Mr. Ed Whitelaw, Economic Consultants, Oregon Ltd., was present to briefly summarize the report on Eugene's economy. He said that the purpose was to provide a set of economic planning tools for communities such as Eugene. The report also demonstrates how to use those tools. He noted Council had asked that the report isolate and identify those indicators on which Eugene could rely for its economic planning and also for its forecasts for land use planning, etc. Among things mentioned then were indicators such as prime interest rate, etc. He said those indicators will impact on Eugene, but it is costly for planners to read those indicators and try to trace out the implications of changes for Eugene. Rather, he said they have several e agencies reporting effects already. They have tried in the report to tie economic planning tools to data that are accurate and timely. Mr. Whitelaw said another thrust of the report was to provide a descrip- tive context in which to evaluate Eugene's economy. He said they cleaned up data from the State Employment Division which resulted in as accurate a description of the number of employees in Eugene as there exists. He mentioned that those figures are contained in Table 6 on page 14 of the report and that, from those figures, they constructed forecasts of employ- ment for Eugene and Springfield and the subsequent demand for industrial and commercial land. That forecast was compared with likely supplies of land available in commercial and industrial sectors. The key point, said Mr. Whitelaw, is that the acres zoned may not satisfy the demand. Current growth management and economic development studies are both addressing that issue. Mr. Whitelaw referred to Table 5 on page 10 of the Economic Report. The table gives forecasts of employment for Lane County, by employ- ment sector, in 1980, 1985, 1990, and 1995. He said both high and low forecasts are given, with the high forecasts being updated frequently by Bonneville Power Administration. The BPA forecasts are a little high, he said. They appear to embody too low an employment rate for Lane County. They also appear to ignore the implications of "Beuter Report". Mr. Whitelaw referred to Table 6 on page 14 of the report, which gives the emplo~ent figures by employment sector for Eugene and Springfield. e 7/13/77--1 5b2.