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"dumbfounded" by the opposition voiced by other councilors. The amendment did not add to the complexity <br />of the application; it only moved a line on a map "a little bit." Mr. Kelly believed the amendment would <br />leave 80 to 85 percent of the land in the original proposal in the zone. He pointed out the advisory committee <br />forwarded only a conceptual description of what the zone should include to the council, so the council was <br />not rejecting its recommendations or any fundamental precepts offered it by the committee. <br /> <br />Mr. Pap6 determined from Mr. Braud that staff was not sure of the precise amount of land that would be <br />eliminated from the zone if the amendment were accepted. Mr. Braud estimated the amount to be eight <br />percent to ten percent. The majority was in industrial zoning. <br /> <br />Mr. Pap6 said he was not arguing that Ms. Bettman's amendment offered no benefit to the community. He <br />was interested in what he thought was the best for the community in terms of improving its economic drivers <br />and creating better jobs. He thought eliminating ten percent of the land in the zone would be a failure to <br />realize the maximum benefit from the tool. Mr. Pap6 said his focus was on business retention as opposed to <br />business recruitment. He was not arguing for business recruitment. He suggested that Eugene would not <br />have lost Symantec to Springfield if it had an enterprise zone for the business to relocate to. He was aware <br />of other businesses in Eugene with a limited ability to expand on site that would like an opportunity to <br />relocate to an enterprise zone. <br /> <br />Mr. Meisner concurred with Ms. Bettman's point regarding the future of manufacturing. He said it was not <br />the future. He concurred with Mr. Kelly regarding the relatively small amount of land involved. <br /> <br />Mr. Meisner expressed the wish that the "all or nothing" mentality both political spectrums of the council <br />were demonstrating would end. He did not like it, or the unwillingness of councilors to listen or consider <br />something that would gain near-majority support and survive when a new council took office. <br /> <br />Ms. Solomon said the committee was not specific in its recommendations to develop brownfields only, so it <br />appeared to her that the committee recognized the need to keep greenfields in the zone. She said that the <br />City was not paying people to locate in the zone. She said the City could not give away money it was not <br />receiving. <br /> <br />Speaking to the issue of recruitment versus retention, Ms. Solomon pointed out the majority of companies in <br />the last zone had been small local companies. <br /> <br />Ms. Nathanson said the committee may not have drawn a map but it had discussed the issue whether to <br />focus on brownfields only. She thought the committee's work and recommendations regarding the topic <br />were solid and she wanted accept them without much alteration. Ms. Nathanson said the community could <br />not survive on retail while awaiting the development of knowledge-based businesses, which she supported. <br />She said the zone was about business retention, and she agreed with that focus. She pointed to the <br />businesses that left Eugene to relocate in other communities because they had been unable to find a <br />financially viable way to stay in Eugene. Ms. Nathanson asked those in favor of the amendment to <br />reconsider their positions and honor the committee's hard work. <br /> <br />Ms. Nathanson said she was disturbed by the distinction made between benefit to the community and benefit <br />to the businesses. The enterprise zone existed because there was a real benefit to the community, that of job <br />retention. <br /> <br />Mayor Torrey said he continued to oppose the amendment. He pointed out that developing brownfield sites <br />was very expensive and the cost would not be offset by the tax exemption. Cities the size of Eugene did not <br /> <br />MINUTES--Eugene City Council October 11, 2004 Page 11 <br /> Work Session <br /> <br /> <br />