Item 3: Ordinance on Extraterritorial Extension Procedures

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Background An extra-territorial extension is defined in the current ordinance (No. 20400) as an extension of water or sewer service from inside the city limits to serve property located outside the city limits. The current ordinance further restricts these extensions to property within the Urban Growth Boundary, except as provided for in previously approved resolutions. These exceptions include the previously approved service to the Mahlon Sweet Airport and Lane Community College. This proposed amendment will maintain that specific limitation. As the Planning Commission will recall, the Boundary Commission had the authority to consider requests for extraterritorial extensions prior to the enactment of Senate Bill 417, which abolished the Boundary Commission. In transferring this responsibility to the City, there are no state statutes or other city requirements which specified the review process, or appropriate decision maker. The City Council adopted specific resolutions many years ago regarding extraterritorial extensions. These resolutions included specific policies which served as the basis from which the City would make its recommendation to the Boundary Commission. These policies were subsequently codified in the recent adoption of Ordinance No. 20400. Given the explicit nature of the policies, the draft ordinance proposed a Type II process which required approval of the Planning Director. Ordinance No. 20400 was adopted by the City Council, which included this Type II process. However, following further discussion at the January 23, 2008 work session, the City Council expressed concern that some of these requests could be potentially significant or controversial and felt it more appropriate to have such applications elevated to a City Council review. Draft Ordinance The draft ordinance revises the process for extraterritorial extensions as described in the Council’s motion above. This revision would require that the City Council hold a public hearing and be the decision maker for all extraterritorial extensions. The originally adopted ordinance required that the Planning Director be the decision maker. In addition, the proposed ordinance includes the specific noticing requirements for all extraterritorial extensions. As noted above, the existing ordinance specifically limits any future extraterritorial extension requests to sites within the Eugene’s Urban Growth Boundary. Although State Law does enable some limited ability to extend urban services outside of urban growth boundaries, the City Council specifically directed the current ordinance to be limited to requests inside the urban growth boundary. Since the proposed amendments do not revise this provision, compliance with applicable State Statutes is ensured. In addition to the Council directed amendment, staff has included an additional amendment to address an oversight that resulted in the original ordinance adoption in December, 2007. Prior to the Council vote to adopt Ordinance No. 20400, a motion to amend the ordinance was approved which changed the requirement for public notification for annexations from 14 to 30 days prior to Council consideration. EC 9.7820(1)(c) was revised accordingly, however the motion failed to include a reference to a second portion of the ordinance, EC 9.7820, which contained the same language. Staff is therefore including this proposed amendment to fulfill the original intent of the Council.