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From Greg Giesy 09/19/2016 <br />Dear Mayor and City Council, <br />The South Willamette issue is so far off the tracks that I don’t know if wecan ever repair the alienation it <br />has caused and I believethat we are still headingin thewrong direction.The meeting today was not <br />wanted by most of the people involved in thisissue. Thefocus of the meeting that everyone in Eugene <br />canstate what the residents in the South Willamette area should wantonly causes more feeling that <br />those residentshavelittle choicebutto except theirfate withtheirfeelings mattering less thanpeople <br />whowon’tneedtolivewiththe outcome. <br />I have been on the Friendly Area Neighbors (FAN) Board for eighteen years and during that time we <br /> asked repeatedly for a refinement plan. When I first started on the FAN Board long time members <br />have <br />told me that the boardhadtriedfor 20 years before I joined toget a refinement plan for the <br />neighborhood. <br />The South Willamette Special Area Zone started with us being refused a refinement plan but the city was <br />willing todo something that would cost less. Nowthat six years have been wasted and the price of the <br />SpecialAreaZone, that has been cancelled, isseveraltimes what a refinement plan would havecost. <br />Maybe we shouldrethink the city’sstance onnot doing refinement plans. <br />Over the last year there have been many debates over the pros and cons of refinement plans. The one <br />thing it has over how the special area zone washandled is thatit starts with a neighborhood planning <br />committeehelpedbycitystafftalkingto residentsaboutwhat the area shouldlook like and them <br />actuallywalking the neighborhood. <br />The special area zone hadmeeting with anyone that wanted to attend writing ideas onmapsandcity <br />staff deciding what they wanted to promote from the statements on the maps.It also expandedoutof <br />FANtotwo neighborhoods thathadlittle idea that the special area zone washappening and then went <br />to code before walking the area to see if whatwas on the maps made any sense. <br />Refinement plans lookat traffic, parking, solaraccess, gentrification, and livability in generalwhichwas <br />notadequately done for the special area zone. <br />I will finishwith going beyond weighing the benefits and short comings of refinement plans versus <br />special areazones to saythe city’s biggest problem with many of thethingsit does is thelack of <br />communication funding to get information out to its citizens. Going back to the drawing board to <br />rehashthings costmany times what it would costtomake people aware ofwhat was happening. <br />Sincerely, <br />GregGiesy <br />Friendly Area NeighborsBoardMember <br />th <br />42 W. 19Avenue <br />541.687.1858 <br /> <br />