CC Minutes - 11/15/00 Work Session

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B.Work Session: The Downtown/VVillamette River/Franklin Boulevard Visioning Project Ms. Nathanson provided background on the item. She noted the formation of the Ad hoc Committee on Greater Downtown Visioning, which included Ms. Nathanson as chair and Mr. Meisner and Mr. Rayor as members. She said that the final report was prepared by that committee. She suggested that the council accept the report and then determine what to do with it. Ms. Nathanson recommended that the council direct the City Manager to develop a Phase 2 of the process, with focus areas and key next steps added by the council. Ms. Nathanson reviewed the process used by the committee to develop the report. She highlighted and explained some of the recommendations in the report. Ms. Nathanson said she thought that the report was exciting and she hoped the council would accept it and move into the next phase. Planning and Development Department Director Paul Farmer continued the presentation, first placing the study in the context of other ongoing studies and planning efforts and highlighting key next steps prioritized by the committee. He described the public input activities and noted the Web site established for the process. Ms. Taylor said the booklet produced in conjunction with the effort was beautiful, interesting, and well put together. She said she had attended the public input sessions and the attendance at those meetings indicated a high level of community interest in what happened downtown. She thought that the City should hold another community-wide, all-day meeting, so that all those who were interested could attend and look at the report's priorities. Ms. Taylor thought zoning for downtown was a high priority and was glad the committee addressed the topic. Her definition of downtown did not include Franklin Boulevard or the river. She thought the parts of the core that were degraded should be priorities. She liked the concept of protecting the edges of downtown but wanted to fill in downtown before expanding activities outside the core. Ms. Taylor did not want the entire downtown to become office space only. She did not think office space contributed to an active downtown at night and suggested that less office space should be planned for because of that fact. Ms. Taylor liked the report's mentions of pedestrian access and of retaining the Farmers Market. She emphasized the importance of taking action on the Farmers Market soon. Mr. Meisner emphasized that the report was a vision, not a plan. He had not liked the consultants used in the process, saying at times the committee made progress in spite of them, but he thought the staff work was tremendous. Mr. Meisner was unsure that acceptance of the report implied acceptance of the priority key steps recommended by the committee; he was not sure the council should direct staff to scope each priority. Mr. Meisner thought a new zoning district was important but said design review was more vital. The whole downtown could be in a single zone and it could still result in the construction of terrible structures. Mr. Meisner liked the general concept of returning to the river and giving citizens a sense that the river was near downtown. He observed that the river followed Franklin Boulevard for a long distance but one traveling along the road would never know that fact, which led to some of the committee's recommendations. MINUTES--Eugene City Council November 15, 2000 Page 3 Work Session