Item B: River Road/Santa Clara Annexation Policy

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RRCO attachment to 8/01/06 letter re: street annexations—page 2 or street, seems illogical. If anything, the potential for a "spill over" incident to involve two different jurisdictions seems greater if longer lengths of streets are annexed to the City. There are still more County-jurisdiction properties than City-jurisdiction properties in the area, so if more street segments are annexed, more County properties will abut the newly-annexed city street segments. Road Maintenance/Sidewalks/Traffic Signals City staff acknowledge that there is an "excellent" road maintenance agreement between Lane County and Eugene. However, staff claim that street annexations enable the City to provide a higher level of service to residents for "sidewalk hazard abatement and street tree and median maintenance" and also, "easier addition of bike lanes and sidewalks", "coordination of traffic signals", and "increased maintenance efficiency". [From City of Eugene's FAQ Annexations in Eugene (March 2006) and March 30, 2006 Memo from Jim Carlson to Mayor and Council on Street Annexations]. Of course, there are few sidewalks in our neighborhood, and many residents would like to keep it that way. Thus, easier addition of City-standard sidewalks is not necessarily a desired upgrade of service. There are also no medians in our arterials, despite considerable public support for those. Two new pedestrian refuges were just installed in River Road, but we could not get the City to landscape them because of cost and maintenance issues. While we are happy to get the refuges, we certainly did not get the impression that the City can provide a "high level" of street tree and median maintenance even though these sections of River Road are under City jurisdiction. Also, the fact that Maxwell Road was in City jurisdiction did not result in medians or replanting of street trees at the time it was upgraded to City standards. More recently, the City removed significant trees along River Ave. over objections of area residents, and then later waived replanting requirements when non-resident commercial property owners along part of the road complained about the maintenance responsibility. The City quickly agreed to eliminate the re- planting requirement, rather than step up to take on the maintenance that could have accommodated replacement of the trees that the City had removed. Thus, it is hard for us to believe that annexation of street segments will result in a higher level of tree and median maintenance. Instead, we fear that under City control, existing mature street trees--that offer much benefit and do not require much maintenance--will face threat of removal as streets are required to be widened, and may not even be replaced due to maintenance and cost issues. As for maintenance of road surfaces themselves, it seems clear that annexation by the City of unincorporated streets will effectively reduce the level of road maintenance relative to the standards many in our neighborhood think are more environmentally responsible and appropriate for our neighborhood. The City's current policies require that roads be "upgraded" to City standards, including curb, gutter, storm sewers and sidewalks, prior to any resurfacing. The County maintains streets in our area with simple overlays--keeping road surfaces in better repair at less cost, and leaving roads that are compatible with neighborhood character and our natural stormwater drainage system. We want the City to develop new street standards for our area and a new maintenance policy before any additional street annexations are initiated. Annexation of streets before such a policy is in place is likely to lead to those streets falling into disrepair in the same way that City streets are in other neighborhoods-- Riverview, Crest Drive, and others--where a majority of residents object to the City standards because of their harmful impacts to street trees and abutting properties. The City's current policy of annexation of extended street segments in our neighborhood creates the ironic situation where annexed residents, while paying higher City taxes, are likely to experience degraded street conditions.