09-26-16 Work Session - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

To:Mayor, City Council,City Manager, and PlanningStaff From: Joyce Eaton Date: 09/20/2016 Re: Based on my City Council forum testimony on 09/19/2016, on honesty in presentations for South Willamette Special Area Zone (SW-SAZ) With regard to the city’s engagement process on South Willamette Special Area Zone (SW-SAZ), this is what seemed to be lacking with South Willamette Special Area Zone (SW-SAZ): honest presentations and information given by the city with regard to SW-SAZ. A large share of the information was accurate and honestly presented, but not all of it was. Those areas that were not are what are damaging to trust between the residents and the city. th th 1.The geographic area for SW-SAZ started out from 24to 29, but the final draft of the Concept Plan (and the city’s South Willamette web page, until the recent revision) listed the geographic rd to 32 nd Avenues”. extent of SW-SAZ as “from 23 nd Truth: If you look at any of the maps in the SW-SAZ code proposal, SW-SAZ goes from 22 rd Avenue to 33Avenue. 2.The Concept Plan listed Southtowne Business Association (SoBA) as a “vibrant” business association. Truth: It is not clear how “vibrant” it was. Some members were active, but information indicate that most members were never active. It seems to have started out as a group with plans for the marketing of South Willamette area and with “beautification” of the street environment (e.g., putting up flower baskets like in downtown areas). I’ve never seen flower baskets along the street, or any other projects credited to the group, so that doesn’t seem so successful. Within one month of approval of the Concept Plan, SoBA was dissolved. This doesn’t seem to me to be a “vibrant” business association. It matters how “vibrant” the SoBA is, because SoBA continues to be used as a legitimization factor for the massive rezoning of South Willamette in SW-SAZ (as in “the community asked for it”, when really all people were asking for was to make Willamette Street look better). st 3.Robin Hostick in at least two meetings (October 21presentation to the City Council and August 2013 meeting with businesses) has said that the commercial buildings are “required” to build on the property line. Truth: The C-2 commercial zone allows property owners to build on the property line, but they are not required to build there. For C-2 properties, the city of Eugene building code has a 0 foot to 15 foot setback, so a C-2 property owner can choose to build 15 feet from the property line. Most people walking along Willamette Street don’t want buildings built right on the property line, so why overstate your case, saying that owners are “required” to build on property line? It is bad enough to say that they are allowed to build right by the sidewalk (the current narrow public right of way along Willamette Street). Page 1 of 7 9/20/2016