Item 1: Ordinance on Oregon West Management

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Provide a diversity of housing types in the area. A vai/able techniques include encouraging reinvestment and rehabilitation of existing housing stock and the use (~ldevelopmenl standard'} that provide for clustering or planned unit development. (Policy 2.0) Permit medium-density housing (lO to 20 d"Felling units/acre) in proximity to existing or planned urban facilities. Access to commercial development, transit, and alternative modes of transportation. schools and parks, and open space should be considered. Afedium-density residential development will he consideredfor the north Santa Clara area consistent ).j.'ith the above criteria. (Policy 5.0) Policy 1.0 does not support the re-designation of 7.3 acres of Low Density Residential to Commercial. Rather, this policy would support re-designating the property consistent \\'ith the existing Metro Plan designation, Low Density Residential. However, in the context of Policies 2.0 and 5.0 discussed further below, re-designation to a higher density residential use would be more consistent with the direction of these policies than re-designation to commercial. These three policies (pages 2-14 and 2-15), may seem in conflict because one encourages maintaining low-density residential character (Policy 1.0) and the other two encourage a diversity of housing types induding multi-family. However, examination of the Residential Land Use findings provides a context for these policies. The findings indicate that the Santa Clara area, in comparison to the rest of Eugene and the River Road area, contains a small amount of multi-family dwellings and designated multi-family land and a large amount of single-family dwellings and low density designated land (pages 2-11 and 2-12). The findings also state that the Metro Plan land use designations in the River Road-Santa Clara area reinforce the low-density residential character of the area, and encourage medium-density residential development near commercial centers and transportation facilities which is where existing multi-family development is generally located in this area. In the context of these findings and policies, specifically Policy 5, the subject property is ideally situated to provide more multi-family or higher density residential development than is currently proposed. The property is located adjacent to River Road and Hunsaker Lane, a major arterial and collector respectively, near a Lane Transit District bus stop, and near an existing commercial facility, the Santa Clara Square. Providing higher densities near commercial centers and transit facilities can reinforce low-density character elsewhere, consistent with the RRSC findings. The applicant contends that because of the site's proximity to major transit streets and existing commercial facilities, the site is not suited for low-density residential development and the applicant proposes to offset the loss by adding medium-density residential land. Staff agrees that higher densities would be more appropriate given the location ofthe site and the findings and policies sited above. However, it is also noteworthy that if the 7.3 acres were to be rezoned to R-l consistent with the existing Low Density Residential designation, based only on the acreage and the maximum density allowed, the 7.3 acres ofR-l zoning could provide more density (102 units) than the proposed 1.3 acres ofR-2 zoning (37 units). The applicant asserts based on average Metro densities that the density offset will be a decrease of 32 Low Density Residential units and an increase of 30 Medium Density Residential units). As a result, the proposed offset does provide more density per acre considering only the 1.3 acre site, but actually provides a lesser number of units than the Staff Findings - October 8, 2007 Page 20