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From The Southeast Neighbors Board of Directors 09/19/2016 Dear Mayor Piercy, City Council and staff, Thankyoufor the opportunity to comment on the engagement processesrelated to South Willamette planning. We appreciate your efforts to restart this communitydiscussion and hope that the City's new approach will engage area neighbors in helping create a widely supported plan. The Southeast Neighbors Board ofDirectorssubmitsthese commentsfor thepublic recordaselected representativesofthe neighborhood associationwithout intending to represent theopinionsof the larger neighborhood. We believe that the Envision Eugene process has,in general, successfully identified community support for affordable housing, neighborhood livability, viable transportation options, and protection of our naturalresources. However,wethinktheplanningprocessinregardstotheSouthWillametteArea Rezone failed from the beginning to accommodate the concerns of those area residents who would be mostimpacted by thechangesproposed. Understanding andappreciatingcitizens' concerns is essential todeveloping trust and creating successful outcomes. Proposing to change the zoning and land use regulations as was done with SW- SAZcreatedunnecessary conflict with area neighbors. Ifimplemented asproposed therezoning would haveundoubtedly displacedmany low and middle income residents and led to the destruction of most of the affordable homes in the area. This failureis notuniqueto Eugene nor to land useplanning. As many governing jurisdictions and agenciesarediscovering broad publicsupportis best achieved by reaching out first to the most affected residents andensuring thattheyhave sufficient capacityamongthemselves to fully participate in the process. Meaningfuland effective public participation is oftensuccessful when the organization in charge commits to integrating thisapproach intoits stafftraining,program priorities, and efforts to implement the policies of their decision making bodies. We donotbelieve that a city-wideplanningprocess is sufficient todevelop proposals for specific areas of our community.Each transportation corridor has its own unique characteristics and area residents with their own thoughts about how to best accommodate growth. The Envision Eugene process has identified key social values pertinent to planning for a growing population. It's essentialthat wenowfocus our planning for specific areas with the understanding that the process should be driven by area residents. We believe a refinement plan process is bestsuitedto fulfillthis goal. Bysupportingthe efforts of South Willamette residents to fully engage their neighborsin developing a draftrefinement plan the City can begin to mend the hurt and distrust created with SW-SAZ. Our recommendation is that theCity initiate a refinement planning process forSouth Willamette assoon asis practical. We supported such a recommendation earlierinthe year when we joined with the three other southEugene neighborhoods inaskingforsuch a process Thankyou for your considerationof our comments, Southeast NeighborsBoardof Director