CC Minutes - 06/25/07 City Council Meeting

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Michael Smith , 1630 Arthur Place, volunteer for the Human Rights Party of Oregon, wished to voice his support for the acquisition of the Amazon Headwaters Forest. He felt this was only one land use issue that the City would face this year. He said there was also the possibility of the Fairgrounds property coming available, the potential construction of a hospital, and an issue just arising with the proposed installation of a th franchised building products store on West 11 Avenue. He stated that he had attended the Neighborhood Summit and the top issues that were agreed upon were citizen participation and infill. He wondered if the level of citizen participation in the Amazon Headwater issue was something the council should take into consideration. He thought the best thing the council could do would be to offer the developers a fair amount of money. He asserted that the City risked losing its integrity by “always taking the side of the developers.” Zachary Vishanoff , Patterson Street, passed out four more copies of a book on nanotechnology for the councilors. He asserted that there was a bill in the legislature that would require there to be six people with weapons on all of the campuses. He did not think that was the right response to recent events. He suggested that making tuition cheaper and addressing the maintenance backlog would be a better improvement to safety. He urged the council to take a stand opposing the bill through its Committee on Intergovernmental Affairs. Mr. Vishanoff expressed concern that “tasers would end up on campus.” Mr. Vishanoff commented that Senator Ron Wyden did not seem to know enough about the dangers of nanotechnology. He asserted that Senator Wyden had been a principal sponsor of a bill that would allocate $3.7 million for research on nanotechnology. David Monk , 3720 Emerald Street, president of the Citizens for Public Accountability (CPA), said he thought utilizing a public process in the Broadway redevelopment was the best way to undertake the project. He related that CPA had hosted a “Pit to Pit Walk” in the downtown area and heard good input from a variety of viewpoints. He had assumed that the West Broadway Advisory Committee would select a facilitator for the process but found this was not the case. He expressed concern that the committee charged with the selection of a facilitator included “at least six staff people.” He asserted that if the City wanted an engaged advisory committee with true “buy in” the committee should be allowed to select its facilitator. He felt the public process had been circumvented. Teressa O’Cäer , 5210 Canyon Drive, stated that her property was bordered on two sides by the Beverlys’ property. She had joined with neighbors to hold “at bay” the property owners who could potentially develop the site. She invited the councilors to come walk the trail through the woods there. She felt the councilors needed to see “this beautiful piece of property.” She believed it was a treasure for the “entire County” and that once it was gone it would be gone forever. Joy Gall , 4810 Mahalo Drive, stated that she had walked the trails through the Amazon headwaters area many times. She said the struggle to preserve the land had been going on for “dozens of years.” She opined that development in that area was tantamount to disaster. She averred that preservation in that area equaled “a little touch of perfection.” She thought there were many issues at hand, including economic conflict between people who wished to preserve the property and the people who had purchased it with the intent to develop the property and the impact of any increases in traffic. She asserted that it would take major changes in the street design to address traffic issues. She believed that given that tourism was important to the state, preservation of parks was very important. She called the area a “gem in the whole region.” MINUTES—Eugene City Council June 25, 2007 Page 2 Regular Meeting