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MINUTES Eugene City Council Work Session McNutt Room--Eugene City Hall October 27, 2004 Noon COUNCILORS PRESENT: Bonny Bettman, George Poling, Nancy Nathanson, Scott Meisner, David Kelly, Betty Taylor, Jennifer Solomon. Mayor James D. Torrey called the meeting of the Eugene City Council to order. A. WORK SESSION: Economic Development Committee Recommendations Regarding Updates to the City Code City Manager Dennis Taylor indicated that the work session was another on the recommendations of the Mayor's Committee on Economic Development. The focus of the work session was on Chapter 9 of the Eugene Land Use Code. Planning and Development Director Tom Coyle noted the recommendation before the council was the third of four recommendations forwarded by the committee. The recommendation regarded the predictability of outcomes associated with permitting. The committee discussed some principles to guide the City's review of the Land Use Code. Mr. Coyle called the council's attention to the seven principles that the committee wanted to see applied as the City went through its next code update, described in the council's Agenda Item Summary (ALS) as follows: · Intuitive. Staff and the public find the code difficult and confusing, and it is likely more complex than it needs to be to achieve the City's goals. A thoughtful audit of the effectiveness of criteria and standards should be done to measure their value. · Adaptable. At this time, the City's code is %ne size fits all." It could be more flexible and adapt- able on a project-by-project basis. Establishing flexible and adaptable tools would allow City staff to better respond to challenges and issues that come up during the development process. · Enabling. Entrust staff to carry out policies and objectives by utilizing professional expertise. Empower staff to use creative problem-solving to achieve set policies and goals. Provide the framework for bounded delegation. Allow staff to make practical, rational decisions on common sense matters. Common-sense requests by applicants often require exception processes and may be burdensome. · Logical. There should be a discernible path from the standards and criteria to the objective the City is trying to achieve. Make it make sense. Every time amendments to the code are proposed it should be asked ~What issue is the City trying to address, what problem is it trying to solve?' · Strategic. Having a code that is less detail-oriented and more form-based with adjustable processes that allow more responsiveness to staff, developers, and neighbors about how to achieve goals and policies can allow staff to be more open to negotiations and hands-on problem-solving. · Fair. The code must recognize there will be a variety of different stakeholder needs that must be MINUTES--Eugene City Council October 27, 2004 Page 1 Work Session