07/23/1990 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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e Russ Brink, 132 East Broadway #505, spoke on behalf of Downtown Eugene, Incorporated in favor of this report. He said that the report provides the City with an excellent foundation for a much-needed retail management program. He listed several cities which have been successful in promoting a strong retail management program, all of which began with a similar broad-based planning effort. Mike Favret, 3098 Hendricks Hill Drive, testified as a commercial real estate broker. He said that while he supports several of the recommendations, the report represents a City effort to control areas of the real estate market where it should not. He felt that the recommendations should be restricted to the downtown core. Edward Aster, 859 Willamette Street, spoke against the report. He voiced concern that property owners in the downtown mall were not consulted by the task rorce about the recommendations. He spoke against having the citizens vote on a proposed design for downtown and suggested that any reference to this be deleted from the report. W. J. Mason, 1803 West 34th Avenue, speaking as a long-time community resident, testified against the report. He voiced concern that task force representation was inadequate because of the lack of representation from the Eugene tax-paying homeowner and said that the report was hastily conceived. He questioned the meaning of an impervious surface tax and requested that the council defer action until the public has had a greater opportunity to offer input into this plan. e Ruth Miller, 2460 Malabar Drive, testified on behalf of the Friends of Downtown in support of the recommendations of the Retail Task Force excluding the Redesign Principle Element calling for the opening of Willamette Street. She said that Eugene citizens should be allowed to vote on this issue, but encouraged the council to move ahead with the other elements of the report. Paul Nicholson, 1855 East 28th Avenue, spoke in favor of the impervious surface tax portion of the report, highlighting that the additional costs of providing services to peripheral developments should be borne by the developer. He asked for a list of actions which the report recommends that the City of Eugene itself should take and asked whether consideration was given, when creating this report, for taking the focus away from retail issues. Al Johnson, 3570 University Street, spoke as a member of the Retail Task Force in favor of the report. He acknowledged the difficult nature of the decision which must be made with respect to opening Willamette Street and emphasized that, in effect, this report introduces flexibility into the decision-making process for downtown. Mayor Miller closed the public hearing. Responding to public testimony, Ms. Ehrman asked whether a design for the mall was presented to the public when the mall was first created. She e MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 23, 1990 Page 6