02/08/1988 Meeting (2) - Laserfiche WebLink

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e that B.F. Goodrich had not located its aircraft brake manufacturing plant here because of rail access, while the company actually had looked at two sites, both special light, neither with rail access, and had left because of a better financial offer elsewhere that could not be matched. Mr. Shaver said reciprocal switching of rail cars allowed use of other railroad's cars without any additional fee and eliminated the need for two accesses to the site. He added that he believed the Eugene City Council already had made the determination that the rail factor was not as critical as stated in testimony, and his belief was borne out by the decision to extend the 6th/7th connector as had been done, cutting off rail access to already existing industrial sites. ~ Mr. Shaver said most of the decisions and discussions on this site had occurred in a relative vacuum, because it had not been discussed in relation to the 2,000 to 3,000 other undeveloped acres of industrial land already inside the urban growth boundary. He said the Springfield Planning Commission had decided to wait for the update, including the economic development plan and the industrial land studies to be done, so that needs, impacts, and benefits could be balanced against the community's existing industrial sites. He said he thought continued economic growth was critical, he thought the national trend was toward service industry, and he thought some manufacturing had to be brought in or everyone would be very poor someday. Mr. Shaver said he thought the last thing the community needed was a decision based on poor planning and that then would be overturned by the courts, sending out a message once again that the community was "anti-business." He said he did not think that would be appropriate. Gordon Elliott, P.O. Box 2074, Eugene 97402, spoke under other comments. He said he was against putting anything in the area although it was reasonably priced for industrial development. He said he did not want the area to become like Portland or anything approaching that, but he did favor providing employment for local residents. Mr. Elliott described his plans for a self-sufficient village in the area, which he said had been affected by an update of the 1990 plan. He said he favored practicality, and too much farmland existed for taxpayers to support uneconomic farming. He expressed concern about the cost of sewers to small businesses and farmers. He said he did not think the sewer system was necessary, and he favored options such as drainfields and a solar waste recycler like that used in San Francisco. Mr. Elliott said he had fought the construction of the wastewater treatment plant as impractical, and he did not favor putting anything in the area that would contaminate the environment or create noise. He said he favored small industries and thought they were practical because of water and soil conditions, adding that he hoped to see an end to selfish politics. He said his adult village would have been a long-term investment that would benefit the entire community and that met all statewide goals, but because it had not been in the Eugene or Springfield tax bases, the property had been removed from the urban growth boundary. e MINUTES--Eugene City Council February 8, 1988 Page 14