CC Minutes - 08/16/06 Work Session

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B. WORK SESSION: Jefferson/Westside Options for Immediate Protection City Manager Taylor introduced Planning and Development Director Susan Muir to present the options for addressing concerns raised by the Jefferson Westside Neighborhood. Ms. Muir explained that the purpose of the work session was to consider short-term options to pause or mitigate the R-2 zoning in a portion of what was known as Area 15 of the Jefferson-Far West Refinement Plan as illustrated in Attachment A of the Agenda Item Summary (AIS). She related the history of the issue and described staff’s research and work with residents of the neighborhood. She said many options were brainstormed with the neighborhood to address inappropriate infill and those were set forth in the AIS. She said that additional discussions narrowed the options down to two for further consideration and those would provide a process that would ratify an opinion about the meaning of Low-Medium Residential density. She noted an email from the Jefferson Westside Neighborhood co-chairs with suggestions for action and indicated that those were discussed in the AIS along with a recommendation from the city manager and staff that the actions were not necessary. She discussed the impact on Planning and Development Department resources, the Planning Commission’s and department’s work programs and high priority tasks, as well as the difficulty of responding quickly if the council initiated plan amendments. Ms. Bettman thanked staff for working with the neighborhood. She remarked that one of the council’s high priority goals was protecting neighborhood livability and a component of that was preventing the negative effect of inappropriate infill. She said that Area 15 was a very small area of established, historic single- family housing in a larger neighborhood adjacent to downtown that had a significant amount of density, including several high-rise buildings. She said action was necessary to protect the Area 15 enclave if the council wanted to promote a diversity of housing in the neighborhood. She said if low density zoning was at risk in that area it would remove any incentive for opportunity siting in the neighborhood. Mr. Pryor appreciated Ms. Muir’s candidness regarding the department’s workload as it was essential to know the impact of the proposal on department resources. He said he was comfortable devoting resources to the task and acting swiftly on the matter to resolve the situation as expeditiously as possible. He was impressed by the character of the neighborhood and did not want to see it move in a direction undesirable to the neighborhood and the council. He recognized that reducing densities also reduced residential develop- ment opportunities, but in this case he was willing to accept the trade-off. He fully supported a move to initiate the recommendations related to interpretation and reaching agreement and was in favor of making whatever resources were necessary available to accomplish that quickly. Mr. Papé said he would support protection of the area but was concerned about the precedent being set. He said that similar situations existed in neighborhoods throughout the community. He was concerned that there were inadequate resources to address all of those situations and questioned how neighborhoods would be prioritized for attention. He was also concerned about the impact on density requirements several years in the future. He was willing to move the issue ahead with reservations and hoped that a community-wide solution to preserve certain areas while encouraging opportunity siting could be developed. Ms. Ortiz said she understood the desire to protect neighborhood character, but the issue was a challenge for her because of its effect on the ability of lower income people to find affordable housing. She asked how the goal to protect the urban growth boundary and agricultural land could be achieved if density did not increase. She emphasized the importance of encouraging economic diversity of residents in neighborhoods and said the less development was allowed to happen in better neighborhoods, the harder it would be for people with diverse backgrounds and lower incomes to integrate into the community. MINUTES—City Council August 16, 2006 Page 4 Work Session