CC Minutes - 02/14/05 WS - Laserfiche WebLink

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hundreds of trees along the north bank bicycle trail. B. WORK SESSION: Street Assessment Policies City Engineer Mark Schoening joined the council for the item. He provided a PowerPoint presentation on Eugene's street assessment policies. Copies of the presentation were provided to the council. Mayor Piercy called on the council for comments and questions. Responding to a question from Ms. Taylor, Mr. Schoening said residents pay for their side of the width of a local street, the width of which could be from 20 to 24 feet, depending on the parking provided. That was the same amount a resident living along a collector street would be assessed for improvements, although in the case of a collector, the City would assume more of the costs for street lights and traffic calming. Ms. Taylor suggested that residents living on a collector lost their ability to choose whether to be assessed or not. Ms. Taylor asked how many people had lost their homes because of street assessments. Mr. Schoening believed there was a situation in the River Road/Santa Clara area that involved a sewer assessment on an undeveloped property. Ms. Taylor believed there had been situations where a street assessment exceeded the value of the property being assessed. She observed that some communities pay for such street improvements by issuing bonds, while others use General Funds. Ms. Taylor continued to be disturbed about the City's use of the term %enefited properties," suggesting it should be ~abutting properties" because frequently residents did not benefit from street projects and were actually harmed by the changes to the their streets. In addition, she believed properties on side streets may benefit more than those being assessed. Ms. Taylor asked if people in the West University Neighborhood were accepting of the alley improvement project. Mr. Schoening said that many of the property owners were absentee landowners, and the City had not had a lot of contact with them. PeaceHealth, which was being assessed for alley improvements, was supportive of the project. He had heard no negative feedback from other property owners being assessed. Ms. Taylor found that interesting given the negative feedback the City heard in other places in regard to street assessments. Mr. Pap~ recalled that the council subcommittee that had worked on the City's assessment policies had been formed to make the policies more equitable. It had examined many different approaches before developing its recommendations to the council. Mr. Pap~ determined from Mr. Schoening that the City used systems development charge (SDC) revenues to underwrite the public cost of arterials and collectors. SDC revenues could not be spent on local streets. Mr. Pap~ determined from Mr. Schoening the City could deviate from its street design standards in areas with slopes, waterways, and vegetation using the context-sensitive design process. Mr. Schoening said that would allow the City to take into account the topography and character of a neighborhood. He hoped staff had conveyed that message at the work session on the Crest Drive street classification issue. Mr. Schoening MINUTES--Eugene City Council February 14, 2005 Page 3 Work Session