CC Minutes - 07/23/07 City Council Meeting

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Autzen Stadium parking lot, but they felt like second class citizens because they either could not afford to park there or there was not enough room for them. He averred that those customers deserved an opportunity to tailgate as well. He said they provided the University with spaces several years earlier so they could expand their lot. He had hoped that they would all be treated the same. He supported the sign-up procedure. He underscored that they monitored very closely all of the activities that went on in their lot. He related that he provided fliers outlining rules for behavior at every game. He stated that the Masonic Lodge had generated no calls for the EPD during last year’s season. th George Brown , 60 West 17 Avenue, owner of the Kiva Grocery Store, stated that he had run his business in the downtown area for 37 years. He had studied the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) forms thoroughly. He asserted that there were some “major problems,” in that KWG Development Partners and Beam Development had not presented a revised proposal to the City, the slum and blight determination had not been completed, and that there was no substandard housing in the downtown area. He agreed that the two pits represented blight but he did not see blight in other areas. He pointed out that the downtown area had a dense concentration of businesses and restaurants. He disagreed with a characteriza- tion of the downtown as an area with a high poverty rate. He said the tables were not included in Schedule C for a high commercial vacancy rate, low household income, and high crime rates. He felt it was also problematic because the review related to historic preservation was not included in the application. He opposed razing the Shaw-Med/Tango Center building and replacing it with a large grocery store. Zachary Vishanoff , Patterson Street, said he was glad to see people in the community going through the application for urban renewal funds and finding problems with it early in the process. He opined that there was “real involvement” and “fake involvement.” He declared that fake involvement was coached by staff and facilitators. He believed that “real involvement” would lead to more adaptive reuse of existing structures. He reiterated his opposition to the proposed University of Oregon basketball arena. He supported retaining Mac Court. He called that proposed arena a “land acquisition scheme.” David Monk , 3720 Emerald Street, said he hoped the record could remain open on the application for Section 108 money. He asserted that the application was incomplete. He felt it was difficult to follow some of the arguments staff presented to satisfy the criteria. He agreed that block grant funds had been used for many “wonderful things,” but he felt using the money for the present project was inappropriate. He cited the criterion related to job creation, which required that 51 percent of the jobs be created for low-income individuals. He said to do this the City would have to come from a census tract with a 70 percent poverty rate. He asserted that such a tract did not exist in Eugene and that criterion could be “thrown out.” He noted that the downtown district needed to be considered an “empowerment zone or enterprise community” and he was unable to determine whether that was the case. He said if it was not the case, the City could not apply for the money. He recited the following from the language: “[the City] could do the 51 percent if it [did] not include any portion of the central business district as this term was used in the most recent census of retail trade unless the track has a poverty rate of at least 30 percent as determined by the most recently available decennial census information.” He asserted that the poverty rate of all of the census tracts combined was 27 percent and the City did not meet the criteria; the application was incomplete. He urged the council not to move forward on this at this time. Beth Stegall , 1514 Lincoln Street, wished to speak about the Charnel-Mulligan Park. She said the park currently needed general upgrades and some “TLC.” She averred that it had been several years since the park received much-needed maintenance. She had joined the neighborhood association and worked with City representatives. She asked that the City consider the following in the 2008 parks budget: a new play structure, new sand, some new benches, vegetation, trees, and a new park sign. She noted that this was not MINUTES—Eugene City Council July 23, 2007 Page 2 Regular Meeting