02/28/1977 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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"-' farm land and should be used as farm land. She suggested the City Council hold off annexation of this land for now, get some kind of planning process underway, and use exceptions procedures for agricultural lands within the urban services bou nda ry a rea. i.. I. I Robert Weiner, 209 East 30th, was speaking on behalf of the New American movement. He said he thought the annexation of this property would not be in the best interest of the major- ity of the people in Eugene. He raised questions as to who the housing would be for; would the houses be energy guzzlers; that the new industry coming in would reduce employment was a false argument; that this industry would bring high tech- noloqy and would not use the existing labor force in the area; city growth leads to higher taxes; the costs of city services goes up. He said he did not feel that this prime agricultural land should be paved over for a bUilding pro- ject to raise taxes. He urged opposition to the annexation. '--.. Jean Reeder, 345 East 19th Avenue, spoke as a citizen, home- owner, and taxpayer. She expressed concern about the cost to the community and public by developing this large piece of property. She questioned what the costs would be if this land were annexed, and whether the developer or the public would end up paying those costs. She urged postponement of the annexation, stating that growth control policies need to be looked at further. e Bob Freeman, 690 West 31st, questioned also the increase in city cost, citing the need for police and fire protection if this area were annexed; he cited the traffic overflow into the area and the inadequacy of the Ferry Street Bridge right now to handle the traffic; he stated that costs should be estimated for the public before any action were taken. Mrs. W. F. Cowan, 29771 Gimpl Hill Road, indicated she was very much in favor of preserving this land as farmland. Eleanor Mulder, 2775 Emerald, said that she did not disagree with the proposition in the annexation that M-1 land was needed for light industry; but she was concerned with taking over 260 acres of prime agricultural land for housing. She urged the City Council not to annex the 260 acres for housing and neiqhborhood commercial. '- Alean Kirnak, 1505 East Orchard, said that assuming Data General comes into this area if the area were annexed, that a number of trade-offs would be needed to be made by the community. She cited loss of farmland, the increased need for services, increased cost to the taxpayers, population growth, which in- volves an economic loss. She cited a study that she had recently done with Hewlett-Packard in Corvallis indicating that a great proportion of oeople that were hired by Hewl ett-Packard had e 2/28/77 --11 Pt?