Laserfiche WebLink
<br />M I N U T E S <br /> <br /> <br />Eugene City Council <br />Work Session <br />McNutt Room – City Hall <br />777 Pearl Street—Eugene, Oregon <br /> <br /> October 31, 2007 <br /> Noon <br /> <br /> <br />COUNCILORS PRESENT: Andrea Ortiz, Chris Pryor, Bonny Bettman, Jennifer Solomon, George <br />Poling, Mike Clark, Alan Zelenka. Betty Taylor joined by phone to vote <br />only. <br /> <br /> <br />Her Honor Mayor Kitty Piercy called the meeting of the Eugene City Council to order. <br /> <br /> <br />A. WORK SESSION: <br /> Transition of Annexation Procedures <br /> <br />Mayor Piercy announced that she would be putting together a citizen advisory group for the purpose of <br />working on issues having to do with the Trainsong and Whiteaker neighborhoods. She hoped to facilitate <br />better communication among the various stakeholders and to provide for better neighborhood involvement <br />regarding the areas affected by railroad yards. <br /> <br />City Manager Angel Jones asked Steve Nystrom, Principal Planner for the Planning and Development <br />Department (PDD), to provide background information on the transition of annexation procedures. <br /> <br />Mr. Nystrom explained that the work session sought to brief the council prior to the public hearing <br />scheduled for November 19. He said at that time the council would be considering an ordinance that would <br />facilitate the transition of annexation procedures from the Boundary Commission to the City of Eugene. He <br />recapped the implications of Senate Bill 417, which had abolished the Boundary Commission and required <br />that beginning January 1 the City of Eugene would have to have a process in place to perform the functions <br />of the commission. He underscored that the focus of the ordinance was to follow the state mandate; at this <br />time a broader discussion regarding policy issues behind annexation was not being undertaken. He stated <br />that the draft ordinance sought to assume the responsibilities of the commission in a way that maintained all <br />existing council policies regarding any of the aspects around the annexation discussions including Metro <br />Plan policies, code provisions, and resolutions the council had adopted over the years. He reiterated that all <br />of the council’s existing policy directions would be maintained. <br /> <br />Mr. Nystrom clarified that with the passage of the bill the State statutes that applied to annexations were <br />essentially the same as those that applied to every other community in Oregon. He said in preparing the <br />draft, staff had looked at what other communities were doing in regard to annexations and had found that <br />there was no one model being employed. He attributed this to the differing circumstances that different <br />communities faced, both political and physical. He related that staff was proposing an ordinance that <br />matched what the community would need, such as the current council policies around annexations – an <br /> <br /> <br />MINUTES—Eugene City Council October 31, 2007 Page 1 <br /> Work Session <br /> <br />