CC Minutes - 10/13/03 WS - Laserfiche WebLink

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downtown. He suggested that rather than focusing on downtown, the council consider some citywide approaches. He said he ~was offended" by those he saw sleeping in Alton Baker Park and along the riverfront. Mr. Pap~ suggested it was better to keep criminal activity downtown where the police could watch it than see it moved to Monroe Park. Ms. Bettman also supported the intent of the proposed ordinance revisions. She thought the purpose could be broadened to include not only economic development and commercial uses, but to address the residential nature and characteristics of downtown. She shared Mr. Meisner's concern about access through the downtown, saying the City wanted a 24-hour downtown, and people needed to be able to walk back and forth freely at night. Ms. Bettman said that Mr. Kelly's points about Saturday Market were well-taken and could be extended to the Sunday Mercado as well. Ms. Bettman questioned the impact of the ordinance on those wishing to hold lawful protests in the downtown. Ms. Bettman pointed out a typographic error in paragraph 2 of Section 4.871 on page 4 of the draft ordinance. Mayor Torrey suggested the intent of the changes related to the Broadway Plaza were to prevent overnight camping. He asked how the ordinance applied to the County courthouse properties, such as the Wayne Morse Free Speech Plaza. He thought that area should be included in the boundaries to which the ordinance applied. Mayor Torrey said that criminal activity was like a balloon. He said that those who lived in the 13th Avenue area near campus were pleased that the balloon was pushed away from their area. Mayor Torrey called for a second round of comments and questions. Mr. Kelly spoke to the issue of news racks, and agreed with Mr. Meisner that there may be a larger issue the council needed to address. He was hard-pressed to think of where news racks could be located, and requested a ~real world" example. Mr. Kelly said he wanted to ensure that the ordinance did not force people to hunt and search for newspapers in downtown. He requested a staff response. Mr. Kelly suggested that the ordinance was contradictory in that street performers were allowed without a permit in the changes recommended to Chapter 3 of the code, but allowed with a permit in regard to Chapter 4. In Chapter 4, %ommercial pursuits" were defined to include street entertaining, but later in the ordinance commercial pursuits were precluded from occurring in the right-of-way. Ms. Taylor agreed with Mr. Pap~ that criminal activities were better happening downtown than at Monroe Park. Ms. Taylor asked why other commercial areas in the community, such as the business area at 24th Avenue MINUTES--Eugene City Council October 13, 2003 Page 6 Work Session