04/25/1988 Meeting (2) - Laserfiche WebLink

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e sleeping hours and said he believed it would allow better conditions and livability for Ya-Po-Ah residents and for the city in general. Mr. Humbert said it was true that the railroad tracks had existed before the apartments, but he noted that regular floods in the valley had been changed, and he thought this change was possible and was for the good of all the commun ity . Gary Meyer, One West 4th Avenue, Apt. 55, spoke in favor of the proposal. He said he had lived across the street from the railroad tracks for a year and a half, and he agreed with many of the personal reasons given by other residents for wanting the train whistles silenced. He also offered some general reasons why the ordinance should be passed. Mr. Meyer said he believed the ordinance would improve the economic viability of downtown Eugene by making it a more attractive place to live. He said an attraction of downtown as opposed to outlying shopping areas was that people could live downtown, in addition to working and shopping there. He said more residents downtown would enhance viability and should be encouraged by the City. Passage of the ordinance would be a step in the right direction, as would making it more attractive for developers to construct rental housing in the downtown area, he added. e Mr. Meyer said he believed passage of the ordinance would make it easier to find tenants for the Riverfront Research Park, which unfortunately was bisected by the Southern Pacific railroad tracks. He said the ordinance would partly diminish the negative aspects of trains at the site. Mr. Meyer said he also believed the ordinance would enhance--not decrease--safety. He said that in living near the tracks, he had many occasions to cross the tracks by foot, bicycle, or car. He said he generally used the train whistles as an "early warning device," to speed up and take more risks trying to reach the railroad crossing before the crossing guards fell. He said he suspected that others did the same. Mr. Meyer said eliminating the train whistles would do away with that safety problem, and he asked the council to put the ordinance in place as soon as possible. Kent Howe, 221 East 3rd Avenue, spoke in opposition to the ordinance. He said he thought safety was an important consideration and whistles were essential when more than one train might be travelling in opposite directions. He said transportation corridors were associated with whistles and other warning devices, which he considered attractive amenities to historic districts. Mr. Howe said he enjoyed listening to trains approaching from the distance and to the "doppler effectll as they passed by. He said whistles could be heard from many other places in Eugene, and he found the sound comforting. He said he liked the romantic, historic aspects of trains and he hoped steam engines might be restored. Mr. Howe said he had grown accustomed to using the whistles as a clock. He said the trains and their whistles were pre-existing uses, while the residents requesting the whistle free zone were recent relative to the time the whistles had been blown. He said many residents had moved to the area because of the many historic e MINUTES--Eugene City Council April 25, 1988 Page 4