Item 2A: Approval of City Council Minutes

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Role call vote, the motion as amended to appoint Rich Gaston to Position 7 on the Budget Committee passed, 5:0; councilors Kelly, Taylor and Bettman voting in op- position. Mayor Piercy adjourned the regular meeting of the Eugene City Council. Mayor Piercy convened the work session of the Eugene City Council. 5. WORK SESSION: Parks and Open Space for River Road/Santa Clara City Manager Taylor stated that the work session was requested by council vote and introduced Parks Planning Manager Carolyn Weiss to present the item. Ms. Weiss provided a brief summary of acquisition efforts to date regarding a community park in Santa Clara. She said following the council’s 2005 decision to discontinue consideration of the McDougal proposal, staff revised the criteria used to identify suitable park sites in the area and began to look at smaller parcels and sites with multiple property owners. She said many meetings were held with Santa Clara Citizens for Sensible Parks to keep them apprised of the project’s status. She said that letters of interest were originally sent to 11 property owners in the Santa Clara area and followed up with telephone calls but no willing sellers emerged from the process. Ms. Weiss said that acquisition of land for a Santa Clara community park and providing park services in a flexible way was a priority in accordance with the council’s direction. She said further revisions to the criteria focused the search on smaller parcels in the vicinity of Madison Middle School and an additional 13 properties were identified. She said contacts with those owners did not identify any willing sellers. Ms. Weiss said that attention was now focused on two sites, which were the two largest parcels adjacent to Madison School. She used an aerial photograph to illustrate Site A, an 8.5 acre parcel owned by the Farver family and Site B, a 16 acre parcel owned by the MacClay family. She indicated that the parcels had been appraised and purchase offers based on those appraisals made to each property owner in late October. She said formal responses had not been received although there had been numerous conversations with the owners; discussions with the owners would continue in hopes of either acceptance of the City’s offer or a counter-offer. She said staff was also working on acquisition of the East Santa Clara Waterway running directly north from Madison Middle School to Wendover Park and then to the Willamette River. Councilor Papé said he had asked for information on the procedure for using eminent domain to acquire one or both of the properties. Mr. Lidz said an ordinance would be required to condemn real property for a park. Councilor Papé asked if there was time to act before Measure 39 took effect. Mr. Lidz replied that Measure 39 would take effect next week and in his opinion would not apply retroactively, although he was not certain how “retroactive” would be interpreted in terms of the offer process in a condemnation case. He did not think that Measure 39 would apply to the offers already made but would apply to any offers made after its effective date, particularly the requirement that the City pay attorney fees if the City made an offer that was less than the jury found the property to be worth after an eminent domain trial. Councilor Papé asked if Measure 39 could be avoided by an ordinance to condemn. Mr. Lidz said he did not think that would avoid Measure 39. MINUTES—Eugene City Council November 27, 2006 Page 11 Regular Meeting