CC Minutes - 03/07/05 WS - Laserfiche WebLink

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Ms. Bettman cited the proposed motion and noted that the Mayor's Committee on Economic Development's recommendation on community standards was very general. She commented that the standards were important and should include a specific index for calculating a self-sufficient wage, benefits, and related items. She asked if the City could use expertise in the community, such as labor organizations and economists, to develop data for the standards. Mr. Braud said the statutes limited the types of conditions that could be attached to the tax exemption, but how the criteria were processed was up to the local jurisdiction. City Manager Taylor noted that the proposed motion would result in an application coming to the council on April 11, 2005, for a resolution but more time would be taken to develop community standards before July 1, 2005. Ms. Solomon asked if removal of the railyard from the enterprise zone boundary would cause problems with the requirement that the zone be contiguous. Mr. Braud said it was possible to remove the railyard property without compromising the contiguous nature of the zone. Mr. Pap6 remarked that concern over the previous enterprise zone revolved around Hynix Semiconductor's receipt of benefits from the zone, but the fact that more than 80 local businesses benefited was overlooked. He asked what would make the City's application more competitive. Mr. Braud responded that the most compelling argument in favor of the application was the City's history; the previous enterprise zone was one of the most active in terms of the number of businesses that used it and the amount of investment that occurred in the zone. He added that one of the major approval criteria was the potential for new investment and the City would rate high in that respect. Mr. Pap6 asked if the community standards needed to be in place before the application was submitted. Mr. Braud said that the State had no role in approving whatever local criteria the City adopted and standards could be developed and adopted outside of the application process. Mr. Poling commented that an enterprise zone was a tool in the economic development tool box and he wanted to best tool possible. He encouraged the council to move forward with the application process and demonstrate to the State support by a majority of the council for an enterprise zone. He encouraged retention of the greenfields areas in the enterprise zone but was willing to support removal, including the railroad property, if it would result in a majority of the council supporting the application. He agreed that it was important to carefully consider the development of community standards and ensure that they were legally permissible and did not put the City at a disadvantage. He said that enterprise zones worked and cited the 80 business that received tax exemptions for three years but were now paying taxes in one year that made up for that. He said that Hynix tax payments now made up ten percent of the City's budget. Mr. Pryor compared the discussion to the layers of an onion with the first layer being whether to submit an application, the next layer to determine what should be included in the zone, and another layer to determine what the standards should be. He agreed that the dimensions and size of the zone and job standards were important considerations, but the first step was to decide to submit an enterprise zone application. He said that an enterprise zone was a useful economic development tool and one that was considered by businesses considering Eugene as a location. Ms. Ortiz applauded the council's discussion and said she could support an enterprise zone application if the railyard property was removed. MINUTES--Eugene City Council March 7, 2005 Page 6 Work Session