06/24/1987 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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property under County ownership. He said the expansion area has high building and 1 and vancancy rates. He added that only one major development has e occurred in the area within the last 20 years (the IBM building across from the Hult Center parking garage). Ms. Ehrman said this building is definitely not blighted; therefore, inclusion of it in the expansion area does not fit with the criteria for expansion. Mr. Byrne said this building was included in the proposed expansion area because of the desire not to create lIislandsll or non-contiguous areas in the district. Mr. Byrne mentioned that among owners in the expansion area, there is a 75 percent approval rating of the proposed expansion (two owners oppose the expansion). In response to a question from Mr. Rutan, Mr. Byrne said the 75 percent figure is based on land area. Mr. Byrne said that if the expansion area is developed at the intensity expected by staff, a new parking garage would be needed. He said the Central Area Transportation Study (CATS) calls for an additional parking structure to meet the needs of future development within the expansion area. In response to this, Ms. Ehrman mentioned that the Hult Center lot is under- ut il i zed. Mr. Byrne agreed, but said staff views this lot as serving the area to the west. City Manager Micheal Gleason asked Mr. Byrne to explain the improvement-to- land (IlL) ratio. Mr. Byrne said this ratio is the value of the improvements made to a piece of land (primarily the value of the building) divided by the value of the land. He said that in healthy commercial districts, one expects e this ratio to be about 3.0 or higher. Downtown Eugene's ratio is about 2.7. He said some of the downtown's most intensely developed properties probably have IlL ratios of 8 or 10. Questioning the use of the IlL ratio as a measure of economic growth, Mr. Holmer made the point that if traffic increases in front of a building, the value of the land would increase. However, because investment in the land would remain the same, the IlL ratio would actually decrease. Mr. Byrne agreed that there are certain anomalies in the way the assessment system works. For example, the assessed value of land tends to increase after it is developed, even though the land itself has not changed. Ms. Bascom said she had read Mr. Holmer's June 22, 1987, memo to the Mayor and council, in which he discusses the IlL ratio in more depth. She said the ratio can be used as a measure of economic intensity. She said a healthy downtown area has an intensity of development different than, say, the intensity one might see in a residential area. Mr. Bennett said he interpreted Mr. Holmer's memo to mean that when development occurs on a piece of land, if the value of the total property increases over time, that value reverts to the land. However, he said he did not understand Mr. Holmer's point. He said the overall goal is to increase the intensity of downtown development. He said that when new development occurs, the IlL ratio will increase. e MINUTES--Eugene City Council June 24, 1987 Page 4