Item 5 - PH on Laurel Hill Plan - Laserfiche WebLink

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are currently not served by utilities and may be developed only in conjunction with or subsequent to the construction of Brackenfern Road. Regarding the applicant's argument, the issue that has changed, and visible on the color aerial photo submitted by the applicant, is that access to these lands is now significantly farther from the interchange due to ODOT access controls that have been established subsequent to the Laurel Hill Plan amendment in1982. (See white lines on aerial photo.) These sites appear to have become less desirable due to the additional distance from the interchange to the access points leading to the properties. At the same time, East Laurel Hill Area is actively being developed and redeveloped with increasing residential uses. Because the existing commercial lands have been rendered even less desirable to developers due to the limitatiOns on access, the coordinated development of the residential and commercial node is forestalled. Designating the subject property as commercial will permit the development of both residential and commercial uses in the neighborhood to proceed in balance. This represents a public need for accessible and available commercial areas. 5. The public need to have commercial sites with unique characteristics suited for tourist- oriented commercial development available to the Eugene area. The need for tourist facilities is also cited as a public need for these parcels to be designated commercial. In regard to this statement, Commissioner Duncan requested information on which properties might be most suited to tourist or neighborhood uses. In an informal study of the mapped future roadways, it appears that the commercial properties to the northwest (including the subject site) will most readily be oriented to tourist uses and those to the southeast oriented toward neighborhood uses, by virtue of their proximity to access from the interchange. The~ public, in this case, is comprised of the tourists who would seek more options for travel services such as a motel or commercial goods. Richard Larson, as business attorney for the applicant, presented letters at the public hearing and on September 21, 2004, testifying to inquiries made by motel developers interested in this site. The testimony states: "With the reduction of available units from the recent tear down of the Clarion Motel, the lack of available commercial property at the Gateway Interchange as well as the Coburg Interchange, the ever-increasing traffic on 1-5 and other factors have led to unmet demand for motel and tourist services that are freeway oriented in the Eugene/Springfield area". The testimony further states that the potential motel developers do not find the existing commercially zoned properties as desirable. The potential developers clarified that they were not interested in the applicants' nearby sites because of access and other location-related issues. Given this evidence, staff would concur that the public need for property for tourist uses is unmet with the existing designation of the subject property. The neighborhood maintains the refinement plan limits the sum total of commercial area in the neighborhood to the acreage identified within the commercial node and further interprets that to mean that all existing commercially designated areas shall be developed for there to be evidence of such a need. (See written testimony submitted August 5, 2004 attached to September 14, 2004, Agenda Item Summary.) The applicant is not requesting amendment of the node map, however, but rather the land use map. The site is outside the designated node. Staff notes for clarity that Policy #5 does not specifically relate to the development node, as do several other East Laurel Hill Area refinement plan policies. The policy does, however, use the word IV-7