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

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updates to the Downtown Plan, held on July 1. He stated that, included in the information, were specific references to property tax exemptions. Councilor Bettman expressed surprise that no notice of the public hearing had been provided to the residents of the neighborhood and the people who work in its vicinity. Council President Pap~ opened the public hearing. Terry Connolly, 1401 Willamette Street, conveyed the support of the Eugene Area Chamber of Commerce for the amended boundary. He called the exemption a helpful tool for development. He said that the chamber looked forward to a "more meaningful" broader boundary expansion of the MUPTE. Mitzi Colbath, 2230 Churchill Street, expressed appreciation to Councilor Bettman for her comment regarding the noticing. She agreed that people who lived within the vicinity of the proposed expansion of the MUPTE boundary should have been noticed. Ms. Colbath commented that the exemption provided for this specific site made sense in the context of home ownership and other targeted factors. She opined, however, that budget expenditures needed to be carefully considered when discussing the MUPTE. She noted that she had researched two projects that had been granted exemptions in the downtown area and had determined that they represented nearly $1 million in property taxes not paid to the City. She urged the council to carefully review the Johnson/Gardner report and the Terry Moore/ECO Northwest report, both of which had been reviewed by the Eugene Planning Commission. She felt that the reports did not adequately consider residual equity. She expressed her hope that the focus could be shifted to buffering the perimeter of the downtown area with home ownership, adding that she had suggested at the Planning Commission level a change in the point system to provide less incentive for rentals. Council President Pap~ closed the public hearing. He opened the floor for council comment. Councilor Bettman supported the project, calling it an attractive project that would provide home ownership opportunities. She voiced her support for a "surgical approach" to attract these sorts of projects. Regarding the noticing, Councilor Bettman requested that Mr. Taylor respond to the concern she had expressed in a memorandum. Mr. Taylor replied that this public hearing was noticed like all hearings, with a notice in the legal notices portion of the want-ads in The Register-Guard. He noted that it would be cost-prohibitive to send notices to such a large area as the expanded boundary of the MUPTE entailed. Councilor Bettman commented that the boundary under current consideration was not so large. Councilor Taylor asserted that everyone in the City should know that this was under consideration. She stated that, on principle, she felt that all citizens should pay taxes, but stated MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 14, 2003 Page 15 Regular Meeting