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neighborhood already served as a node and should be left alone. He submitted a packet of photographs for the record. Michael Keenan, 2041 East 17th Avenue, termed the nodal development area proposal as an attack on the neighborhood and a planning nightmare. He referred the council to a drawing of the node and questioned the rationale behind the location of the Walnut Street BRT station. He said that he had invested considerably in his house and cleaned up after the students who lived next door. He said that such an arbitrary, capricious, "pencil" zoning put the residents at risk, to the point where he was contemplating selling his house. Now that Romania was moving out, he questioned whether that would result in an new basketball arena there, or on the Williams Bakery site, two ideas he considered equally stupid. He said that the councilors should tour the area so they could see how the area changes south of 15th Avenue. Camilla Bayliss, 1621 Orchard Street, said her home would be impacted by the nodal overlay. She invited the council to walk through the neighborhood and view the houses there. She said that most of the houses bore a sign voicing opposition to the nodal overlay in the R-1 portion of the area. She believed policy decisions should be based on solid evidence, and the neighborhood association looked for evidence in support of the application of the overlay, and found none. She said the council should reexamine the data and change the node boundaries. Jeff Nelson, 2144 East 15th Avenue, said he submitted a video tape into the record. He had taped the April 28, 2003, council work session, and April 7, 2003, Planning Commission meeting regarding the subject. He had sought clarity on the topic but found none. He said that it appeared there were many different ideas about what nodes were. Referring to the SAS, Mr. Nelson said that the Planning Commission had asked if a subdivision could be built in the R-1 area; the answer was yes. The commission asked if the overlay would increase the density of a subdivision; the answer was yes.. He invited the council to watch the commission meeting. Mr. Nelson noted that there was three-car pileup on Franklin Boulevard earlier in the evening and questioned how pedestrian-friendly that road could ever be. He said that he heard concerns expressed by the council about the State deadlines related to nodal development, and suggested that concern was clouding the council's objectivity about the issue of nodes. He did not want a nodal overlay designation in the R-1 area, including two lots north of 15th Avenue adjacent to Maude Kerns. Art Farley, 1667 Fairmount Boulevard, suggested the council consider the difference between neighborhoods with existing residential those with existing commercial. He questioned what goals would be met by declaring the area a node as it was unlikely to be redeveloped at higher densities. The neighborhood was not in need of reinvestment or redevelopment. It was functioning well as a neighborhood. He wanted historic resources in the neighborhood to be protected. Mr. Farley said that nodal development was not likely to occur, nor would it improve MINUTES--Eugene City Council May 12, 2003 Page 7 Regular Meeting