Laserfiche WebLink
place when she first came to the community were now gone. Grocery stores now were larger and people <br />wanted larger grocery stores. Ms. Ortiz wanted staff to continue working with the neighbors, and she <br />commended the neighbors for their involvement in the issue. <br /> <br />Mr. Papd indicated he had supported the work session request because he wanted to err on the side of more <br />discussion and review for the benefit of both continuing and new councilors. <br /> <br />Mr. Pap~ said that Eugene had yet to develop a node and he hoped that it would. At the time the council <br />considered the Chase Gardens node, he voted against the three criterions the council mandated for the node <br />because he thought the council was far too prescriptive in its approach to nodes and developers would be <br />repelled. He said that nodes should be a precept, not a prescription. He also opposed a moratorium as he <br />believed that would be changing the rules improperly. He said that the property was purchased after the <br />purchasers consulted with City staff about what development could occur. <br /> <br />Mr. Kelly advocated for staff to arrange for sit-down meetings between the neighbors and developers. <br /> <br />Mr. Kelly believed that it was an urban legend to suggest that if the council had relaxed its two-story <br />standard, development would have occurred in the area in question. He noted that a representative of <br />Gramor, the past owner of the site, indicated in an e-mail correspondence that City staff had been willing to <br />recommend to the council the standards be relaxed if it would facilitate the development, and the company <br />did not pursue that approach because no primary anchor tenant was willing to occupy the site. He also <br />expressed sympathy to the neighbors, and expressed surprise that the residential densities in the area did not <br />support a grocery store. However, it was clear grocery store developers had been approached about the <br />potential of their locating a store at the site and declined to do so. <br /> <br />Mr. Kelly observed that no matter how many people reviewed a detailed code something would come up that <br />fit the code but was never pictured by anyone. He had never envisioned the code could accommodate such a <br />medical development, but he believed Ms. Bettman remarks about the nodal aspects of the development were <br />well-stated. <br /> <br />Mr. Kelly suggested that the alternative path or some similar approach could help the City achieve <br />community goals through development. <br /> <br />Mr. Kelly asked if Mr. Yeiter would share anything he learned when trying to encourage the medical use to <br />locate downtown. Mr. Yeiter noted that Mike Sullivan and Denny Braud of the Planning and Development <br />Department had done most of that work. <br /> <br />Mr. Pryor agreed that what one wished would happen in a location and what happened were not the same. <br />His neighborhood had a small shopping mall where two grocery stores had failed. He said the mixed-use <br />concept was good, but from a practical viewpoint, feasibility analyses clearly indicated it would not work on <br />the site. He encouraged the City to work with the developer to carry out the plan that was already there. <br /> <br />Ms. Taylor suggested that if the City was going to achieve its VMT goals, it should preclude anything on <br />mixed-use sites that was not compatible with mixed-use development. If that was not possible, the City <br />should not pretend it could accomplish its goals through such mixed-use centers. <br /> <br />MINUTES--Eugene City Council April 11, 2005 Page 12 <br /> Work Session <br /> <br /> <br />