CC Minutes - 10/20/08 Public Hearing

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Kathy Saranpa , Friendly Street, Eugene, said she was vice chair of the Crest Drive Neighborhood Association and a member of the Crest Drive Community Team Advisory Group, but was speaking as a private citizen. She spoke in support of local street designation for Crest Drive, Friendly Street and Storey Boulevard. She reviewed the history of neighborhood involvement in the street design process and said that local street designation made the most sense. She urged approval of the ordinance for local designation. Barbara Donovan , Crest Drive, Eugene, thanked the council for their support of efforts to keep the Crest neighborhood livable and reviewed the history of context-sensitive design work. She had thought that the context-sensitive design process meant that it would not be necessary to come before the council for permission to go slightly outside the guidelines for Eugene’s improvement standards. She said local street designation was central to the neighborhood’s values; local streets allowed traffic-calming efforts and collectors did not. She said even though residents were assured street design would not change with collector designation, it would open the door to future improvements. She urged the council to approve local street designation. Len Bailey , Friendly Street, Eugene, thanked the council for its support of the context-sensitive design process. He said Crest Drive area neighbors had worked hard to achieve local street designation, but City staff had refused to consider any designation other than collectors and had thwarted the process. He asked the council to vote to designate the neighborhood streets as local. John Rude , Courtney Place, Eugene, said he had been active in the context-sensitive design process. He related that several years ago the neighborhood had vehemently opposed collector street designation and that resulted in the design process, during which City engineers said that collector designation was off the table. The design work was based on the assumption of local street designation and with the intent of decreased pass-through traffic, slower speeds, enhanced livability, preservation of the neighborhood’s historical value and protection of the natural environment. He questioned why the council, given the City’s investment in the process to-date, would consider changing classification and redesigning streets based on collector designa- tion. He asked the council to uphold the integrity of the work and support local street designation. Sherie Hawley , Storey Boulevard, Eugene, displayed the large amount of materials accumulated over the past six years of work on the Crest Drive neighborhood street design process. She said much of the work focused on the core issue of classification in a context-sensitive design process. She said the basic question still remained: collector or local designation. She said higher traffic counts on neighborhood streets were the result of cut-through traffic and that would be eliminated with traffic-calming measures. She asked to have the streets designated as local streets so the designs could be completed. Dave Pompel , View Lane, Eugene, expressed concern about collector designation increasing speed on Crest Drive. He said residents along View Lane were blind to cars coming from the west on Crest Drive when pulling out of their driveways. He said any possibility of increasing speed on the street would put those who lived on View Lane at even greater risk and accidents were inevitable. Susan Stafford , Storey Boulevard, Eugene, reviewed the time, efforts and funds that had gone into context- sensitive street design. She said the intent was to improve safety for pedestrians, cyclists and local residents. The potential 35 mph designation under collector status would ignore that work and be an insult to all of those who participated in it. She asked the council to approve the ordinance. MINUTES—Eugene City Council October 20, 2008 Page 2 Public Hearing