Item 2A: Approval of City Council Minutes

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Anthony Beck , 309 Clark Street, commented that British Columbia was the “Mecca” and birthplace of the Free Ride mountain bike movement. He said some of the school systems in the Vancouver area had mountain biking as part of their curriculum. He listed two areas in Oregon that offered the opportunity to participate in this type of sport. He averred that the creators of those areas modeled cooperation with land managers and worked to understand liability issues and how to build structures properly so that the work would result in trails that were environmentally sustainable. He related that he and others presented a proposal to do this type of work to the Parks, Recreation, and Open Spaces Division a week earlier. He reiterated that there were “plenty of mountain bikers” who were willing to help with the design and building of such a facility. He noted that two years earlier, a Free Ride competition had been held at the Lane County Fair and it drew over 100 riders representing a wide range of ages and abilities and from both the local area and other places, including Washington and California. Diane Shock , 5509 Barger Drive, thanked the City Council for acknowledging the need to make the Golden Gardens Park safe and for considering an allocation of money toward that end. She urged the council to include in the bond measure acquisition of additional land around the ponds to allow the ponds edges to be sloped. She said additional acreage needed to be secured while the surrounding land was undeveloped and still available. She asked that an emergency call box be installed there. She stressed the importance of moving the project to a Priority 1 and of fast-tracking the process. She added that the development of Golden Gardens Park would also offer a “delightful mix” of the high priority attributes that fit within the Rivers to Ridges study principles of recreation, education, habitat and wetlands, as well as matching the objectives of the PROS plan for the expansion of outdoor activities, the promotion of environmental awareness, and education and stewardship. She said it would encourage exercise as well. Julia Pommert , 2740 Almaden Street, supported adding more recreation into the PROS measure. She recognized that the original focus was on acquiring open space, but she felt in talking to people in the community they indicated concern that the space would be purchased and not developed. She averred that if people felt there was something in the bond measure for them, they were more likely to support it. David Hinkley , 1340 Lawrence Street, #1, supported development of the Jefferson Area Greenway south of the Amazon Canal into a park. He said thanks to the assistance and support of the Lane County Fairgrounds, the neighborhood, fairgrounds, and a number of other stakeholders had come up with a conceptual plan for the park. He related that the plan had been pitched to the City five years earlier but the City, minority property owner in that area, wanted to go through a prioritization process and had no funding at the time. He was happy that it was on the priority list, but unhappy that it was listed as a Priority 3. He felt opportunities for funding were being lost, given that it was not likely to be developed for 10 to 15 years. He observed that it was an atypical park as it was a joint operation between Lane County and the City. He asked that the project be moved up to Priority 1, or if not, that it be split into two pieces: the planning piece as a Priority 1 project, and the development piece as a project with a lower priority. Azra Khalidi , 4023-K Donald Street, averred that the City of Eugene had not had strong enough land use laws when it annexed south Eugene in the 1960s and 1970s. She noted that the construction business had become a booming industry. She was afraid that the Amazon Headwaters would be lost along with surrounding riparian areas and trees if it was not protected. She strongly recommended that the existing Amazon Headwaters land and its environs be designated as park land. She thought this should be achieved by working with Lane County. She urged the council to think regionally and act locally. Debbie Jeffries , 3800 North Delta Highway, asserted that the existing inventory the project list was based upon did not include private sector park land and also did not include land owned by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and The Nature Conservancy (TNC). She said the latter totaled 1,500 acres. She had not thought to participate in the process, given that her property was under the County’s jurisdiction. She MINUTES—Eugene City Council April 10, 2006 Page 17 Regular Meeting