05/20/1992 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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~ Mayor Miller adjourned the meeting of the Urban Renewal Agency. e e III. ORDINANCE CONCERNING WEST EUGENE WETLANDS SPECIAL AREA STUDY Steve Gordon, lane Council of Governments, said the meeting material includes the draft Plan and Technical Report for the West Eugene Wetlands Special Area Study and recommended changes by the Planning Commission. He said a public hearing was held on April 8, followed by more work with the property owners and tenants in the rural portion of the wetland plan jurisdiction outside the metropolitan plan boundary. A special workshop was held in Peterson Barn on May 2, with about 100 people in attendance. Mr. Gordon said a packet including 62 pieces of written testimony from the public hearing, the minutes of the hearing, 14 pieces of written testimony from the workshop, and a 50-page summary of issues and response from staff was previously distributed to councilors. Mr. Gordon said staff considered the citizen input and has developed four proposals for the council's review. Staff recommends removal of "primary area" and "secondary area" references, removal of any colors outside the metropolitan plan boundary from the maps, and creation of a new section in the mitigation chapter of the plan. The new section would contain two short paragraphs that explain the intent of the plan toward that area, in one goal and three policies, with one recommended action. Briefly, the section says that the plan imposes no policy restrictions in that rural area. The only thing it does is allow willing property owners to sell property that meet the criteria set forth in the section for use in the mitigation program. Mr. Gordon said that staff will continue to work with the Board of County Commissioners who have a third reading and a public hearing on the proposed plan on June 3. The plan is scheduled for action on June 24. He said if the commissioners propose changes, these would then come back before the council. Mr. Gordon said staff hopes to have the plan adopted by June 30. Responding to a question from Ms. Bascom, Mr. Gordon said that the council has lobbied Congress for funds to acquire wetlands and wetland restoration sites. He said the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) would be nervous about participating in a program with local governments if there were not a connection in the plan to the program that this community is trying to get the BLM to help implement; that is, to pool community resources to allow sound urban development on some wetlands in west Eugene, to protect those wetlands that have the highest value, to create a regional mitigation bank in order to manage the cost of the program, and to do that with willing sellers. Mr. Gordon said dropping that reference to the program would not leave enough land to meet the community's need. In response to a question from Ms. Ehrman, Mr. Gordon said that staff is crafting individual responses and supporting landowners in their effort to sell by working with lending institutions. Pages 3 and 4 of the MINUTES--Eugene City Council 11:30 a.m. May 20, 1992 Page 5