Item A: City Hall Complex Priority Issue

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ATTACHMENT A Eugene City Hall Complex Master Plan Public Involvement Update April-June, 2006 This is an update of design team activities to inform and engage Eugene’s public in the Devel- opment Plan phase of City Hall Complex Master Planning. Community forums are the main mechanism for timely and specific public input to city council, but efforts are ongoing to expand the pool of those aware of and involved in the master planning issues. In the first half of 2006 the design team has had productive discussions with hundreds of resi- dents. This has informed us of a lack of awareness of why the city is engaged in master plan- ning. While continuing the involvement efforts initially planned, we are adapting to address this by adding tours of city hall, developing fact sheets about the major issues and disseminating the information through community and media networks. We are also adding three focus groups (multiculturalism, youth, and accessibility) to gather specific community input for conceptual design. Community Forums The design team has completed the second of four Community Forums slated for 2006. Like the th first forum held in March, the May 25 forum was attended by approximately 100 people. 36 participants attended both forums. The forums are designed to gather specific and timely com- munity feedback for the City Council, foster dialogue between the community and the project team, and expand awareness of the ongoing master planning process. Forum content is designed with the IAP2 Guideline #6 in mind: “Public participation provides participants with the infor- mation they need to participate in a meaningful way.” Initial recruitment for the Community Forums was based on the list of names submitted by coun- cilors in January. Though almost all of those recommended were available for small group in- In late July the design terviews in February, that group is less well represented at the forums. team will give each Councilor a list of the names you submitted to us and request that you th personally invite those whom you recommended to the August 24 Forum. Another cornerstone of recruitment was outreach to Neighborhood Associations. Slightly more than 20% of forum participants are affiliated with their Neighborhood Association and we are working to expand this contact using neighborhood newsletters and e-mail lists for communica- tion, as well as attending General Meetings. The City’s Neighborhood Association staff has helped immensely in this accomplishment. With the support of the Human Rights Commission we have been working to make the Commu- nity Forums a model of accessible public process. We have been able to provide hearing assis- tance technology and the Power Point presentations in Braille. We have also received many thankful comments for providing childcare. Racial diversity needs a lot of improvement. We will focus on this through other means addressed later in this update, and welcome all sugges- tions and support. To begin to address zip code imbalances in forum participation, the design team focused poster efforts in the Bethel and River Road commercial districts. Recruiting at summer community events may help as well. We want the pool of participants to grow and so we are working on