CC Minutes - 05/23/05 Mtg - Laserfiche WebLink

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asserted that pesticides such as Arsenal, Oust, and 2-4-D were getting into the watershed and harming people. She said she was a breast cancer survivor who had been poisoned by the herbicide 2-4-5-T, related to 2-4-D and a component of Agent Orange. She predicted that 20 years from now the cancer rates in people in the McKenzie watershed would spike if logging and spraying is allowed. John Dotson, 2447 Canterbury Street, said he joined the Santa Clara Committee for Sensible Parks and Open Spaces a few months earlier and found the people to be sincere and dedicated to their concerns about the future of parks in the Santa Clara area. He felt there were ~filters" in place that prevented the correct information from being provided to the councilors. He stated that committee members had spent much time in the community and had a different idea than the City of what the people in the Santa Clara area wanted and needed. He indicated the committee wished to work with the City's Parks and Open Space Division to advance the park needs of the area. He felt this would save time as the flow of information would go directly into the division. He commented that, while he supported Councilor Papa's concept of a sports complex with baseball diamonds, he did not perceive it to be a priority. He thought such a complex should be in a commercial area where the games could continue into the morning hours. He suggested that other theme parks could complement the area and diversify traffic problems there. Zachary Vishanoff, Patterson Street, called it a shame that public input was being reduced to two minutes. He averred that there had been ~a problem with a lot of issues around town" because not enough public input was gathered. Mr. Vishanoff provided copies of an article printed in The Oregonian entitled Civic Duty Doesn't Play on the Islands. He explained that the Nike Corporation did not pay its share of taxes. He thought the City should discuss this. He noted that a place in Canada had chosen not to take donations from Nike Corporation. Mr. Vishanoff provided examples of the %racker box housing" for which proponents of %mart growth" and the Congress of the New Urbanism were advocating. He said more and more of these types of houses were being built. In closing, Mr. Vishanoffthanked Mayor Piercy for acknowledging that some sort of forum would be held on the University of Oregon's basketball arena. He also said to slow down the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project. Dan Herbert, 1913 Potter Street, member of the Eugene Redevelopment Advisory Committee (ERAC), reminded councilors that he spoke at the last meeting about the need to reexamine the relationship between planning and development, and noted he would raise two planning issues in his present testimony. He said the first issue was the 50-year projection for population growth in the area and the second issue was the inequalities in elementary education. He noted that School District 4J Superintendent George Russell warned that addressing education inequalities could mean changes in housing patterns. He felt that taken together, these two issues could block efforts to realize whatever plans were made. He said one problem was how the City organized for development. He averred the present organization was mainly reactive. He thought public/private partnerships in the next decade would demand a more proactive role for public agencies. He asserted another problem had to do with ends and means. He said the City often planned for the results it wanted but did not provide for the intermediate steps. He noted that the cities of Portland and Eugene contained several alternative models of how to organize for development. He maintained that studying these models would help the City rethink its development policies for the next decade. He indicated MINUTES--Eugene City Council May 23, 2005 Page 2 Regular Session