CC Minutes - 10/20/08 Public Hearing

Home Browse Search

M I N U T E S Eugene City Council Public Hearing/Work Session Council Chamber 777 Pearl Street—Eugene, Oregon October 20, 2008 7:30 p.m. COUNCILORS PRESENT: Chris Pryor, Andrea Ortiz, Mike Clark, Jennifer Solomon, George Poling, Betty Taylor, Alan Zelenka, Bonny Bettman. Her Honor Mayor Kitty Piercy called the meeting of the Eugene City Council to order. 1. PUBLIC HEARING An Ordinance Amending the 1999 Street Classification Map and Classifying All of the Streets in the Crest Drive Area as Local Streets and An Ordinance Amending the 1999 Street Classification Map and Classifying Portions of Crest Drive, Storey Boulevard, and Friendly Street as Neighborhood Collectors and the Remaining Streets in the Crest Drive Area as Local Streets Mayor Piercy opened the public hearing and reviewed the procedures for providing testimony. Paul Moore , Potter Street, Eugene, said classification acknowledged actual traffic patterns and classified streets accordingly. He said classification as a neighborhood collector would not automatically increase the permitted speed to 35 miles per hour (mph). He said there were three criteria for increasing the speed limit: average daily trips, crash history and 85 percent of the vehicles were moving at a particular speed or less. A request from the City to change the speed limit had to demonstrate that those criteria were met; street classification was not a factor. th Deb Frisch , West 11 Avenue, stated that the Crest area neighbors were extraordinarily selfish as Storey Boulevard and Crest Drive were the main arterials facilitating the egress of bicyclists from Eugene onto the Lorane Highway and local vineyards. She said there was already uneasy tension between limousines on wine tasting tours and cyclists on that route and the selfish neighborhood association had persuaded the council that their space was more important than bicyclists’ right to a safe route. She cautioned the council about liability when a cyclist was killed. John Donovan , Crest Drive, Eugene, said the citizens of Crest Drive had worked for several years in good faith with City engineers to create a road plan that respected the topography and safety concerns of all the residents in the Crest Drive area and at the outset stated their desire for a low impact, slow road that not only served residents but visitors who came to the neighborhood. He said after all that effort City engineers continued to subvert the collaborative process because they preferred collector streets and intended to install a 20-foot roadbed. He said it was difficult to trust the democratic process. He said neighbors were asking for local streets that respected the terrain and topography instead of car-centric designs that had greater environmental impact and greater costs. He said bicyclists and pedestrians were safer where traffic was slow and low in volume. MINUTES—Eugene City Council October 20, 2008 Page 1 Public Hearing