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MINUTES <br />Eugene City Council <br />Harris Hall, 125 East 8th Avenue <br />Eugene, Oregon 97401 <br />February 12, 2020 <br />12:00 p.m. <br />Councilors Present: Betty Taylor, Emily Semple, Alan Zelenka, Jennifer Yeh, Mike Clark <br />Councilors Absent: Greg Evans, Claire Syrett <br />Mayor Vinis opened the February 12, 2020, meeting of the Eugene City Council. <br />1. Work Session: Incentives for Accessory Dwelling Units <br />Economic Development Planner Anne Fifield presented information about financial incentives <br />that could lower the cost of building ADUs. <br />Discussion <br />Councilor Clark - said although he was assured he doesn't have a conflict, to be safe he wanted <br />to declare a potential conflict because his job involves lending people money to buy and build <br />houses and ADUs; said he asked for this work session to talk about the idea of a property tax <br />exemption; discussed implementing a waiver for the City's portion of property taxes that <br />doesn't have to rely on state statute; said he had talked with the previous city manager about <br />voluntary annexation in Santa Clara and River Road and had been told that the City could offer a <br />10-year tax waiver for joining the City; said he'd like to see what a path forward for this option <br />might be; said that there were many pros and cons missing from the lists, including one <br />advantage that even if an incentive only resulted in a small percentage, the ability to borrow can <br />turn on a very small amount of money and the impact could be significant; said he wants to <br />discuss hooking up ADUs to the existing house instead of new hookups to the street. <br />Councilor Zelenka - asked how many ADUs were built 2018 and 2019; asked if there was <br />evidence that the already -reduced SDCs have stimulated construction of ADUs; asked about the <br />current practice of waiving SDCs for affordable housing units; talked about how SDCs aren't just <br />fees used to cover costs, but to pay for future infrastructure and when they're not collected, less <br />infrastructure is built or money must be found somewhere else; asked if the City is seeing any <br />low-income SDC waivers for owner -occupied single family dwellings; asked if the City's building <br />permit services are entirely covered by fees; asked at what cost an ADU mortgage would be at <br />or below the workforce affordable housing threshold. <br />Councilor Taylor - asked whether adoption of any of the proposed incentives would allow <br />council to limit them to owner -occupied ADUs; said she might support the property tax <br />exemption if limited to owner -occupied units. <br />Councilor Pryor - said fractions of a percent in costs can influence whether someone can build <br />or not and supported the development of pre -approved building plans; said that MUPTE should <br />not be the mechanism used for ADU property tax exemptions; said he's been considering <br />LIRHPTE expansions and using this is a starting point; said waiving or scaling SDCs is a good <br />idea if it applies specifically to ADUs; said the council has to commit to ADUs and be willing to <br />endure the cost impact if SDCs, building fees, or land use application fees are lower. <br />Councilor Yeh - said she'd like to consider developing pre -approved plans because this could <br />result in significant savings and would be a one-time initial fee for an ongoing resource; <br />supported targeting low-income folks if possible and to identify ways to target that <br />MINUTES - Eugene City Council February 12, 2020 Page 1 <br />Work Session <br />