Item 2A: Approval of City Council Minutes

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for having a general landlord/tenant coalition for almost 30 years that presented changes to the land- lord/tenant law every two years with the support of both sides. He stated that the goal of the coalition was to protect good tenants from bad landlords and good landlords from bad tenants. He urged the council to convene a forum, such as an advisory committee or a task force, comprised of the interest groups. He averred that the results that would come from such an entity would be most likely to garner support. Heather Hannah , 6044 Avalon Street, represented the local chapter of ORHA. She was glad that the issue of mold was being deferred for the time-being. She added her support for the formation of a committee to discuss mold and other ongoing issues. She also wished to convey the support of the ORHA for retaining the sunset provision in the code. She averred that it did not harm the code; it merely mandated that it be reviewed after a period of years. Michael Steffan , 3709 Pine Canyon Drive, member of the ORHA, supported retaining the sunset clause. He felt they needed to revisit the funding and how the program was implemented. He did not see another mechanism that would cause people to consider those things at a future point. Natalie Perrin , 460 Monroe Street, Apt. A, stated that she was a graduate student at the University of Oregon. She related that she had submitted a National Registry nomination for the Eugene Civic Stadium, which unanimously passed both state and local review before being sent to Washington, D.C. She said School District 4J had expressed concern about the proposed boundary line, but this had since been clarified, and the nomination would be reviewed again by the Oregon State Advisory Committee on Historic Preservation at a meeting scheduled for June 5. She averred that with the clarifications that had been made, the nomination should be passed by the end of the summer. She noted that she had written her thesis on the stadium. She felt the preservation of Civic Stadium would provide benefits to the City of Eugene. She cited language in Goal 5 and correlated the preservation of the stadium to it. She thought preservation of the stadium as a heritage site along with successful promotion as a tourist destination could be “exceptionally beneficial” to the community. She noted that heritage tourism was a multi-billion dollar industry in the United States. She related that the restoration of Brickwood Fields in Birmingham, Alabama, had brought more than 20,000 visitors per year and had served as a catalyst for reinvestment and redevelopment of surrounding areas. She agreed that the six acres surrounding Civic Stadium were underutilized and preservation of the historic resource should not restrict the rest of the property. She thought preservation of Civic Stadium in conjunction with redevelopment of the site could serve to “place Eugene on the map” as a model city committed to preservation and progress. th Dennis Hebert , 850 East 38 Avenue, provided a petition signed by 3,500 people in support of saving Civic Stadium. He declared that everyone loved the Eugene Emeralds and loved Civic Stadium. He averred that there was “nothing greater than a good baseball game on a summer night in Eugene.” He said what needed to happen, given that the Ems had not sealed the deal with the University of Oregon for the use of its planned baseball stadium yet, was that the City Council and Mayor should get in touch with Mr. Elmore of the Elmore Sports Group which was the primary owner of the Ems, School District 4J, the University of Oregon, and the Chamber of Commerce along with the baseball fans of the stadium. He felt the people should be allowed to say how they felt about this landmark and “icon” of baseball. He pointed out that Civic Stadium was one of the last timber-built stadiums in the country, made out of old growth Douglas fir which was the state tree. He urged the council, the press, and the people of Eugene to unite in order to keep Civic Stadium as a valuable resource. Tom Halferty , 4510 Manzanita Street, stated that he was a member of the Save Civic Stadium organiza- tion, as was Mr. Hebert. He thought it would be fairly easy to gather a groundswell of support for retaining the stadium. He felt the stadium would be worth saving even if the Ems no longer played there, though most MINUTES—Eugene City Council May 27, 2008 Page 3 Regular Meeting