Item C: Goal 5 Invent/S.Hills - Laserfiche WebLink

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The addition of substantial areas of land to the current Goal 5 process could have significant impacts on the City's ability to comply with its current Periodic Review requirements for Statewide Planning Goal 5 and may have unintended consequences, including a delay in adoption of regulations that could result in additional loss of riparian habitat. Staff work to update and incorporate these additional areas into the inventory would likely take at least a year, and additional public notice and involvement would add additional time to the schedule. Because the bulk of the staff work in addressing waterways on the existing Goal 5 inventory is complete and under consideration by the Planning Commission, the Goal 5 process for the existing inventory of waterways can be completed relatively quickly. New areas of habitat would be subject to the same work tasks that staff has spent the last year working on for the waterway sites. These tasks include, at a minimum: 1) field verification of site conditions; 2) corrections to site boundaries based upon updated mapping of stream corridors; 3) corrections to site boundaries based upon new color 2004 aerial photos; 4) preparation of required analyses of economic, social, environmental and energy consequences of protecting or not protecting the site; 5) preparation of draft protection recommendations; 6) preparation of code amendments to implement recommended level of protection for each site; and 7) preparation of a legislative zone change to apply protection measures to sites recommended for protection. This work took 2 FTE approximately one year to complete for the waterway sites on the existing Goal 5 inventory currently in front of the Planning Commission for consideration. Staff suggests the council consider that the potential objective and desired outcome of the June 8, 2005, action could be addressed in other ways that may have distinct advantages. There may be a more practical and defensible way of considering protections for new areas. Related to timing; if the current process is completed as currently planned, and additional upland wildlife habitat areas are addressed subsequently, both of these can be completed by fall 2007, approximately the same schedule forecast for combining the two into the current process. Even though separating the two processes would delay the start of work on additional upland areas, the existing analyses (assuming the new work task applies just to the South Hills) would not have to be re-written, which would save considerable staff time. In addition, staff does not believe there would be any consequences in terms of proposed areas for protection, if they were considered at different times. This savings would balance against the delay in starting work on the added upland areas, which would make the two completion dates approximately the same. Separating the two processes allows protection measures to be applied to waterways and wetlands almost two years earlier than would be possible if both are combined into the current process, while facilitating completion of the work on the added upland areas within the same time frame. RELATED CITY POLICIES Council Resolution No. 4615, adopted in April 2000, provided direction to staff to respond to the ESA- listing of salmon in the Willamette River, and also called for action to complete the Goal 5 process. Completion of the Goal 5 process for riparian sites on the existing Goal 5 inventory will protect important habitat for the federally-listed threatened upper Willamette Spring Chinook Salmon. Eugene Growth Management Policy 17 states: "Protect and improve air and water quality and protect natural areas of good habitat value through a variety of means such as better enforcement of existing regulations, new or revised regulations, or other practices." The Goal 5 process is the main procedural tool for protecting natural resources through regulation. L:\CMO\2005 Council Agendas\M050627\S050627C.doc