CC MInutes - 11/13/06 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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community.” He believed that the collecting of tax money, as suggested by the City Manager, was a good, common-sense business idea, and he had testified to EWEB commissioners in support of the plan. He did not feel that EWEB should become a public service monopoly; rather, EWEB was a part of the community fostered by the City Council. He thought EWEB should function independently rather than subject all decisions to the City Council. He believed, however, that there should be a better way to communicate between the two. He suggested to the EWEB commissioners that they form a standing committee with representatives of the two bodies to meet periodically and foster the exchange of ideas, cooperation, and to work through conflicts. Charles Biggs , 540 Antelope Way, said he had gone to the Metropolitan Planning Committee meeting held on the previous Thursday. He expressed his outrage at the cost of a traffic camera project that was part of the implementation of the 2003 Intelligent Transportation Plan for the region. He related that the eight traffic camera installations were slated to cost $800,000. He felt that the reason no one objected was because the money was from the federal Metropolitan Transportation Improvement Program funding and was “just taxpayers’ money.” He said he had looked further into the plan and “tallied” the total for the camera project. He alleged that the total was $22 million with another $1 million in software. He wondered why no one had “raised their eyebrows.” He suggested that members of the public should call their councilors and ask them why this money was being spent in that manner. He said he would be back before the council to further report on this matter. James R. Seaberry , 1475 Green Acres Road, Space #162, spoke in support of the proposed one-year moratorium on mobile/manufactured home park closures. He felt one year was insufficient and suggested the moratorium be for seven years. He pointed out that people could work to upgrade the mobile home parks and make them better places. Zachary Vishanoff, Patterson Street, thanked staff “for wrangling over how people can get paperwork to” the council. He looked forward to being able to “finalize” that so he could provide the council with “the right documents” so that councilors could understand “the problems with the planning.” He alleged that the University of Oregon was using money from the sale of Westmoreland student housing to purchase the “Joe Romania site” and would use this to “help facilitate mixed-use development on Franklin and the pie-in-the- sky basketball arena.” Mr. Vishanoff felt the borders of the Walnut Node had been “drawn up in a cookie cutter fashion.” He suggested the City “go to Salem” and ask for “more free money” in order to study the historic preservation of the Fairmount Neighborhood. He noted that a historic review of the River Road/Santa Clara Neighbor- hood had been undertaken and some of the borders of proposed mixed-use areas had been altered as a result. He felt this was a good idea because it caused less animosity from the neighbors. He reiterated that the City should ask the State for money to conduct such a study of the Fairmount area. Additionally, he opined that the butterfly lot should “get a public hearing” before it was sold. Mayor Piercy closed the Public Forum and called for council comments. Councilor Kelly thanked everyone who took the time to come down. In particular, he wished to thank people for their organized and eloquent remarks on the mobile home park situation. He averred that nothing was more fundamental than food and shelter. He said society and government did much to protect the roof over peoples’ heads. He thought there were likely many layers of legal complexity surrounding this issue and thought a work session for the councilors was in order. MINUTES—Eugene City Council November 13, 2006 Page 4 Regular Meeting