04/08/1992 Meeting (2) - Laserfiche WebLink

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e e e disincentives for developments locating downtown, the core will become the city's employment center. She said that the Planning Commission realizes that more work is needed to bring the policies to code certainty. She said that the commission has pro- vided a list of implementation priorities, found in the front of the study. Dick Williams, 3830 Donald Street, representing the local chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AlA), stated that AlA formed a committee addressing commercial design issues of which he chaired. He said that the committee focused on the quality of commercial design. In reference to Part III of the study, on page 31, he said that the committee examined current design quality standards and found several shortcomings in the City's eXisting regulations. He said that there are minimal setback requirements with 100 percent lot coverage allowed for bUilding and parking in all but the general office zone, no land ;s set aside for green space, parking lot size ;s unlimited, and no buffering is required if abutting a commercial zone. He maintained that the goal of the current Eugene Code standards is to allow developers to develop at minimal costs. He said that this becomes a long-term liability to the City. Mr. Williams said that the AlA committee focused on site development and parking issues and quality of commercial buildings. The AlA recommended prescriptive standards for site development and parking. This approach is modelled after Corvallis, Oregon's current approach. Regarding building design, AlA recommends a design review process. The committee's report in- cluded a list of goals and issues that designers would be required to meet. Mr. Williams expressed appreciation that the final draft included many of the AlA committee's recommendations. He said that the only significant exception was that the Planning Commission recommended that prescriptive standards be optional for design review for building design. He said that the AlA opposes this recommendation. He emphasized that the design guidelines proposed by AlA would not pose a serious economic or administrative burden on developers or City administrators. Mr. Williams said that AlA recommends adoption of the study and offers to continue cooperating with the City in developing implementing ordinances. Bill Seider, 1660 Washington Street, President of the Southwest Oregon Chap- ter of the AlA, stated that the chapter supports the draft Commercial lands Study. He read a letter stating that in January 1990, AlA was approached by the Eugene Planning Department to assist in the design review of large-scale commercial facilities recently constructed. A committee of six architects and one landscape architect met several times to address the poor site and building designs and unlandscaped parking lots observed on the existing de- velopments. The committee delivered a set of recommendations focused on site and parking lot design based on a prescriptive set of guidelines. The com- mittee felt that building design should not be limited by prescriptive codes, but should be subject to other design review strategies. He expressed appre- MINUTfS--Joint Elected Officials Apri 1 8, 1992 Page 3