CC Minutes - 07/14/03 WS - Laserfiche WebLink

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Whiteaker mixed-use zone were industrial uses, and asked if those were appropriate and how it was counted in terms of categories in the land supply. Regarding the issue of commercial densities, Mr. Meisner questioned whether the community was wasting its resources and asked how the community could ensure that it was a good steward of that supply of land. Mr. Meisner recalled the interest he had expressed in the past in using tax money to prepare brownfields for redevelopment so that land was once again available for development. Mr. Kelly indicated interest in knowing the answers to the questions raised by Mr. Meisner. He said he had supported forwarding Mr. Roberts' letter to the local jurisdictions because the letter proposed to address what was clearly a need in a comprehensive way. However, Mr. Kelly thought it would be premature for the council to act to fund the request without more definition of the scope of work and what questions should be answered in the evaluation. Mr. Kelly expressed appreciation that the letter mentioned the potential of private fund-raising. He noted the council's earlier discussion with the commission, during which a recurring theme was the lack of resources needed to accomplish what was desired. Mr. Kelly suggested that the three jurisdictions work collaboratively to determine what questions they wanted to have answered, and let that effort evolve toward a proposal. Ms. Bettman thought it inappropriate for the council to take any action at this time, given that the item was scheduled as a work session and the time scheduled for the presentation did not leave much time for council discussion. Responding to a question from Ms. Bettman regarding the level of private funding received by the partnership, Mr. Roberts anticipated that the partnership would receive $100,000 in fiscal year 2004. He added that fund-raising had been down considerably in fiscal year 2003 because the organization lacked an executive director much of the year. Ms. Bettman said the community had met all the State's requirements related to land supply and she questioned why the community would want to redo a task that had already been done. Ms. Bettman expressed concern about the role of the partnership as it related to City policy making. She said she had read the Intergovernmental Agreement between the partnership and the City. She viewed the proposal as advocating policy rather than fulfilling the partnership's contractual obligation with the City and the other jurisdictions to recruit jobs. She requested a legal opinion from the City Attorney's Office. Ms. Bettman said that this was the second time she had reason to question the role of the partnership, noting that Mr. Roberts had previously lobbied her to support a hospital site in north Eugene when the council was on record as supporting a site in the central core south of the river. Ms. Bettman noted that the analysis called for an additional 2,500 acres of land to be designated for commercial or industrial uses and questioned how that could be done without expanding the urban growth boundary, which she did not support. She pointed out that those additional acres would also have constraints. MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 14, 2003 Page 9 Work Session