Item 2A: Approval of City Council Minutes

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Mr. Poling spoke to the diversity of the committee. He said Gerry Gaydos, Rob Zako, and Mary O’Brien gave a presentation on the WEC and none of them had complained about the makeup of the committee. He thought the WEC was balanced. He stressed that once the council had voted the WEP down it had to address the transportation issues the WEP sought to address. He said the members of the WEC were people in the community who were willing to come together on their own time and set aside their political differences to try to come up with a solution that would best address the problems at hand. Regarding concern expressed about there not being a rail representative at the table, he said he had heard an open invitation for such a representative to join one of the subcommittees. He favored moving the item forward. Mr. Pryor believed it was a good process and the WEC had a good membership. He averred that the committee was balanced in a way that the City had not previously seen. He said any interests could be accommodated. He underscored that the City was not providing the only source of the money; this money would be used as leverage to garner funding from other sources. He indicated that he would be happy to report more frequently on the progress of the WEC. He stated that the WEC was at the beginning of this process and was committed to working in concert with LTD and the City on their studies to ensure they were working with similar data sources and similar processes. He felt the WEC was “off to a good start.” Mr. Clark pointed out that neighborhood organizations were also self-selected. He said the residents who felt passionate about an issue were the ones that showed up for meetings and the ones that did the work. He believed the City should encourage more of this. He averred that this particular group saw a problem and he was sufficiently comfortable that this was good group of strong leaders trying to solve a problem we all face. The motion passed, 6:2; Ms. Bettman and Ms. Taylor voting in opposition. B. WORK SESSION: Street Design Standards for Crest Drive Neighborhood Acting Assistant City Manager Luell stated that this was a continuation of the discussion begun on September 19. He said Fred Lorish was present to represent the Crest Drive Community Team (CDCT) and that City Engineer Mark Schoening would walk through the changes in the Agenda Item Summary (AIS). Mr. Schoening explained that the memorandum from Public Works Director Kurt Corey had been revised to include the additional exception criteria that had pertained to the River Avenue project, which allowed for further input from affected property owners. He said the other change was in the form of a draft resolution that was slated to be the subject of a public hearing that would change the minimum street width in the Crest Drive area from ten feet to nine feet. He reiterated that the reason this exception had come before the council was because City staff could not support it. Mr. Schoening stressed that there had been an open process for the CDCT. The team had weighed all of the information that had come in and had arrived at an agreement on the five individual streets though it had not agreed upon the overall concept and this agreement had not included bicycle lanes or shared sidewalks, as per the request from the Bicycle Coalition. He said that particular solution was not consistent with the themes and values set forth by the process. He noted that from a transportation engineering perspective it would be a dangerous solution because it would put bicyclists and pedestrians in conflict in a narrow space. Mr. Schoening related that the second issue had to do with a letter that had arrived from School District 4J. He said whether the street was 18 feet or 20 feet there would be a curb to separate the vehicles from the MINUTES—Eugene City Council October 8, 2007 Page 5 Work Session