12.10.2018 City Council Work Session Minutes

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MINUTES Eugene City Council Harris Hall, 125 East 8�h Avenue Eugene, Oregon 97401 December 10, 2018 5:30 p.m. Councilors Present: Emily Semple, Betty Taylor, Alan Zelenka, Jennifer Yeh, Mike Clark, Claire Syrett, Chris Pryor, Greg Evans Mayor Vinis opened the December 10, 2018, Work Session of the Eugene City Council. Committee Reports and Items of Interest • Concern expressed about how little time councilors have to review agenda materials. • The need for a downtown day center is more critical than ever; if the City Hall site is no longer an option, an effort should be made to identify an alternative. • Lane Regional Air Protection Agenda is a good forum for those concerned about wood smoke and automobile emissions to express their opinion. • Topics raised by constituents include natural gas, automobile inspections, and categorizing the homeless population to determine how many are homeless by choice. • Providing council agenda materials earlier would allow the public and the council to better understand the issues and surface questions/suggestions on what action should be taken. • December 10 is the 70th anniversary of International Human Rights Day; a celebratory event was held at Churchill High School. • Support discussing ways with which to make work sessions more effective, including a look at the timeline for council agenda materials. 2. WORK SESSION: Housing Tools and Strategies Planning and Development Director Denny Brand, Policy Analyst Jason Dedrick, Economic Development Planner Anne Fifield, and Consultant Carrie Bennett presented a PowerPoint outlining the Housing Tools and Strategies project, including key takeaways, process and next steps. Council Discussion • Important to acknowledge that there were many skeptics at the beginning of this project and the focus of the working group evolved as issues were surfaced and discussed. • Challenging to bring very diverse perspectives to the table and negotiate a shared set of recommendations. • The direction given in the original motion establishing the project timeline has not been completely fulfilled; the report before council is a first step. • Important to have adequate technical and economic analyses to anticipate what will and will not work; preliminary recommendations reflect only what is politically and economically feasible. • Questions asked about whether a budgetary resource for funding to cover the cost of the proposed City pick-up of the Construction Excise Tax had been identified. • Disappointed that the recommendation didn't show how different combinations of strategies might interact with each other and could help council move towards its housing goals; the suggested motions should be council -generated, based on their collective synthesis of the committee's research and discussion. MINUTES — Eugene City Council December 10, 2018 Page 1 Work Session