08/13/1979 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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. Planning Department requested that Council consideration on the rezoning of property located within Willakenzie Island Area 2 be postponed until e September 12, 1979. Council agreed on the postponement. II. PUBLIC HEARINGS A. Street Direction Change: 12th Avenue (Monroe and Polk Streets Access) (SC 79-4) (Information and Map Distributed) Manager explained this item was a question of street access. The City has gone through a period of testing. The Planning Commission, on a split vote, recommended denial of making the diverters permanent. The staff recommendation was to make them permanent. As prescribed by ordinance, the Manager issued an administrative memo to the Council recommending that the diverters become permanent. Manager referred to the administrative memo. Mr. Farah explained that the diverters were part of the Neighborhood Improvement Program, which has a goal of encouraging reinvestment in the neighborhood. The Westside Neighborhood Quality Project and the T-2000 Transportation Plan have included this concept. The purpose of the diverters is to reroute spillover traffic from arterial streets back to the arterial street. The intention is to get through traffic off 12th Avenue. Public hearing was opened. Listed below were those selected to speak for the group of 24 requesting ~ to be heard in favor of diverters. Mark Palmer, 1190 Monroe, asked the proponents to stand. He fe 1t the diverters enhanced the neighborhood. As a property owner. he felt that car traffic had been reduced. especially through traffic. It was now safer for children to move in the neighborhood and to go to school. He said in the past year. 12 students had been hit by or near Lincoln School by cars. He recognized the inconvenience to the neighborhood. He himself had to go out of his way four blocks to get to his house and he had lost two parking places. He recognized that there was an overflow into the alleyways, but this problem, he felt, could be solved. Ida Engels, 835 West 12th Avenue, said she lived on West 12th Avenue for 25 years. She would like the City to keep the traffic barrier there. Mark Miller. 790 West 12th Avenue. lived across from the traffic barrier. He illustrated on the map where he had acquired the signatures of people in favor of the West 12th diverter. On July 7, in four hours. 200 cyclists had passed and signed his petition. On July 8, for three hours, another 150 cyclists had signed the petition. On August 9, a week day, 160 signatures were obtained in a two-hour period. He said having the diverters affected many people in Eugene by encouraging bicycles, as well as reducing car traffic. e /.f3o 8/13/79--2