Item 2A: Approval of City Council Minutes

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districts were used to some extent in each community in which he had lived and included both petition and council initiation. Ms. Bettman observed that the ad hoc committee had considered a broader LID that included the travelshed of the neighborhood to help spread the costs beyond abutting property owners to others who benefited. She said that was something that could be initiated by a neighborhood. Mr. Schoening said the code restricted the LID to properties that abutted the street. He said others could voluntarily contribute to the costs, but they would not be part of the district or eligible for financing. Ms. Bettman commented that the code could be amended, but the ad hoc committee had declined to pursue that option because of its complexity. She asked if SDCs could be used for an unclassified street. Mr. Schoening said the methodology adopted by the City was based on an arterial/collector street system. Ms. Bettman said that the state did not prohibit using SDC funds for local and unclassified streets, as long as the project met the definition for increasing capacity. She said the City could amend its methodology to use SDCs for those streets. Mr. Schoening said that would be a monumental task. Mr. Poling agreed with Ms. Taylor’s point about the need for people who used the streets being improved for access to share in costs. He used Arcadia Drive as an example; there were three streets that could only be accessed from Arcadia Drive and the people living on those streets benefited more from improvements to Arcadia than the people who lived along it. He said there should be some methodology to spread the costs to everyone who benefited from improvements. He asked how the cost of an improvement would be paid for if the assessment was deferred until a home was sold. Mr. Schoening replied that the City would carry that cost. He said funds were reserved to pay those costs when the current deferral program, which was limited to qualifying owners on the basis of age and income, was established; however, deferrals were not widely used. He said if the concept of allowing any assessment to be delayed was implemented the City would have to carry a much more substantial amount. Mr. Poling said that assessments varied depending on street classification and asked how a street could be reclassified. He said that Arcadia was no longer a dead end neighborhood street and should be reclassified. Mr. Schoening said the classification map was changed by ordinance. He was not certain there was a defined process for requesting reclassification, but if there was a substantial difference since the time of original classification the council could direct staff to initiate that process. In response to a question from Mr. Zelenka, Mr. Schoening explained the street classification system, which was based on five criteria. He said the classification system was implemented citywide in 1999. He said at least 70 percent of streets were local; there were 75 miles of unimproved streets, of which 12 miles were arterials and collectors and 63 miles were local streets. He said some streets in the Crest Drive neighbor- hood were unclassified pending a transportation study. Mr. Zelenka indicated he was interested in more information about financing strategies used by other jurisdictions to help property owners pay the cost of assessments. He said cul de sacs were a major concern because they were not assessed for improvements on a street that they used for access. He liked the idea of a travelshed to include others who benefited from improvements. He wanted information on street standards and context-sensitive design and how that was related to people’s concerns about more improvements than they felt were needed on a street. Mr. Schoening pointed out that Crest Drive was a context-sensitive project and it would be difficult to determine whether people’s preferences were influenced by the potential cost of improvements. He said the theory was that people living on a cul-de-sac had already paid for improvement of the cul-de-sac. He said at some point a person could only be asked to pay for so many streets, regardless MINUTES—Eugene City Council June 23, 2008 Page 4 Work Session