Agenda Packet 2-19-19 Work Session

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MovingAhead 2018 Outreach Summary 63 My comments will be directed to the proposed LLC transit corridor and most specifically the EMX rapid transit option. The LLC corridor, as innocuous as the name sounds is really the Oak Street and Pearl Street corridor for all practical purposes in considering impacts on businesses, traffic and people. This corridor does not service a strip commercial area such as the other current transit corridor proposals do, and West 11th did. There are different considerations for this inner city project that would have significant negative physical impacts to the two remaining “great streets” of the city center. There are relevant planning considerations for the City center that would be applicable for this area. These considerations typically would be less inconsequential for strip commercial areas. Oak and Pearl Streets have existing on street parking, mature street trees and a desirable neighborhood ambiance that would be worth preserving. Such considerations would include reference to the seven planning pillars of Envision Eugene, preservation of the “great streets” concept and various other planning goals in the South Eugene subarea Study, Commercial Lands Study and the Metro plan. If there is a common planning theme within all the planning documents and studies mentioned above it pertains to enhancing livability, economic resources and preservation and natural resources, which are sub-sets of livability. Oak and Pearl Streets have these characteristics in spades. The Eugene City center core is effectively a tiny 10 blocks square. A commercially contiguous area 4 blocks wide projects the city’s center another 5 blocks to the south ending at 19th Avenue. This area includes Oak Street and Pearl Street. This area is often referred to as mid- town and combined with the city core comprises the greater downtown commercial area designated as such in the Metro Plan. Additional commercial areas radiate from the city center following major arterial streets in an attempt to provide additional commercial and high density mixed use services for a city with a population of 190,000 persons. This linear commercial development is limited in physical scope and is referred to as strip commercial. The development of these commercial corridors typically does not resemble the form or function of a city center. Strip commercial areas have a valuable commercial function but do not form the heartbeat of a city. The Metro Plan document reinforces that “Downtown Eugene is the heartbeat of activity in Lane County “. It is further stated that “Two central themes run throughout this document. First, the City will reinforce downtown Eugene as a strong regional center. City officials will work closely with property owners, developers and community members to bring about a diverse, dense and economically strong urban center. The ECL Study explored characteristics that are common to commercial viability and that influence commercial development. In the ECL Study Section I-9 it was mandated that Downtown “remain an active commercial center.” On street parking for servicing small businesses is important for Oak and Pearl Street. On Street parking is proposed to be substantially removed in the proposed LLC EMX option. Current LTD bus service works February 19, 2019, Work Session - Item 1